California Dreaming

The only green shoots in the California economy are of the medicinal kind...'cause things still aren't going well down south:

State Controller John Chiang today released his monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in September. For the first three months of the fiscal year, total General Fund revenue was nearly $1.1 billion below the recently amended 2009-10 Budget Act estimates.

“Revenues more than $1 billion under estimates and recent adverse court rulings are dealing a major blow to a budget that is barely 10-weeks old,” said Controller Chiang. While there are encouraging signs that California’s economy is preparing for a comeback, the recession continues to drag State revenues down. I urge lawmakers and the Governor to prepare for more difficult decisions ahead.”

Look, the only reason California even twitched while on life support was due to government intervention in the housing market and the Governator slashing billions from so-called safety net programs. California is going to have to hire some very, very creative accountants and in a hurry.