The 2025-26 Budget: SB 678 County Probation Grant Program

Apr 11, 2025 - In 2023-24, each county received their highest SB  678 grant award from the prior three fiscal years (2018-19, 2019-20, or 2020-21) due to concerns that grant awards would fluctuate for reasons unrelated to performance.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5031

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - While the state neared this cap in the 2019 ‑20 budget, the cap has only been operative twice: in 2022 ‑23 and 2023 ‑24. All  told, had there not been a cap on constitutional deposits, the state would have deposited about $2  billion more in reserves.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

Improving Legislative Oversight of Emergency Authorities

Apr 10, 2025 - On December 23, 2019, Governor Newsom terminated 61 states of emergency dating back to January 2011. All of these states of emergency were proclaimed under the previous administration but had not been  terminated.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5029

The 2025-26 Budget: Community College Facilities

Mar 18, 2025 - The use of online and other distance education at CCC remains significantly above pre-pandemic levels, accounting for an estimated 42  percent of full-time equivalent (FTE) students in fall 2024, compared to 17  percent in fall 2019.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5017

The 2025-26 Budget: Educator Workforce

Mar 7, 2025 - As Figure  2 shows, the gap between California and the national average steadily closed from 2005 to 2019, but has remained relatively flat since 2019. The gap between the state and the national average is driven by the outcomes for economically disadvantaged students, which NAEP defines as students with family incomes below 130  percent of the federal poverty level.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5012

The 2025-26 Budget: California State Library

Mar 7, 2025 - Since creation of the special fund account, the Legislature has reauthorized the associated appellate filing fee rate six times, with the most recent reauthorization occurring in 2019. One of those reauthorizations (in 1999) raised the fee allocated to the law lib rary from $50 to $65.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5013

The 2025-26 Budget: Understanding Recent Increases in the Medi-Cal Senior Caseload

Mar 6, 2025 - The 2019 ‑20 budget package eliminated this share of cost for seniors and persons with disabilities up to 138  percent of FPL, consistent with the eligibility rules for children and adults through age 64.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5010

The 2025-26 Budget: Oversight of Encampment Resolution Funding

Mar 5, 2025 - In January 2024 (the most recently available data), 187,000 people were counted as homeless —an all-time high for the state, and 36,000 (24  percent) more than were counted in January 2019. Two-thirds of those counted were unsheltered (such as people living on the street or in a park).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5007

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 5, 2025 - We note that the department also canceled its Reimbursement System Project, a separate IT project that first received funding in 2019 ‑20. Please see the nearby box for more information on the Reimbursement System Project.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5008

The 2025-26 Budget: California Community Colleges

Mar 5, 2025 - Based on data from the Chancellor ’s Office, the number of formerly incarcerated students has doubled since 2019 ‑20, reaching about 4,500 FTE students in 2023 ‑24. State Primarily Supports These Students Through Apportionments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5005