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July 14, 2025 - On July 10, 2025, our office received from the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) a proposed successor memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the state and Bargaining Unit 16. Unit 16 consists of physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, podiatrists, and other medical professionals who work in institutionalized settings, such as prisons and hospitals. Unit 16’s current members are represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). The current MOU between the state and UAPD expired on July 1, 2025. If the proposed successor MOU is not ratified, the provisions of the expired MOU generally would remain in effect as is required by the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act). This analysis of the proposed agreement fulfills our statutory requirement under Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
July 11, 2025 - The final 2025-26 budget package approved by the Legislature maintained the May Revision level of savings in employee compensation and set an expectation for the administration and the state’s 21 bargaining units to meet and confer in good faith in order to achieve those savings through the collective bargaining process. To effectuate those savings, the budget package provided legislative ratification of any agreement that achieved budgetary savings and was entered into before the start of the 2025-26 fiscal year. In total, the administration and 19 of the state’s bargaining units were able to enter into agreements by midnight on June 30, 2025. The purpose of this analysis is to serve as a historical record of these legislatively ratified labor agreements with the 19 bargaining units.
July 10, 2025 - In this brief we review a once-narrow workers' compensation supplemental payment, known as the Subsequent Injury Benefit Trust Fund (SIBTF), that has looser standards, broader eligibility, and more generous benefits than the standard workers' compensation system. The program pays generous lifetime benefits to injured workers who also have pre-existing health issues. The program's use and associated employer costs have risen dramatically now that injured workers are able to access the state's most generous benefit ($1,700 per week for life) with claims that are often based on common pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, sleep apnea, diabetes, headaches, allergies, or sexual dysfunction.
June 27, 2025 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Unit 9 (Professional Engineers). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
June 27, 2025 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Unit 12 (Craft and Maintenance). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
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.
June 23, 2025 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Unit 6 (Corrections). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
June 16, 2025 - This report is the first of a three-part series focused on trends in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Each part of the series focuses on an area of the program, beginning with this report on participant characteristics. The series provides an overview of the major changes to CalWORKs in recent decades and highlights key issues for Legislators to consider when making CalWORKs policy and budget decisions.
June 12, 2025 - This post provides background on the role of the public health laboratory system and changes that occurred during and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also provide a framework for the Legislature to use to assess the capacity of the laboratory system and whether any capacity gaps warrant further action.
June 12, 2025 - In this report, we provide background on trends in retail theft over the past decade, discuss some of the possible contributors to these trends, describe recent retail theft-related law changes, and outline key questions that the Legislature may want to ask as it continues to provide oversight of this issue.
May 30, 2025 - In this post, we discuss the Governor's May Revision budget proposal to retroactively suspend three municipal stormwater mandates.
May 30, 2025 - Senate Committee on Transportation; Subcommittee on LOSSAN Rail Corridor Resiliency
May 27, 2025 - This post describes and raises issues for legislative consideration about two proposed trailer bills related to (1) the Delta Conveyance Project and (2) water quality control plans.
May 24, 2025 - This post presents our office’s forecast of the condition of the state General Fund budget through 2028-29 under our revenue estimates and assuming the Governor’s May Revision policies were adopted. (Our earlier analysis, The 2025-26 Budget: Initial Comments on the Governor’s May Revision, differed in two ways: [1] it provided our assessment of the budget condition in the near term only, and [2] it was predicated on the administration’s revenue and spending estimates.)
May 20, 2025 - The 2025-26 Budget: Analysis of the School and Community College Funding Split