The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandates—Regional Water Quality Control Boards

May 30, 2025 - Background For background information on municipal stormwater permits; why CSM considers some requirements to be state-reimbursable mandates; and the role of Proposition  218 (1996), Chapter  536 of 2017 (SB  231, Hertzberg), and court decisions in determining whether local governments had sufficient authority to raise fees to pay for their costs to comply with stormwater permit requirements,
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5054

The 2025-26 Budget: Cap-and-Trade Reauthorization and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Proposals at May Revision

May 19, 2025 - GGRF Expenditure Plan LAO Bottom Line: In crafting the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) expenditure plan, we recommend that the Legislature: (1)  ensure its legislative priorities are reflected, (2)  minimize the use of continuous appropriations, (3)  give serious consideration to using GGRF to help solve the budget problem and preserve highest-priority activities, (4)  defer decisions on
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5049

The 2025-26 Budget: May Revision Trailer Bill Proposals on the Delta Conveyance Project and Water Quality Control Plans

May 27, 2025 - Making some changes to requirements around how DWR must repay other state agencies that do work on the SWP (Section 5) . Explicitly including the DCP as part of the SWP. This would allow DWR to pay for the project in the same way that it has paid for other SWP facilities, that is, by issuing revenue bonds which then would be required to be repaid by contracting SWP water agencies.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5053

Assessing California’s Climate Policies: Cap-and-Trade Reauthorization

May 7, 2025 - (This estimate is based on allowance scenarios CARB has identified as part of its forthcoming rulemaking and assumes that allowance prices remain between the current price floor and ceiling, adjusted by 5  percent annually, consistent with current CARB regulations.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5042

The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 4 Spending Plan

Feb 12, 2025 - Below, we discuss our recommendations to the Legislature, which we also summarize in Figure  5 . Figure 5 Summary of Recommendations for Proposition 4 Implementation Ensure Spending Plan Reflects Legislative Priorities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4958

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - School and Community College Spending Higher by $5   Billion. Reflecting these higher revenue estimates, the administration ’s estimates of constitutionally required General Fund spending on K ‑14 education is $4.7  billion higher than our November estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2025-26 Budget: Natural Resources and Agriculture Discretionary Spending Proposals

Feb 18, 2025 - These include: (1) $10  million in 2021 ‑22 to build a new exhibit on antisemitism, (2) $5  million in 2022 ‑23 to support museum repairs and to purchase and retrofit a bus to deliver mobile learning services, (3) $2.1  million in 2023 ‑24 to renovate the museum ’s training center, and (4) $2  million in 2024 ‑25 to support further renovations at the training center.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4967

The 2025-26 Budget: Various California Air Resources Board Proposals

Feb 24, 2025 - Such a proposal should include a robust justification for the specific fees the department proposes to levy, as well as key details on the proposed fees such as: (1) the specific activities that would be subject to the fees, (2) the proposed fee amounts, (3) the entities that would be subject to paying the fees, (4) the level of expected fee revenues, and (5) how the fee revenues would be used.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4980

Frequently Asked Questions About Wildfires in California

Jan 28, 2025 - This post is organized into five sections: (1) Wildfire Resilience and Prevention, which involves activities the state performs to decrease the incidence, intensity, and impacts of wildfires before they occur; (2) Wildfire Response, which includes firefighting and protection actions the state undertakes when a wildfire occurs; (3) Wildfire Recovery, which includes typical steps that take place
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4952

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—Residential Electricity Rates in California

Jan 7, 2025 - In our January 2020 report, Assessing California’s Climate Policies ‑ Electricity Generation ,we found that RPS costs resulted in an almost 5 percent increase in overall retail rates for IOU customers, which was generally consistent with national studies of RPS programs in other states.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4950