The 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 19, 2026 - Three ‑ and four ‑year old children are generally eligible for State Preschool if their family earns at or below the state median income ($109,904 annual income for a family of three and $127,338 annual income for a family of four).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168

The 2026-27 Budget: Re-Envisioning State Education Governance

Mar 18, 2026 - State governance refers to the structure and duties of the entities that oversee this system. In this brief, we examine the Governor ’s proposal to restructure state governance. The first section explains how the current system evolved and describes the main entities and their responsibilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5165

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: In-Home Supportive Services

Mar 18, 2026 - For additional information on the history of the IHSS program, please refer to the Department of Social Services Website ( Local Assistance Estimates for the 2026‑27 Governor’s Budget, Program History ).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5166

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 13, 2026 - For the period spanning from January 1, 2025 through June  30,  2026, providers could earn the quality incentive portion of rate models by enrolling in DDS ’s Provider Directory. As a budget solution, the 2025 ‑26 Budget Act added three criteria that providers must satisfy to be eligible to earn a quality payment equal to 10   percent of the rate model beginning
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5157

The 2026-27 Budget: Contract to Achieve Operational Efficiencies

Mar 10, 2026 - (For a detailed discussion of these two control sections, refer to our February 2025 post, The 2025-26 Budget: State Departments’ Operational Efficiencies [Control Sections 4.05 and 4.12] .) Both control sections assumed that savings would materialize from an internal administrative exercise coordinated by DOF.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5156

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

Mar 9, 2026 - March 9, 2026 Chas Alamo State Budget Is Heavily Reliant on Stock Market Earnings. California 's progressive income tax system is heavily reliant on stock market earnings because the state has concentrated its tax collections among high-income earners whose incomes are most tied to the stock market through capital gains, equity compensation, and investment returns.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/852

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

Mar 9, 2026 - March 9, 2026 Chas Alamo State Budget Is Heavily Reliant on Stock Market Earnings. California 's progressive income tax system is heavily reliant on stock market earnings because the state has concentrated its tax collections among high-income earners whose incomes are most tied to the stock market through capital gains, equity compensation, and investment returns.
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 - Research on the impacts of the SNAP work requirement indicate that it results in increased disenrollment, in part driven by otherwise eligible enrollees not complying with paperwork or tracking requirements (commonly referred to as “administrative burden ”).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5149