State Funding Actions Related to COVID-19

Apr 20, 2020 - This legislation appropriated $100  million in Proposition  98 (1988) funds to be used for purchasing personal protective equipment and sanitizing and cleaning school facilities. Subsequent guidance from the California Department of Education also allows school districts to use these funds more broadly to meet other needs, such as supporting distance learning.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4223

Income Tax Withholding Tracker: April 13-April 17 [EconTax Blog]

Apr 17, 2020 - The final graph compares withholding payments so far in the 2019-20 fiscal year to 2018-19. As of now, year-to-date payments in 2019-20 remain ahead of 2018-19.  
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/453

Weekly Unemployment Claims Update: April 5-April 11 [EconTax Blog]

Apr 16, 2020 - Over the last two weeks, search interest has decline modestly, but still remains significantly higher than at any other time in the last fifteen years, including during the worst of the Great Recession.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/452

U.S. Retail Sales: March 2020 [EconTax Blog]

Apr 15, 2020 - In recent years, bars and restaurants have accounted for roughly 12 percent of taxable sales in California, so big drops in restaurant sales can lead to substantial declines in state and local sales tax revenue.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/451

Federal Stimulus Funds for Transit

Apr 15, 2020 - This amount represents a substantial increase in federal funding for transit, with California transit agencies receiving $1.5  billion from the federal government in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020. The funding provided in the CARES Act will be allocated to transit agencies using existing federal funding formulas based on the population, as well as the size of the transit system in the areas served.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4220

Income Tax Withholding Tracker: 4/6 to 4/10 [EconTax Blog]

Apr 10, 2020 - Timing issues arise when the days of the month fall on different days of the week year-to-year. As a result of these calendar differences, payments are made on different days each year. These timing issues make a  comparison between 2020 and 2019 (as we have done in prior posts) somewhat misleading.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/450

Update on State and School District Reserves [Publication Details]

Apr 5, 2020 - Update on State and School District Reserves [Publication Details] Translate Our Website This Google ™ translation feature provided on the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) website is for informational purposes only.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4216

Update on State and School District Reserves

Apr 5, 2020 - (These figures exclude the Proposition 98 School Reserve, which is described more in the next section.) Finally, the balance of the SFEU currently is nearly zero. Although the state enacted an SFEU level of $1.4 billion for 2019‑20, the administration transferred $1.3 billion from the SFEU to the state’s disaster fund to address the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pursuant to a letter dated March 25, 2020.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4216

Income Tax Withholding Tracker: 3/30 to 4/3 [EconTax Blog]

Apr 3, 2020 - The final graph compares withholding payments so far in the 2019-20 fiscal year to 2018-19. As of now, year-to-date payments in 2019-20 remain ahead of 2018-19.  
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/448

Broad-Based Cash Assistance in COVID-19 Recovery Actions

Apr 3, 2020 - Expected to Provide Roughly $25  Billion to Californians. Using tax data from 2017 (the latest available, although not perfectly representative of 2018 and 2019 returns), we roughly estimate about 14  million California households (or about 85  percent of all tax filers) will be eligible to receive a total of about $25 ‑30  billion in direct cash assistance from the CARES Act.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4214