Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - Further, the difference between the CNI and the CA CPI ‑U and CA CPI ‑W is often large. Figure  2 shows differences between the proposed measures in each year since 1978. In about half of years, the CNI differed from the CA CPI ‑U and the CA CPI ‑W by at least 1  percentage point.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

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

Feb 15, 2022 - Short ‑Term vs. Long ‑Term Strategies. The  current supply chain disruptions are the result of both short ‑term issues, such as greater consumer demand, as well as long ‑term issues, such as the capacity and resilience of the goods movement system.
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

The 2023-24 Budget: California's Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2023 - Swenson, Charles W. “Preliminary evidence on film production and state incentives. ” Economic Development Quarterly 31.1 (2017): 65 ‑80. Thom, Michael. “Lights, camera, but no action? Tax and economic development lessons from state motion picture incentive programs. ” The American Review of Public Administration 48.1 (2018): 33 ‑51.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4713

The 2021-22 Budget: Business Tax Incentives

Jan 28, 2021 - Two key factors for evaluating these proposals are: ( 1)  w hich level of government would forgo revenue, and ( 2)  w hich businesses would receive assistance. Based on these criteria and others, we recommend that the Legislature prioritize expansion of the Main Street Credit, explore alternative structures for an elective S Corporation tax, and reject the proposed one ‑time expansions of the CAEATFA exclusion and California Competes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4327

Income Mobility in California Across Generations

Jan 4, 2017 - Places that produce greater mobility tend to have schools with higher student test scores, lower student dropout rates, smaller class sizes, and more expenditures per student. Stronger Social Networks.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3518

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

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

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