The Franchise Tax Board today released its annual report on tax returns filed in 2009, and to no one's surprise it shows a drop in median incomes from 2008. Statewide, the median income on joint income-tax returns dropped by 5.7 percent, to $65,025. The decline in Ventura County was slightly greater, 5.8 percent, to $72,226.

Despite that, Ventura County remains the richest county in California south of San Jose. It ranks 10th statewide, behind the seven San Francisco Bay Area counties and the affluent Sierra foothill counties of Placer and El Dorado. It is one spot above Orange County, which ranks 11th statewide.

At the top of the list, as always, is tiny Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. There, the median income for a couple filing jointly was $108,465.