Over in California, we have this:

• California Controller John Chiang reported that April 2012 tax collections fell short of that state’s government projections by more than 20%—$2.44 billion.
• Personal income tax payments were below that state’s government (specifically, Governor Jerry Brown’s) projections by 21.5%—$2 billion.

This, and other “estimating” errors have led to a new budget shortfall estimate of $16 billion—up 77% from an estimate of a bit over $9 billion from just four months ago in January.

To solve this shortfall problem, California’s state government is in the middle of a campaign to get voters who still remain in California to raise the taxes they pay: pushing their sales tax to 7.5% from its current 7.25% and pushing their top marginal income-tax rate to 13.3% from 10.3%.

We also have this going on invis-à-vis California:

• Since 2009, the business departures from California has gone up by a factor of five.
• Chief Executive magazine’s annual survey of CEOs, carried in the May issue, found California last in business climate of all the states in the union.

If anyone in that government is paying attention, are they capable of understanding?