The 2024-25 Budget: Multiyear Budget Outlook [Publication Details]

May 23, 2024 - This post presents our office’s forecast of the condition of the state General Fund budget through 2027-28 under our revenue estimates and assuming the Governor’s May Revision policies were adopted.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4907

The 2021-22 Budget: The Governor’s Proposition 2 Proposals

Apr 26, 2021 - Since then, the state has repaid all of the eligible budgetary debts, meaning the remaining eligible uses of Proposition  2 are related to unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree health benefits, as shown in Figure  4.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4418

Whether or Not to Tap Reserves to Solve Estimated Budget Problem Emerges as Key Fiscal Decision Facing California’s Legislature [Publication Details]

Apr 19, 2023 - Through the final months of the 2023-24 budget process, California’s Legislature will make numerous important decisions regarding the allocation of state resources in the context of a budget problem. Few choices will be as consequential for the state’s medium-term fiscal outlook as whether or not to draw upon its budget reserves to close a projected deficit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4762

Whether or Not to Tap Reserves to Solve Estimated Budget Problem Emerges as Key Fiscal Decision Facing California’s Legislature

Apr 19, 2023 - In that case, the state ’s reserves could be key to sustaining the state ’s safety net through a challenging economic period. Subscribe | California State Legislature | Online Voter Registration | Privacy Policy | Accessibility Legislative Analyst's Office | The California Legislature's Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor 925 L Street, Suite 1000 Sacramento, CA 95814 | (916) 445-4656 | information [at] lao.ca.gov
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4762

The 2020-21 Budget: Structuring the Budget

Feb 10, 2020 - The 2019 ‑ 20 b udget focused on paying down state debts —in particular, making supplemental pension payments —as a key tool to improving the budget ’s multiyear balance. These supplemental payments reduce the state ’s unfunded liabilities, thereby reducing future annual payments to the pension system and reducing costs over a few decades.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4150

Flexible Funding to California in the American Rescue Plan

Mar 23, 2021 - State and local governments have until December 31, 2024 to use the funds. Restrictions on Use of Funds. There are two restrictions on the use of the fiscal recovery funds. First, state and local governments are prohibited from using the funds to make supplemental pension payments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4407

The 2023-24 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 16, 2022 - The net effect of these assumptions is that the outlook assumes that state pension contribution rates are significantly higher than the projected rates published in CalPERS ’ most recent actuarial valuation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4646

The State Appropriations Limit

Apr 21, 2021 - The Constitution defines this exclusion as: “appropriations required to pay the cost of interest and redemption charges ... on indebtedness existing or legally authorized as of January 1, 1979, or on bonded indebtedness thereafter approved according to law by a vote of the electors... ” In implementing legislation, the Legislature chose not to include some outstanding debt that existed in 1979 —such as unfunded pension liabilities —as an exemption under  this  language.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4416

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2022 - The Legislature could use the funding it frees up from funding fewer proposals to address district cost pressures (such as rising pension costs), or it could set this funding aside in the Proposition  98 Reserve for future allocation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4492

Key Fiscal and Policy Issues Facing California [Publication Details]

Feb 7, 2024 - Key Fiscal and Policy Issues Facing California identifies some of the biggest and most complex policy issues facing the state and its policymakers. Given the significance and complexity of these issues, our discussion of each issue is necessarily high level and does not provide recommendations.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4830