The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - The stock market (S &P 500) has risen 50  percent in the last two years. Most of these gains come from the meteoric rise in the value of a handful of tech companies that investors believe will be major beneficiaries of recent advances in AI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

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

Jan 12, 2026 - 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

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - We put forward two recommendations to improve reserve policy: Raise the Reserve Cap to 50   Percent by 2055. We first recommend the cap on constitutional reserve deposits be raised from 10  percent to 50  percent of General Fund taxes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - Whereas California’s labor market has stagnated over the last two years, the S&P 500 stock index has appreciated roughly 50 percent over the same period. And most of this increase has come from skyrocketing share prices among a handful of firms associated with innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

The 2023-24 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan (Final Version)

Oct 16, 2023 - Note: Includes augmentations above $50 million BCSH = Secretary for Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and HCD = Department of Housing and Community Development. Appendix 4, Figure 5 Remaining Large One ‑Time and Temporary Augmentations From the 2021 ‑22 and 2022 ‑23 Budget Packages: Other General Fund (In millions) Broadband infrastructure —last ‑mile
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4788/4

The 2017-18 Budget: Alternatives to the Governor’s Proposition 2 Proposals

Feb 23, 2017 - This publication outlines alternatives to the Governor ’s proposals that could free up General Fund resources. Of these options, there is the strongest argument for counting the repayment of weight fee loans toward Proposition  2 debt payment requirements.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3574

The 2018-19 May Revision: LAO Economic Outlook

May 12, 2018 - The federal administration currently is renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement that eliminates many barriers to the exchange of goods among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. These negotiations are ongoing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3829

The 2021-22 Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Sep 23, 2021 - The budget package also makes changes to the California Small Business Technical Assistance Expansion Program, which contracts with small business technical assistance centers to help small businesses and entrepreneurs through free or low-cost one-on-one consulting and low-cost training.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4452

Cap-and-Trade Extension: Issues for Legislative Oversight

Dec 12, 2017 - Under the current regulation, IAFs are scheduled to decrease for medium ( 75   p ercent) and low ( 50   p ercent) risk industries from 2018 t hrough 2020. This change was originally intended to more closely align the number of free allowances with the level of leakage risk.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3719

The 2018-19 Budget: California Spending Plan (Final Version)

Oct 2, 2018 - In particular, the final budget package reduces payments for deferred maintenance by $ 700  m illion —relative to the Governor ’s proposal —freeing up a like amount of funding. Correspondingly, the final budget package reflects higher General Fund spending for homeless grants and the universities, among others.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3870/2