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 approved tax credits do not entail any budgetary costs in 2025-26 because the credits will be claimed on future tax returns. Reverts a Total of $38  Million in Unspent Housing Funds. The budget reverts these funds, which were originally appropriated in a prior fiscal year but had not yet been spent on projects, as a General Fund solution.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5082

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

May 30, 2025 - No Future Costs Anticipated for These Particular Mandates … The three municipal stormwater mandates discussed in this post are not anticipated to result in ongoing costs for the state. This is because beginning January 1, 2018, local governments have had sufficient fee authority to cover their costs.
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 2024-25 Budget: Juvenile Custodial Interrogation Mandate

May 28, 2024 - The costs imposed by this mandate include legal counsel services, indirect —such as administrative —costs , and law enforcement ’s time to ensure youths consult with legal counsel. Accordingly, the Commission ’s decision makes costs incurred by a local government to meet this requirement reimbursable by the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4910

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

The 2023-24 Budget: County of Los Angeles Citizens Redistricting Commission Mandate

May 2, 2023 - Going forward, these costs typically will be incurred over three fiscal years every ten years. The commission estimates that the costs for the next redistricting cycle, following the 2030 U.S. Census, will grow for inflation and be incurred in 2029-30, 2030-31, and 2031-32.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4766

The 2022-23 Budget: Municipal Stormwater and Urban Runoff Discharges Mandate

Feb 28, 2022 - Additionally, should these mandate claims reflect ongoing costs, the Legislature also would face challenges about how to constrain those costs. Because these mandates would be the result of administratively established regulations rather than a state law, adjusting ongoing costs would require modifications to permits issued by the water b oards.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4565

Climate Change Impacts Across California - Housing

Apr 5, 2022 - Climate Change Will Further Affect State Costs Related to Housing. Private parties, such as homeowners and renters, likely will bear many of the costs that climate change imposes on housing. However, there also likely will be some additional increased state costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4584

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

May 12, 2021 - Most notably, local governments must agree to provide a portion of the funding for eligible costs. (The federal government may cover the remaining portion of eligible costs.) For example, early in the pandemic, the federal government guidance indicated they would cover 75  p ercent of eligible costs, which was later adjusted to 100  p ercent of eligible costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4428