Google stock rise boosts California's coffers

California's personal income tax receipts last month rose more than 60 percent from a year ago, and insider stock sales at Google were likely responsible for part of that boost, an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday concludes.

"California took in a record $11.3 billion in personal income tax receipts in April, $4.3 billion more than it collected last April. It's almost certain that a significant chunk of April's haul came from Google employees--perhaps one-eighth or more of the tax receipt gain," the article states.

The article points out that 14 of Google's top executives and directors sold $4.4 billion worth of stock last year, with founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page each selling about $1.3 billion worth of stock, according to Thomson Financial.

"Assuming the 14 insiders had acquired the shares at very low cost and that all were in the top 10.3 percent state tax bracket, they could have owed the state close to $450 million in capital gains tax on their stock sales," the article said.

Officers, directors and other insiders at the largest 200 publicly held companies in the Bay Area sold a total of $9.6 billion in stock last year, with Google accounting for nearly half of that total, the newspaper said, citing Thomson.

While completely legal, the prearranged stock sales by the Google founders may be sending the wrong message to shareholders, according to some experts.

Google's stock price rose more than 115 percent from April 15, 2005, to April 15 of this year.