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February 18, 2004 - Similar to the 1990s, the budget proposes to shift $1.3 billion of property taxes from local governments to K-14 districts and reduce state education spending by an equal amount. In our view, the Legislature should use its authority over this tax for the overall betterment of local government, not as a state rainy day fund. Accordingly, we recommend the Legislature reject this proposal. If the Legislature chooses to review proposals to reduce local taxes, we offer guidelines for this process and outline an alternative budget reduction consistent with these guidelines. While this alternative also represents an undesirable intrusion into local finance, it would have fewer negative effects.
December 30, 2003 - In 2002 and 2003, the Commission on State Mandates determined that 23 sets of state laws impose state-reimbursable mandates on local governments. The commission estimated the state's cost to reimburse local agencies for these mandates is about $400 million. This report reviews the newly identified mandates, and offers recommendations as to whether each mandate should be repealed, funded, suspended, or modified.
May 28, 2003 - Presented to Assembly Special Committee on State Mandates on May 28, 2003.
March 17, 2003 - Presentation to San Joaquin Valley local government officials.
March 11, 2003 - Presentation to the Assembly Human Services Committee, Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services, and Senate Health and Human Services Committee
March 7, 2003 - Hearing handout presented to The Foundation Consortium for California's Children and Youth
February 19, 2003 - The regional housing planning process is not very effective at ensuring the construction of affordable housing or obtaining compliance with state law. As a result, we recommend that the regional planning mandate for councils of government be suspended, pending the enactment of reforms to the process.
February 19, 2003 - We recommend the Legislature suspend the mandate to reimburse local governments for the increased costs resulting from animal control. Furthermore, we recommend the Legislature refer the matter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee for review.
February 19, 2003 - In November 2002, the voters approved a $2.1 billion housing bond. The General Fund will pay an average of $157 million annually for 30 years to pay for the principal and interest of the bonds. We review the administration's proposal for implementing the bond's provisions and outline potential options for using the bond to help address the budget situation.
February 19, 2003 - The administration proposes to defer the costs of all general government mandates on local governments. By the end of the budget year, the state would owe over $1.2 billion to noneducation local governments. We recommend the Legislature adopt the general policy of either funding its mandate obligations or eliminating the state's liability for the mandate.
February 19, 2003 - The Governor's court security realignment proposal does not constitute a realignment of responsibilities and control over court security, rather, it is a funding source swap. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature exclude this component from the Governor's realignment proposal.
February 19, 2003 - We identify factors to weigh in considering which programs would benefit from realignment. Using these factors, we identify $9.1 billion in programs meriting consideration: $5.1 billion of programs proposed by the administration and $4 billion of programs suggested by our office. Because realignment plans are difficult to modify over time, we recommend the Legislature take a long-term view in enacting program and funding changes.
February 19, 2003 - The Governor is proposing an $8.3 billion total tax increase to fund his realignment program and reduce the General Fund's budget shortfall. This proposal would raise the sales and use tax by one percentage point ($4.6 billion), establish 10 percent and 11 percent high-income tax brackets ($2.6 billion), and raise the cigarette tax by $1.10 per pack ($1.2 billion).
March 15, 2002 - Chapter 107, Statutes of 2001 (AB 38, Strom-Martin), requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to undertake a study of these special districts. In this review we find that while some individual districts have pursued controversial policies, there is no evidence of a statewide structural governance problem.