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September 16, 2025 - Some of California's local governments offer partial sales tax rebates to try to boost the amount of taxable sales within their borders. In 2023-24, these rebates totaled $140 million. In this post, we describe the distribution of rebate payments across cities and counties. We also examine some economic and demographic characteristics of rebate-paying jurisdictions.
August 20, 2025 - Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 7 on Accountability and Oversight
August 14, 2025 - Recent changes were made to the publication of statistics required to calculate the California Necessities Index, which is used to adjust certain benefit rates and cost-of-living adjustments. In this brief, we provide details on the changes and evaluate alternatives for the index that require only currently available data and conform to the original intent of the index.
June 24, 2025 - Chapter 837 of 2019 (SB 34, Wiener) established new tax exemptions for donations of medicinal cannabis. The law directs our office to submit an annual report containing data on three outcomes related to the exemptions: the number of medicinal cannabis patients served, the amount of medicinal cannabis products donated, and the amount of tax revenue lost. This report fulfills that statutory requirement for 2023.
May 1, 2025 - Chapter 114 of 2021 (SB 144, Portantino) required our office to issue a report summarizing the workforce diversity information collected by the California Film Commission (CFC) and evaluate the effectiveness of the tax credit for increasing diversity. In this report, we describe the existing requirements and upcoming changes to diversity efforts in the program, compare and contrast the workforce diversity of productions receiving credits with the broader California workforce and population, and provide some broader considerations for evaluating the expanded requirements taking effect in version 4.0 of the credit.
March 18, 2025 - The Governor’s budget includes several proposals under the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). In this post we evaluate and provide recommendations for three of these proposals: California Competes Grants, California Regional Initiative for Social Enterprises Grant Program, and CHIPS.
February 28, 2025 - This brief discusses California's film tax credit and assesses the Governor’s Budget proposal to raise the amount of tax credits available for the California Film Commission to allocate to $750 million starting in 2025‑26.
February 19, 2025 - In this post, we provide an update and comments on the implementation of a new firearm and ammunition tax that went into effect beginning July 2024.
February 14, 2025 - In this post, we provide information to support the Legislature’s oversight of the Department of Tax and Fee Administration’s (CDTFA’s) tobacco programs. In particular, we offer background information; comments on revenue trends, CDTFA’s enforcement activities, and the AB 3218 budget change proposal (BCP); and questions that budget subcommittees may wish to ask about these issues.
December 20, 2024 - Chapter 636 of 2022 (AB 1206, Bennett) modified the rules community land trust properties must meet to qualify for the property tax exemption, making it easier for properties to maintain their exemption when low-income residents experience a modest gain in income. AB 1206 also required our office to report data on the use of the exemption by community land trust properties. This report is issued pursuant to AB 1206.
December 2, 2024 -
Download our companion infographic for a quick summary of the issues and recommendations in this report.
California’s unemployment insurance (UI) program provides temporary wage replacement to unemployed workers. The state’s UI program financing system is broken. Benefits now routinely outpace incoming tax contributions, leading to a costly reliance on federal loans and constraining the state’s options to improve the program. This report describes the problems with the system in greater detail, including historical context and our projections of the future. We offer four recommendations that would fix the state’s broken UI system.
December 2, 2024 - CalFacts presents a wide range of facts and trends about the state's economy, finances, and programs.
October 8, 2024 -
Presented To: Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation
Hon. Jacqui Irwin, Chair
June 13, 2024 - Chapter 837 of 2019 (SB 34, Wiener) established new tax exemptions for donations of medicinal cannabis. The law directs our office to submit an annual report containing data on three outcomes related to the exemptions: the number of medicinal cannabis patients served, the amount of medicinal cannabis products donated, and the amount of tax revenue lost. This post fulfills that statutory requirement for 2023.
April 15, 2024 - Published in accordance with Chapter 353 of 2022 (AB 2622, Mullin), which directs our office to review the effectiveness of a partial sales tax exemption for zero-emission buses.