Addressing California’s Convenience Zone Recycling Center Closures

May 16, 2016 - How Do CZ Recycling Centers Make Money? As shown in Figure 2, CZ recyclers earn money from two main sources: the sale of collected scrap material and payments from the Beverage Container Recycling Fund (BCRF) —processing payments, handling fees, and administrative fees.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3466

Reducing the Destructiveness of Wildfires: Promoting Defensible Space in California

Sep 30, 2021 - Research suggests that the resources required to complete defensible space work —in the form of time and money —can be a significant barrier. In particular, certain activities, such as removal of large trees, can be difficult and cost thousands of dollars if the homeowner hires someone to conduct the removal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4457

The 2026-27 Budget: Cap-and-Invest Expenditure Plan

Feb 10, 2026 - We note that the language of S B  840 indicates that the methodology applies to “moneys in the fund ” and thus does not clearly limit it exclusively to auction revenues. However, the administration indicates that the intent of S B   840 was to apply the methodology only to auction revenues, consistent with historical practice.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5114

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—An Overview

Dec 21, 2018 - There are benefits associated with reducing GHGs, but there are also costs that have real impacts on households. These costs are likely to become more significant as the state ’s GHG reduction goals become more ambitious.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3911

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

Jan 13, 2025 - The reason for the reduction is the recent voter approval of Proposition  35 (2024), which requires the state to spend less MCO tax money on offsetting General Fund spending and more money on provider rate increases.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

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

Mar 18, 2026 - Moreover, VAs are more flexible than traditional regulations (allowing adaptation in closer to real time), have fewer adverse impacts on water users, provide more certainty to water agencies, and could be implemented more quickly.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5163

The 2020-21 Budget: Addressing Revenue Uncertainty in the 2020-21 Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan

Jun 4, 2020 - On the other hand, programs that allocate money to projects through one-time grants might be able to more easily scale their programs to different funding levels. How Much Funding Can a Program Spend in the Next Year?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4250

A Framework for Evaluating State-Level Green Stimulus Proposals

Jan 5, 2021 - For example, spending a greater share of the General Fund budget on environmental projects means less money is available for other state priorities, such as education, health care, or adding to reserves.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4308

Overview of New Updates to the Cap-and-Invest Program

Dec 9, 2025 - For example, S B  840 ’s requirement that CARB update offset compliance protocols to reflect the best available science could potentially result in lower emissions if they lead to a greater number of offset projects that provide real, permanent GHG reductions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5097

The 2026-27 Budget: Framework for Approaching the Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Agriculture Budget

Feb 10, 2026 - While this amendment does not yet obligate the state to make further workweek reductions, it does create a real possibility of additional policy changes that could increase annual General Fund costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5116