California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - After the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, it took four and five years, respectively, for revenues to recover. Incorporating revenue risk into the budget now, therefore, reflects prudence, not pessimism.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

The 2018-19 Budget: California Spending Plan (Final Version)

Oct 2, 2018 - The state adjusts the SRR for certain higher ‑cost groups of children, including infants, toddlers, children with exceptional needs, and children with severe disabilities. The state also adjusts regional market rates (RMR) for these latter two groups of children.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3870/4

The 2017-18 Budget: California Spending Plan

Oct 18, 2017 - Allows Part ‑Day State Preschool Programs to Serve Children With Special Needs Over Income Threshold. Chapter  15 allows part ‑day State Preschool programs to serve children with special needs who do not meet the income ‑eligibility criteria as long as all eligible and interested children are served first.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3694/4

Cal Facts: 2016

Dec 5, 2016 - State Aims to Reduce Reliance on Costly Group Home Foster Care Placements While foster children living in family settings outnumber foster children living in group homes by approximately 9  to  1, total spending (all funds) is split roughly equally between the two groups.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3511/3

The 2019-20 May Revision: Sales Tax Exemptions for Diapers and Menstrual Products

May 12, 2019 - Sales Tax Exemption for Children ’s Diapers. In the May Revision, the Governor proposes a new sales tax exemption for diapers intended for use by children. The administration estimates that the forgone revenue from this exemption will be $12  million General Fund ($26  million total) in 2019 ‑20, $24  million General Fund ($52  million total) in 2020 ‑21, and $12  million General Fund ($26  million total) in 2021 ‑22.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4040

The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - For California, the dot ‑com era —when stocks rose and then fell precipitously in response to widespread adoption of the internet —offers the most salient example. The internet has proven to be a transformative technology and, yet, the stock market ’s initial reaction was clearly overly exuberant.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

The 2021-22 Budget: CalWORKs Fiscal Outlook

Dec 8, 2020 - As Figure  2 shows, workers with and without children each accounted for about half of all job losses during the Great Recession, whereas workers without children accounted for 71  p ercent of pandemic ‑related job losses.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4306

The 2016-17 Budget: California Spending Plan

Oct 5, 2016 - Funding to Build a Continuum of Children ’s Mental Health Crisis Services. The spending plan includes $30  million on a one –time basis to build a continuum of children ’s mental health crisis services.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3487/6

The 2019-20 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 14, 2018 - Growth in General Fund Costs Declines as Growth in Population of Children Slows. In contrast to programs that largely benefit older Californians, lower growth in the state ’s population of children results in lower cost growth for other areas of the budget (particularly, schools).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3896

Federal Spending in California

Jan 18, 2017 - This total includes roughly $3 billion in funds for the Children ’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides healthcare coverage to children in families who earn too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3531/4