SFGATE.com
Income gap widens among state's taxpayers
Alejandro MartÃnez-Cabrera, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 26, 2009
The income gap between the state's wealthiest and poorest taxpayers continues to widen, according to a California Budget Project study.
The nonprofit organization reviewed data from the Franchise Tax Board and found that from 2006 to 2007 personal income increased by $64 billion. However, more than 30 percent of that amount was earned by the richest 1 percent of taxpayers.
"To put these uneven gains in context, the average taxpayer in the top 1 percent experienced a $128,261 increase in (adjusted gross income) ... which was more than three times the total AGI of the average middle-income taxpayer in 2007 ($36,115)," the study concluded.
According to the study, the wealthiest fifth of California's taxpayers saw an increase of 4.2 percent in their incomes from 2006 to 2007. Meanwhile, income among the middle fifth only grew by half a point and the poorest fifth earned 2.8 percent less money than the year before.
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