California's franchise tax board says the state had an 8.5-percent bump in the amount of taxable sales during the first quarter of the year. The board's numbers said the increase is compared to taxable sales during the same three months of 2010.
"Its probably a combination of both people spending more money on more things, and certainly higher prices would affect the total taxable sales," said Anita Gore of the California Franchise Tax Board. "People could simply be paying more for the same amount of goods that they were buying previously."
This year's first quarter numbers were the best since 2005. Taxable sales totaled $117.8 billion in January, February, and March of 2011. Tax receipts also indicate the indicate the economy was at its slowest in the second quarter of 2009. Receipts have risen steadily since then.
