Governor announced in a release from the governor’s office that September revenues exceeded the monthly forecast by $2.9 billion, or 14.9% above projection.

The governor’s office said the result was driven primarily by higher-than-forecast personal income and corporation tax receipts; personal income tax receipts were $1.1 billion, or 8.5% above forecast, and corporation tax receipts were $1.3 billion, or 49.1% above forecast. The release also reported that California’s real GDP grew at a 2.5% annualized rate in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 2.2% nationally, and that personal income rose 4.5% year over year.

The release framed those numbers as evidence of California’s innovation economy; it said nine new California companies reached $1 billion valuations in September and that, as of August, California companies had attracted $366 billion in venture capital in 2026. The release said the new unicorns are headquartered in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Irvine and work in AI, semiconductors, robotics and health care.

The governor’s office tied the revenue strength to policies it is advancing. The release said Governor Newsom’s final bill seeks to place a $7.5 billion research bond before voters to fund science, technology and university research; it also listed recent legislation to update antitrust and consumer protection laws, speed certain retail tenant improvements, expand small-business protections and technical assistance, remove a regulatory barrier to make E15 fuel available, create a statewide fusion strategy, allow temporary pop-up businesses in vacant storefronts, and extend the California Competes Tax Credit through 2032–33.

The release included additional labor and economic tallies: it said California added 129,300 of the nation’s 496,000 net payroll jobs from September 2025 through September 2026 and that unemployment fell by 106,500 Californians over ten consecutive months through September, holding at 5.1%; the release cited Bloomberg and federal data for several comparisons. The governor’s office framed these measures as evidence California continues to outpace other states economically under the current administration.

State

Gavin Newsom

Governor · Democrat

Named 3 times in this story.

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Sources & methodology

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