California's Budget is Only 12 Days Old and Is Already Underperforming

Imagine my surprise:

It didn't take long for California's optimistic budget to fall behind in tax revenues.
Controller John Chiang released data Monday showing that California received $351 million less in May and June than state leaders expected in the budget that Gov. Jerry Brown signed just 12 days ago.

To help close a final $9.6 billion gap, Democratic lawmakers and Brown relied on optimistic assumptions that the state would take in $1.2 billion above projections in May and June, as well as $4 billion more over the following fiscal year. If the state continues to fall short of expectations, it will impose deeper cuts in higher education, social services and K-12 schools under the budget "trigger" deal.

Based on Chiang's data the state is already behind the May-June milepost. He said the state took in only $849 million of the $1.2 billion in extra cash expected during that period - or $351 million less.

"We don't have a detailed cash flow (of Brown's budget) to break it down," said Chiang spokesman Jacob Roper. "We can't look at it and say whether it was softness in corporate tax refunds or excise taxes or withholdings being down."

It started out as smoke and mirrors and isn't going to get any better thanks to unrealistic expectations.