Find LAO Publications

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

• Format:
• PDF
• HTML

October 12, 2022 - Each year, our office publishes the California Spending Plan to summarize the annual state budget. This publication provides an overview of the 2022-23 Budget Act, gives a brief description of how the budget process unfolded, and then highlights major features of the budget approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Resources and Environmental Protection

• Format:
• HTML

October 10, 2022 - The 2022-23 budget package provides a total of $23.7 billion from various fund sources—the General Fund, bond funds, and a number of special funds—for programs administered by the California Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agencies.

Update (11/17/22): Estimated federal allotments to SWRCB have been updated to $760 million.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Higher Education

• Format:
• HTML

October 4, 2022 - This post summarizes the state’s 2022-23 spending package for higher education. It is part of our Spending Plan series. In this post, we provide a short overview of the state’s higher education spending package, then cover spending for the California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU), University of California (UC), student financial aid, student housing, and California State Library.

2022 Update on the California Earned Income Tax Credit

• Format:
• PDF

October 3, 2022 - Presented to: Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: The State Appropriations Limit

• Format:
• HTML

September 30, 2022 - This post describes the legislative and administrative decisions regarding the State Appropriations Limit (SAL) in the 2022‑23 budget process.

The 2022-23 Budget: California Spending Plan Series

• Format:
• HTML

September 29, 2022 - Each year, our office publishes California Spending Plan, a series of publications that summarize the annual state budget. The Overview of the California Spending Plan is presented here along with short online posts that focus on major areas and features of the 2022-23 budget package. As more of these posts become available, we will add them below.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Transportation

• Format:
• HTML

September 29, 2022 - The budget package provides a total of $33 billion for transportation-related programs in 2022-23, including for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), local streets and roads (shared revenues), California Highway Patrol (CHP), Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA).

LAO Report Overview: California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

• Format:
• PDF

September 28, 2022 - Presented to: Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review Assembly Committee on Insurance

Supplemental Report of the 2022-23 Budget Act

• Format:
• PDF

September 27, 2022 - The Supplemental Report of the 2022-23 Budget Act contains statements of legislative intent and requests for studies that were adopted by the Legislature during deliberations on the 2022-23 budget package.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

• Format:
• HTML

September 27, 2022 - This post discusses features of the state's spending plan that were not covered elsewhere in the 2022-23 Spending Plan series.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Judiciary and Criminal Justice

• Format:
• HTML

September 26, 2022 - The 2022-23 budget provides $18.7 billion from the General Fund for judicial and criminal justice programs, including support for program operations and capital outlay projects. This is an increase of $852 million, or 5 percent, above the revised 2021-22 spending level.

Assessing the Provision of Criminal Indigent Defense

• Format:
• PDF
• HTML

September 22, 2022 - This report provides background on the provision of indigent defense in California, discusses existing indigent defense service levels, and makes recommendations to improve the state's oversight of indigent defense.

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Housing and Homelessness

• Format:
• HTML

September 16, 2022 - The 2022-23 budget authorizes an additional $7.2 billion over three years to 20 major housing and homelessness programs within the Housing and Community Development Department (HCD), the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, and the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH).

Unit 8 (Firefighters) MOU Analysis

• Format:
• HTML

August 26, 2022 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding for Bargaining Unit 8 (Firefighters). Bargaining Unit 8 is represented by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Firefighters (CalFire Local 2881). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.

Unit 9 (Professional Engineers) MOU Analysis

• Format:
• HTML

August 25, 2022 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding for Bargaining Unit 9 (Professional Engineers). Bargaining Unit 9 is represented by Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.