California may have more money to work with than the Brown Administration projected earlier this week, when it demanded a slowdown of state spending.
The Legislature’s non-partisan fiscal analyst disputed Brown’s gloomy projections Friday. The disagreement was expected.
When Governor Jerry Brown predicted this week that without cuts the state’s next budget would finish $2 billion dollars in the red, his finance director Michael Cohen acknowledged the state Legislative Analyst’s Office might disagree.
"They’re much more bullish on personal income tax revenues, as they have been in a number of years," said Cohen. "They have a considerably higher forecast of capital gains, which is notoriously difficult to forecast."
And sure enough, in
its review of Brown’s budget, the LAO suggests personal income tax could easily grow by double the administration’s projections, which would wipe out the deficit. That’s data lawmakers can adopt when they argue for more spending in upcoming budget negotiations.
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