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

Jan 13, 2025 - The Governor has signaled interest in changing the state ’s reserve policy by: (1)  increasing the cap on BSA required deposits from 10  percent of General Fund taxes to 20  percent of General Fund taxes, and (2)  excluding the state ’s reserve deposits from the state appropriations limit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2025-26 Budget: Child Welfare

Feb 13, 2025 - In addition to restructuring foster care maintenance payments, the 2024-25 statutory changes also added two new foster care programs and corresponding rate components: (1)  Strengths Building and Child and Family Determination Program, and (2)  Immediate Needs Program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4962

The 2025-26 Budget: CWS-CARES

Mar 5, 2025 - New required data fields could be added to county social worker reporting forms, but the new fields would need to be automated in CWS-CARES. Also, aggregated data on county social worker use of structured decision-making (SDM) tools could help identify certain decision points at which some groups are disproportionately impacted, but SDM tools are also scheduled for integration into CWS-CARES.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5006

The 2025-26 Budget: The California State Payroll System IT Project

Mar 7, 2025 - (The project added California State University as a mega processing department for this analysis because, although they are not a civil service state department, their payroll is processed by the current USPS.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5011