Watch income taxes flow to California treasury

Want to track the daily inflow of state personal income tax revenue during the all-important tax month of April? Follow along on the website of Controller Betty Yee.

The controller’s site will feature daily updates of income tax receipts, comparing the actual total to the estimated $12.2 billion in April income tax revenue that the Brown administration built into its January budget proposal.

April is a major month on the budget calendar. Last year, personal income taxes generated almost two-thirds of state general fund revenue, and about about 17 percent of the money arrived in April.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has projected that actual revenue through for 2014-15 and 2015-16 could exceed administration estimates by billions of dollars. But higher-than-expected money also carries risks, the office said in a report released Tuesday: it could ratchet up school spending and squeeze out other budgetary goals, potentially creating a budget problem “as early as 2015-16.”

“In some scenarios, this makes it difficult for the state to build reserves, fund existing operating costs, and make augmentations outside of Proposition 98,” the constitutional school-funding guarantee, the LAO reported.

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 12:41 PM.