California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - These firms have invested heavily in building out data centers and on extraordinary pay packages for their key employees. This spending, along with gains to investors, has turbo-charged state income tax receipts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Oct 16, 2025 - The state makes an initial estimate of this requirement when it enacts the budget, then revises this estimate over the following two years to reflect updated data. The estimate of the requirement for 2024 ‑25 is up nearly $4.7  billion (4  percent) from the June 2024 level, but the budget appropriates just over $2.7  billion in additional funding for that year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5079

The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - These companies have made big bets on AI, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers and offering extraordinary pay packages to recruit AI researchers. This spending, coupled with sizable gains to investors and tech company employees via stock options, is boosting state income tax receipts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

The 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - While this slowdown has been gradual and the severity milder than a recession, a look at recent economic data —as in Figure  1 —paints a picture of a sluggish economy. Outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

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: Initial Comments on the Governor's May Revision

May 17, 2025 - Finally, although we have not previously recommended the Leg islature take decisive action to address the structural deficits, the state ’s persistent fiscal imbalance and the added downside risks —particularly from potential federal actions —suggest a need for a more proactive approach.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5044

The 2025-26 Budget: Undertaking Fiscal Oversight

Feb 24, 2025 - As such, the Legislature typically must rely on the administration to collect and provide data on program delivery and other initiatives. Often, gathering this information from program participants, departments, and other sources takes time.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4983

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Sep 27, 2022 - Office of Data and Innovation Replaces Current Office of Digital Innovation With a New Office of Data and Innovation. Chapter 569 of 2022 (AB 156, Committee on Budget) plans for the replacement of the current Office of Digital Innovation (current ODI) within the Government Operations Agency (GovOps) with a new Office of Data and Innovation (new ODI) organized under GovOps by July 1, 2023.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4626

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - Each of these scenarios draws on data from the past —like long ‑term growth rates and the stability and the persistence of past trends —to make predictions about the future. However, each individual scenario is also unique.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 2, 2024 - The legislation also requires pilot projects to adhere to specific data privacy requirements. Governor ’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) Transfers Existing Programs Into GO-Biz.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4934