California revenues for January came in $7.5 billion ahead of projections included in the governor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022, according to the state’s Department of Finance.
The cash receipts report comes just after Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature announced Wednesday they had reached an agreement on a $9.6 billion stimulus package that includes $600 relief checks for low-income Californians. The deal also provided $2.6 billion in relief for small businesses.
“These actions are critical for millions of Americans who embody the resilience of the California spirit,” Newsom said in a statement.
California governor’s office
Newsom announced the expedited relief package along with Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood.
The agreement provides “the kind of immediate emergency relief that families and small businesses desperately need right now,” Atkins said. “People are hungry and hurting, and businesses our communities have loved for decades are at risk of closing their doors.”
The $600 state payments, expected to be approved by lawmakers next week, would be in addition to the $600 stimulus checks approved by Congress and the $1,400 per person proposed by Democrats in the House of Representatives.
The relief package comes as unemployment in the state grew to 9%, with 1.5 million fewer people employed in December than in February 2020, according to the DOF’s January finance bulletin.
While the pandemic and resultant state business closures have thrown millions into unemployment, the state’s tax revenue collections have been coming in better than expected.
The governor’s budget had already anticipated a $15 billion surplus.
The DOF report on January revenues has cash receipts $7.5 billion above projections for January and $10.5 billion above the governor’s budget 2021-22 forecast of $106.5 billion for the first seven months of the fiscal year.
Personal income tax receipts were $9.8 billion above projections for the fiscal year, sales and use tax receipts came in $167 million above forecast and corporation taxes came in $493 million ahead of budget projections.