The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandate—Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board

May 5, 2025 - Because the California Constitution does not require the state to reimburse local governments for costs to comply with federal law, disagreements have arisen over the years about whether all of the requirements in a given water quality permit are specifically required by federal law or whether they impose ad ditional requirements from the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5039

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Housing, Homelessness and Local Government

Oct 22, 2025 - The Governor ’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation is required by July 2026 to issue initial guidance for this new program, including providing details such as the methodologies for determining the amount of the fee and estimating the anticipated reduction in VMT resulting from payment of the fee.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5082

The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandates—Regional Water Quality Control Boards

May 30, 2025 - We find that the Governor ’s position conflicts with both an appellate court decision and CSM ’s determination that local governments did not have sufficient authority to raise fees prior to 2018. (In 2018, a new state law took effect that made raising fees for stormwater-related costs more straightforward for local governments.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5054

Climate Change Impacts Across California - Crosscutting Issues

Apr 5, 2022 - Costs for cities and counties might include adding drainage to roads to manage more intense rain events, or modifying water treatment plants located along the coast to accommodate higher sea levels. …And Private Residents and Businesses.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4575

The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor's Housing Plan

Feb 14, 2022 - In the near term, how the fee revenue supporting the existing program would interact with the proposed MORE Program is unclear. Would the fee revenue roll over to the MORE Program? Details on Focus of Proposed New Program Will Be Important.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4535

How Has COVID-19 Affected Renters and Homeowners?

Jan 19, 2021 - We hope that by shedding light on how COVID ‑19 has added to the financial stress of renters, we can inform policy solutions to help renters through this crisis. In particular, the state and local governments will soon have to determine how to allocate recently authorized federal funding for emergency rental assistance.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4312

An Initial Look at Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Local Government Fiscal Condition

May 12, 2021 - Significant Reliance on User Fee Revenue. The economic fallout of the pandemic resulted in a decline in user fees either because public health orders prevented access to services (for example, parks and recreation services) or because government orders protected users from having services shut off due to lack of payment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4428