The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Oct 16, 2025 - During the special session, the Legislature added Control Sections 90.00 and 90.01 to the 2024 ‑25 Budget Act providing up to $2.5  billion one ‑time for response and recovery costs related to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5079

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - The added risk variable weighs on the range of revenue outcomes that we view as most plausible. The middle of the range, which becomes our main revenue forecast, is thus lower than if we did not include the stock market risk indicator.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

The 2025-26 Budget: Initial Comments on the Governor's May Revision

May 17, 2025 - That said, the Legislature could allocate the mix of solutions differently, for example, by changing the types of programs, types of reductions, or mix of spending and revenue solutions adopted. Introduction On May 14, 2025, Governor Newsom presented a revised state budget proposal to the Legislature.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5044

California's Legislative Analyst's Office and the Value of Independence

Nov 15, 2024 - As such, our independent fiscal assessment underlies the Legislature ’s ability to assert an informed check on the executive branch, making any added complexity from diverging estimates a worthwhile trade-off.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4938

The 2025-26 Budget: Undertaking Fiscal Oversight

Feb 24, 2025 - This section describes the type of information the Legislature can gather to try to assess the costs and benefits of state programs. Once program costs and metrics are understood, the Legislature can weigh the benefits relative to the costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4983

The 2021-22 California Spending Plan: The State Appropriations Limit

Aug 30, 2021 - The 2021-22 California Spending Plan: The State Appropriations Limit The 2021-22 California Spending Plan The State Appropriations Limit In the late 1970s, voters passed Proposition  4 (1979), which added Article XIIIB to the State Constitution.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4449

The 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - Outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half. Similarly, the number of Californians who are unemployed is 25  percent higher than during the strong labor markets of 2019 and 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - Changing the structure of the rules to diversify the types of volatility considered could help insulate the reserve policy against the risk of a paradigm shift where growth in capital gains revenues is not as robust in the future.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2024 - These solutions can be categorized into four types: reductions, delays, fund shifts, and reversions. Nearly all of the Governor ’s spending ‑related solutions are one ‑time and temporary, rather than ongoing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4825

The 2024-25 Budget: Initial Comments on the Governor’s May Revision

May 17, 2024 - Of this total, $22  billion are related to school and community college funding changes and $16  billion are spending reductions, while the remaining solutions comprise other types, like fund shifts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4902