April’s revenues, like the several months before it, beat budget estimates, and the state didn’t have to pay out as much as they thought they would either.

So far this fiscal year, the state’s General Fund (GF) has collected a little over $60.3 billion, almost $2.3 billion more than the budget accounted for (that’s edging toward 4% for you math whizzes). GF disbursements are running more than half a billion dollars under expectations.

About a third of the unexpected cash comes from income taxes, which comprise more than half of the GF, but almost as much is due to corporate taxes, which only make up about a tenth of the GF but are coming in like gangbusters.

Why does this matter to counties? Because the Governor and Dept. of Finance pay a lot of attention to this information as they prepare the May Revision. If the state is getting more money than they thought they would when they put out the January budget proposal, they can do some combination of three things: – cut less, – raise revenues less, – or shore up the state’s future budgets more.

Schools will undoubtedly get a fair portion of this money, but even so, none of those options is bad for counties. What do you think the state should use the extra couple billion bucks for? A certain program, tax cuts, paying down debt? Leave a comment and let us know.

If you want to track income taxes as they come in this month, State Controller John Chiang has set up a website just for doing that. You can find it here. His staff updates it most days.

You can find the Controller’s receipt and disbursement reports, which he released yesterday afternoon, here (summary document, mostly text) and here (the statement itself, mostly numbers).