California Revenues Fall $475 Million Short

California State Controller John Chiang released his monthly revenue report today. Revenues fell way below projections for July, but state finance officials say it’s not so bad.

The controller says July revenues were $475 million short. The State ended the last fiscal year with a cash deficit of $9.6 billion. As of July 31, that cash deficit totaled $18 billion, and is being covered with temporary loans from special funds. State Controller John Chiang called the collections “disappointing.” Republican Senator Tom Harman says he’s concerned the state will run out of cash soon.

“One of the things bothersome to me, is that we have over 500 bills still pending in Sacramento and a lot of those are spending bills that will increase spending, and here we are practically at zero levels.”

But Governor Jerry Brown’s finance department holds a more optimistic view, saying the numbers are a reflection of timing. It says the state is expecting an additional $295 million in sales tax revenue, another 197 million in miscellaneous revenues, and $262 million that should have gone into the general fund in July, but will instead happen later this week.