The 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Two Main Questions for the Legislature. These proposals raise several issues for the Legislature to consider. Our analysis of these issues in the next two sections revolves around two overarching questions: How much should CDTFA spend on cannabis and tobacco enforcement?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

How High? Adjusting California’s Cannabis Taxes

Dec 17, 2019 - Miller, Keaton and Boyoung Seo (2019). “Tax Revenues When Substances Substitute: Marijuana, Alcohol, and Tobacco. ” Mimeo, University of Oregon. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4125

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Second, any unawarded credits from the previous fiscal year can be added to the pool of available credits for the current fiscal year. Credit Pool Has Ballooned to over $923  million for the Current Year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

The 2026-27 Budget: State Mandate—Disclosure Requirements and Deferral of Property Taxation

Feb 19, 2026 - The Commission determined that Los Angeles County incurred reimbursable costs processing deferment requests and adding the required disclosure to property tax bills. The Commission determined that the county incurred a total amount of about $30,000 in back-year costs (incurred between 2022 and 2024), and about $8,000 in ongoing costs thereafter.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5130

The 2025-26 Budget: CDTFA’s Tobacco Programs

Feb 14, 2025 - Questions for Legislative Oversight As budget subcommittees conduct oversight over CDTFA ’s tobacco programs, they may wish to ask the following questions. What are the major ways that consumers obtain untaxed tobacco products?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4966

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - In the first step, we estimate a model that uses each worker ’s observed characteristics to predict the probability that they respond to the wage questions. Similar to the use of survey weights described above, this model relies on the assumption that responses to the wage questions are conditionally missing at random.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

The 2020-21 Budget: Taxation of E-Cigarettes

Feb 24, 2020 - Most notably, the January proposals do not include the cost of adding the tax to CDTFA ’s new IT system. We anticipate a budget proposal to cover this one ‑time cost —likely in the range of $ 6  m illion to $ 8  m illion —later this spring.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4171

Improving California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

Aug 8, 2022 - Unusual Application Questions Can Create Confusion. The UI application includes questions that affect eligibility for a very small number of applicants yet add complexity for all applicants. The unusual questions relate to obscure program rules.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615

The 2021-22 Budget: Business Tax Incentives

Jan 28, 2021 - The idea of adding grants to California Competes raises questions that require significant Legislative deliberation. Due to these concerns and others, we suggest that the Legislature instead focus on expanding the Main Street Credit proposal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4327

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Control Sections 90.00 and 90.01 During the special session called by the Governor, the Legislature added Control Sections 90.00 and 90.01 to the 2024-25 Budget Act providing up to $2.5  billion one-time from the General Fund for response and recovery costs related to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081