The 2026-27 Budget: Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation Proposals

Mar 19, 2026 - Recommendation Weigh Merits of LCI Proposals Within Context of Overall Budget Strategy. As the budget picture becomes more clear in the next few months, we recommend the Legislature decide whether the merits of these proposals outweigh the resulting additional pressure on the General Fund both in 2026-27 and out-years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5167

The Bay-Delta Plan and Voluntary Agreements: Ensuring Effective Legislative Oversight

Mar 18, 2026 - While VAs can result from litigation, they differ from regular court orders or traditional top ‑down regulations in that the affected parties negotiate a settlement to try to achieve agreed ‑upon objectives.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5163

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 13, 2026 - In 2016, the Legislature appropriated ongoing funding for the Disparity Funds Program, which awards grants to RCs and community ‑based organizations for strategies to reduce disparities in service authorizations, utilization, and spending.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5157

The 2026-27 Budget: Contract to Achieve Operational Efficiencies

Mar 10, 2026 - This causes the state to lose valuable time that could have been spent developing and implementing other cost reductions strategies. In addition, overly ambitious cost savings targets can mask, to an extent, the size of the structural deficit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5156

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/852

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/852

The 2026-27 Budget: California Community Colleges

Mar 5, 2026 - The Legislature has historically made this a top CCC  budget priority because it helps districts address increases in their core operating costs and, in turn, maintain the quality of their instructional programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5150

The 2026-27 Budget: County Administration and H.R. 1 Implementation

Mar 5, 2026 - At the same time, individual county implementation will depend on strategies and resource allocation priorities of individual counties. To support successfully mitigating risks of payment error penalties, the Legislature will need to understand what changes to state and county processes will be required to address the largest contributors to error rates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5149

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Analysis

Mar 2, 2026 - Administration Identifies Several Strategies to Mitigate Disenrollment Impacts. The administration has indicated it will prioritize using administrative data to automatically identify individuals who are excluded or exempt from the community engagement requirement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5146

Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - Increasing Compensation Can Be a High ‑Cost Strategy. In general, compensation increases can be a high ‑cost strategy for filling vacancies. For example, the action plan estimates that it will cost $25   million ongoing to increase pay by roughly 3   percent for mental health positions at CDCR.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134