April 19, 2023 - This brief analyzes the Governor’s budget proposals for the California State Library. Specifically, it covers the Governor’s proposals relating to the California History Room, Witkin State Law Library, and State Library audit program.
March 30, 2022 - This post provides background on cybersecurity issues at the California Community Colleges, describes the Governor's proposal to provide funding for various cybersecurity upgrades, assesses the Governor's proposal, and makes associated recommendations.
March 23, 2023 - This post provides an overview of information security (IS) proposals in the Governor’s 2023-24 budget, including our assessment and recommendations across the proposals and specific to the California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC).
February 18, 2022 - This post analyzes the Governor's four budget proposals for the California State Library in 2022-23. The proposals focus on digitization activities, online job training programs, the Lunch at the Library program, and the California State Library's building rental costs.
Correction (2/22/22): Description of 2021-22 General Fund support for CAreer Pathways has been corrected.
February 8, 2018 - In this report, we analyze the Governor’s budget proposals for various transportation departments and programs. We begin by providing an overview of the Governor’s proposed budget for each department and program. In the next section, we discuss two cross‑cutting state transportation issues: (1) funding from the tax and fee increases authorized by Chapter 5 of 2017 (SB 1, Beall), and (2) an update on the condition of the Motor Vehicle Account (MVA). In the following three sections, we analyze the Governor’s budget proposals for Caltrans, CHP, and DMV. In each of these sections, we provide relevant background, describe the proposals, assess the proposals, and identify issues and recommendations for legislative consideration. The final section consists of a summary of the recommendations we make throughout the report.
March 30, 2023 - This report satisfies supplemental report language adopted by the Legislature in 2022 on nonreporting entities’ information security (IS) compliance. Among other considerations, this report (1) identifies each of the nonreporting entities based on one statutory interpretation, (2) considers whether some of them could benefit from compliance with and reporting on IS policies and procedures similar to those set by the California Department of Technology, and (3) provides options for the Legislature to consider to improve nonreporting entities’ IS compliance and achieve a certain IS maturity level.
February 19, 2003 - In reviewing the state's two major data centers, we found two options that could reduce department expenditures: (1) consolidation of data centers, and (2) consolidation of servers from various state departments to state data centers.
February 22, 1994 - Analysis of the 1994-95 Budget Bill, Judiciary and Criminal Justice Chapter
February 19, 2025 - In this brief, we analyze the Governor’s budget proposals for the Department of Justice related to (1) the Bureau of Forensic Services and (2) firearm-related workload.
February 28, 2025 - In this brief, we provide an update on Cal Grant and Middle Class Scholarship cost estimates, as well as analyze the Governor’s budget proposals for California College of the Arts and California Student Aid Commission’s state operations.
February 23, 2023 - In this brief, we analyze the Governor’s budget proposals relating to the California Student Aid Commission. We cover Cal Grants, Middle Class Scholarships, Golden State Education and Training Grants, Golden State Teacher Grants, and state operations.
October 19, 2023 - This post summarizes the state’s 2023‑24 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. The EdBudget part of our website contains many tables providing more detail about the 2023‑24 education budget package.
January 12, 2018 - This publication is our office’s initial response to the Governor’s 2018-19 budget. In the proposed plan, the Governor places a high priority on building reserves, proposing a total reserve balance of nearly $16 billion. We believe the Governor’s continued focus on building more reserves is prudent in light of economic and federal budget uncertainty. In addition to building reserves, the Governor’s proposed budget allocates sizeable funding increases available within the constitutionally required guarantee for schools and community colleges and supports a variety of new infrastructure projects. This report also discusses how new federal tax changes may affect state revenues and reasons why we believe there could be more resources available in May.