The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook Executive Summary Not Safe to Bet Artificial Intelligence ( AI) Fueled Exuberance Is Sustainable. Both the California and U.S. economies currently face significant headwinds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

The 2026-27 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 12, 2026 - As a result, we consider the entire balance of the SFEU to be a discretionary choice. That said, recent budgets have set the SFEU bet ween $3.5  billion and $4.5  billion, so the Governor ’s budget proposal to set the balance to $4.5  billion is generally in line with recent policy.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5101

The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2024 - As we explained in our report The 2024‑25 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook , these adjustments would not be automatic under current law—they would require proactive choices by the Legislature—and therefore we count them as policy choices.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4825

The 2025-26 Budget: Multiyear Budget Outlook

May 24, 2025 - The figure compares average annual program growth from 2025-26 to 2028-29 under two scenarios: our November Outlook (based on current law) and our May Outlook (reflecting May Revision policy choices).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5052

The 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - These choices included about $11  billion in spending ‑related solutions and $15  billion in all other solutions, including $5.5  billion in temporary revenue increases and a $7  billion withdrawal from the state ’s rainy ‑day fund .
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

The 2022-23 Budget: Multiyear Budget Outlook

May 24, 2022 - These recessions necessitated very difficult choices for the Legislature about how to cut spending to balance the budget. As  we have discussed previously , the Legislature has several tools to prepare for and use during a recession, which can help the state avoid or delay these difficult choices.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4602

California's Fiscal Outlook: The 2010-11 Budget [Publication Details]

Nov 18, 2009 - Addressing this large shortfall will require painful choices—on top of the difficult choices the Legislature made earlier this year. Reports by Policy Area
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/2143

California's Legislative Analyst's Office and the Value of Independence

Nov 15, 2024 - An independent assessment of the state ’s existing spending commitments helps equip the Legislature to consider the full scope of the fiscal choices before it —critical insight for the branch of government with constitutional authority over appropriations.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4938

The 2015-16 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook [Publication Details]

Nov 19, 2014 - The report also discusses choices facing the state in implementing Proposition 2, such as choices about which budgetary and retirement debts to repay with dedicated Proposition 2 funds over the next 15 years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/3152

The 2020-21 Budget: Structuring the Budget

Feb 10, 2020 - Second, we describe the key choices the Governor makes that affect the budget ’s multiyear condition. Those assumptions and choices result in the key elements of the budget ’s structure: the operating surplus and reserves.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4150