State finance officials have had some bad news about revenues. Californians' estimated tax payments are more than $1 billion below what was projected for the month. State Department of Finance spokesman HD Palmer says there are two possible explanations for the disappointing numbers—one is a downturn in the state's economy.
Palmer: That is a scenario we want to put that out there in the open and say it's possible but there's no real evidence in the economy itself that this is occurring other than the slowdown in the housing market and we've got a good chunk of that built into our forecast”
Palmer says another explanation could be due to high income taxpayers and the timing of their estimated payments. He says the state's finance department will know more in April, when everyone's tax payments are due. Those numbers will greatly determine whatever changes must be made to the revision of the Governor's proposed budget in May.
