In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- The rally in technology stocks has created so much wealth in California that it has helped the state fill its coffers.
Most Read from Bloomberg
-
NYC's Underground Steam System May Be Key to a Greener Future
-
NYC Gets Historic Push for 80,000 Homes With $5 Billion Pledge
-
Trump Promises Could Have Seismic Impact on Washington Economy
-
NYC Mayor Adams Names Jessica Tisch to Lead Police Head Amid Probes
-
Tokyo’s Scorching Summers Focus Public Anger Against Tree Cutting
California’s budget for the coming fiscal year is “roughly balanced,” the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office said on Wednesday, citing a surge in corporate and personal-income tax revenue driven by Silicon Valley’s booming artificial intelligence and tech sectors, as well as changes to the tax code.
“In the first half of 2024, stock pay alone at four major technology companies accounted for almost 10% of the state’s total income tax withholding,” the LAO said in a report. Those companies are Nvidia Corp, Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Apple Inc.
Because of its reliance on its richest people, California’s economy — which is considered among the largest in the world — is sensitive to extreme booms and busts. The top 1% of California earners pay nearly half of the state’s personal income-tax collections.
A gauge of the so-called Magnificent Seven mega tech companies — Alphabet, Amazon.com Inc., Apple, Meta, Microsoft Corp., Nvidia and Tesla Inc. — is up 56% so far this year, more than twice the advance of the S&P 500 Index.
“If sentiment around Nvidia were to change quickly, we could see a pretty significant reversal in the revenue gains that we’ve had over the last year or so,” said Brian Uhler, a deputy with the LAO. “It could be billions of dollars of revenue impacts from even just a correction in Nvidia’s stock.”
The balanced budget projection comes after California’s legislature in June passed a $211 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1 that had to fill what was an estimated $27.6 billion shortfall.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office report will help guide Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature to craft a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Newsom’s initial budget proposal is expected in early January.
Spending Versus Revenue
California revenues were elevated by an unexpected corporate tax windfall that was injected into state coffers this summer, the LAO said. The forecast projects that tax collections are on track to beat expectations by $7 billion during the period starting July 1, 2023, and ending June 30, 2026.