The 2026-27 Budget: Contract to Achieve Operational Efficiencies

Mar 10, 2026 - View Unallocated Savings Proposals Skeptically. Seeking efficiencies in state government processes and in the budget are laudable goals that should be encouraged. That being said, the recent examples of Control Section 4.05, Control Section 4.12, and the current BCG-focused effort have demonstrated that predicting the level of savings from such activities is difficult.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5156

The 2026-27 Budget: California Highway Patrol Proposals

Mar 6, 2026 - In our view, abiding by this historical principle is ideal and appropriate whenever possible. While the MVA is facing out-year shortfalls, it has sufficient funding to accommodate the two proposed minor capital outlay proposals in 2026-27.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5152

The 2026-27 Budget: California Community Colleges

Mar 5, 2026 - Lastly, although we do not have major concerns with covering higher prior ‑year and current ‑year costs for apprenticeship RSI, we view this proposal as a lower priority. The RSI program reimburses apprenticeship sponsors (typically employers and labor unions) for a portion of their classroom instruction costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5150

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Welfare

Mar 3, 2026 - What do youth and families view as the most notable results or effects of the funding? What have been obstacles, challenges, or delays to implementation? To what extent and how have DSS and program partners been able to address these issues?
https://lao.ca.gov/publications/report/5147

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Analysis

Mar 2, 2026 - As such, the administration ’s view that backfilling the loss of federal funding for the newly UIS groups would be fiscally difficult is understandable. When it comes to the existing UIS population, however, the administration has not provided a breakout estimate for the caseload and General Fund impacts of extending the H.R. 1 requirements to this group.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5146

The 2026-27 Budget: Office of Emergency Services Next Generation 911 System

Feb 27, 2026 - Although the underlying technologies that enabled the legacy 911 system stayed (relatively) constant for a period, the advent and diffusion of IP ‑based technologies invite a more dynamic view. In other words, at least theoretically, an IP ‑enabled 911 system has the technological capacity to incorporate new and innovative features, applications, data, software, and hardware.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5145

The 2026-27 Budget: Governor’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tax Credit Proposal

Feb 24, 2026 - Despite the aviation sector ’s relatively small contribution to GHG emissions, policymakers have shown significant interest in addressing aircraft emissions as the sector is viewed as among the more difficult to decarbonize.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5139

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

Feb 23, 2026 - The administration appears to have approached this issue by trying to “work within CDTFA ’s budget. ” Viewed through this department ‑level lens, one could argue that spending General Fund on the Cannabis Tax Program makes sense.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

The 2026-27 Budget: How to Use One-Time Revenue Improvements

Feb 20, 2026 - Any additional resources that materialize at that time should be viewed as a one-time windfall. Despite Revenue Strength, Budget Relies on Reserves and Borrowing. This revenue upgrade comes in addition to already strong revenue growth forecasted in the Governor ’s budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5133

The 2026-27 Budget: K-12 Proposals

Feb 19, 2026 - In our view, unless the state has a compelling reason to the contrary, the state should allocate ongoing funding through LCFF so that LEAs have greater flexibility to allocate their funding to address their student needs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5131