The 2022-23 Budget: Supply Chain and Port Infrastructure Proposals

Feb 15, 2022 - Such disruptions have also contributed to increased wait times for commercial drive  tests. Proposal Seems Reasonable to Address Current Issues Leading to Increased Wait Times for Commercial Drive Tests … We find that the proposal is a reasonable approach to addressing the two primary factors that have led to increased wait times.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4540

The Property Tax Inheritance Exclusion

Oct 9, 2017 - Apply Means Testing. Another option is to require means testing to determine eligibility for the exclusion. The Legislature could set an income threshold under which a child ’s income would have to fall to be eligible for the inheritance exclusion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3706

Evaluation of a Tax Exemption for Zero-Emission Buses

Apr 15, 2024 - Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) Regulation Conventional Buses vs. ZEBs. The ZEB exemption, the ICT regulation, and various other policies make a distinction between conventional buses and ZEBs. Conventional buses burn diesel, compressed natural gas, or other fuels that emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other air pollutants.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4890

Taxation of Sugary Drinks

Nov 26, 2018 - Key Trade ‑Off: Main Policy Goal vs. Other Health Effects. The potential exclusion of 100  p ercent juice illustrates a general trade ‑off in the design of sugary drink taxes. Some sugary drinks contain beneficial nutrients.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3903

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We assess the pseudo-out-of-sample prediction errors for each specification using the monthly CPS from January to December 2022 as our training set and the monthly CPS from January to December 2023 as our test set.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

The 2024-25 Budget: Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development

Feb 20, 2024 - Testing an expansion of the traditional California Competes model may have been reasonable a few years ago when the state was flush with resources. In today’s environment, however, it is not prudent.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4846

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Second, startup firms often experience losses for many years before turning a profit (if at all), potentially over the time frame that tax credits can be carried forward. To address this, the 2021, 2022, and 2023 budget acts each provided one-time funding of $120  million for a grant program to supplement the tax credit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2025 - Credit Claims Have Increased in Size and Changed in Composition Over Time. Figure  6 shows the amount of credits claimed by recipients over time. The annual amount of credit claims per year has settled in the range of $150  million to $200  million for the last several years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000

How High? Adjusting California’s Cannabis Taxes

Dec 17, 2019 - First, testing labs verify the potency of cannabis products. (As we understand it, these tests rarely find substantial differences between labeled and actual cannabinoid content. More commonly, products fail lab tests for other reasons, such as high levels of pesticides.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4125

The 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature approach the Governor ’s proposals not as one ‑time workload adjustments, but as components of a broader, more sustained effort to address these policy challenges.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132