Staff
Chas Alamo
(916) 319-8357
Personal Income Tax, Employment, and Labor Law
Heather Gonzalez
(916) 319-8359
Emergency Services and Business Regulation
Ann Hollingshead
(916) 319-8305
State Budget and Federal Funding
Nick Schroeder
(916) 319-8314
Public Employment, CalPERS, Elections, Veterans Affairs
Angela Short
(916) 319-8309
Child Welfare, Child Support, Community Services and Development, Community Care Licensing, CalSTRS
Paul Steenhausen
(916) 319-8303
Local Government, Housing, and Homelessness
Alex Bentz
(916) 319-8312
Property Taxes, Bonds, and the Economy
Rowan Isaaks
(916) 319-8362
Corporation Tax and Economic Development
Seth Kerstein
(916) 319-8365
Sales and Excise Taxes and Demographics


Publications

Other Government Areas

To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.



Handout

Major Recent Housing and Homelessness Spending Augmentations

February 16, 2022 - Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 4 On State Administration and General Government Hon. Sydney Kamlager, Chair Senate Housing Committee Hon. Scott D. Wiener, Chair


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: UC Climate-Related Proposals

February 16, 2022 - The Governor’s budget funds three UC climate‑related proposals focused on research, technology incubators, and workforce development. This post analyzes these proposals. It begins with a brief background section on climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in California. It then has three sections analyzing each of the proposals in turn. This post is a companion to our main brief on UC budget issues, The 2022‑23 Budget: Analysis of Major UC Proposals.


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: State Payments on the Federal Unemployment Insurance Loan

February 15, 2022 - In this post, we provide a projection of state and employer costs to repay the federal Unemployment Insurance loan under two economic scenarios, assess the effects of the Governor's proposed $3 billion General Fund payment toward the outstanding loan, and present an alternative to the Governor's proposal that could provide more immediate tax relief.


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: Assessing Proposals to Address Unemployment Insurance Fraud

February 15, 2022 - In this post, we outline the challenges the Employment Development Department faced paying legitimate Unemployment Insurance claims and preventing fraud during the pandemic, review steps the department has taken to improve since then, and assess whether the six proposed anti-fraud vendor contracts are warranted at this time.

Update (5/16/24): Assessment section has been updated.


Report

The 2022-23 Budget: Supply Chain and Port Infrastructure Proposals

February 15, 2022 - This brief provides our initial assessment and recommendations in response to the Governor’s supply chain and port infrastructure package.


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: Office of Planning and Research Budget Proposals

February 9, 2022 - This budget post describes the Governor’s 2022-23 budget proposals for the Office of Planning and Research and provides comments and recommendations to the Legislature.


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: Secretary of State Request to Waive Business Filing Fees

February 7, 2022 - In this post, we analyze the Governor's proposal to waive business filing fees for new business entities in 2022-23.


Post

The 2022-23 Budget: California Department of Food and Agriculture

February 1, 2022 - In this post, we assess the Governor’s 2022-23 budget proposals for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.


Report

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

January 13, 2022 - On January 10, 2022, Governor Newsom presented his proposed state budget to the Legislature. In this report, we provide a brief summary of the proposed budget based on our initial review. In the coming weeks, we will analyze the plan in more detail and release several additional budget analyses.

Update (1/21/22): Includes a corrected estimate of Governor’s Budget proposals that are excludable under the State Appropriations Limit (SAL).


Post

The 2021-22 California Spending Plan: Home- and Community-Based Services Spending Plan

November 1, 2021 - This post summarizes the state’s 2021-22 spending package for Home- and Community-Based Services. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.


Post

The 2021-22 Spending Plan: Housing and Homelessness

October 29, 2021 - The 2021‑22 budget provides $10.7 billion ($5 billion General Fund) to 50 housing and homelessness-related programs across 15 state entities. Some of the major uses of housing and homelessness funding in the state budget support the Homekey Program’s acquisition of properties for use as permanent housing, provide flexible aid to local governments to address homelessness in their communities, provide funding to address the backlog in affordable housing development, and help local governments plan to meet their housing production goals. The budget also provides funding in other areas of the budget that could be used to address homelessness and/or housing affordability, including, the health, human services, veteran services, courts, transportation, higher education, and labor areas of the state budget.


Handout

Overview of Funding for Earn and Learn Workforce Development Programs

October 13, 2021 - Presented to: Assembly Select Committee on Economic Development in the Inland Empire


Post

The 2021-22 Spending Plan: Other Provisions

September 23, 2021 - This post discusses features of the state's spending plan that were not covered elsewhere in the 2021-22 Spending Plan series.


Post

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 8 (Firefighters)

September 7, 2021 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Unit 8 (Firefighters). State Bargaining Unit 8’s current members are represented by Cal Fire Local 2881. This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.


Post

The 2021-22 Budget: Labor Agreements Ending Personal Leave Program 2020

June 25, 2021 - This analysis reviews 20 labor agreements received by the Legislature between June 9 and June 15, 2021. The analysis summarizes and provides comments on the agreements. In addition, the analysis provides overarching comments across the 20 agreements and offers recommendations to the Legislature.