The 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - Instead, much of the bounce appears to be tied to special forms of pay for high ‑income workers, such as bonuses and stock  compensation. Booming Stock Market Driving Income Growth. The recent run ‑up in the stock market, which appears tied to optimism surrounding artificial intelligence, is a primary driver of the rapid growth in pay to high ‑income workers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

The 2026-27 Budget: Contract to Achieve Operational Efficiencies

Mar 10, 2026 - BCG is expected to develop and pilot an analytical model that could save money in Medi-Cal by detecting pre-payment fraud, reducing improper claims, and flagging areas of possible waste and abuse. Workstream 5: DHCS —Hospital Financing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5156

Increasing Oversight of the State Litigation Deposit Fund

Jan 28, 2021 - For example, the Antitrust Section received around $ 5  m illion more in support from the UCL in 2019 ‑ 20 t han in prior years, while primary support for the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit shifted from the PRLESF to the UCL in 2019 ‑20.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4322

Housing assistance program for certain University of California employees. [Ballot]

Oct 27, 2025 - Most of this money came from hospital operations, campus services (such as housing, dining, and parking), and other nonstate sources. The state contributed about $5  billion, and students paid about $4  billion in tuition.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-018

California Labor Market Showing Broad Signs of Weakness [EconTax Blog]

Sep 30, 2025 - The long-term unemployed now make up about 30 percent of all unemployed workers, up from 20 percent in 2023.     Average Length of Unemployment Spell Now Five Weeks Longer Than in 2023.   The figure below shows the average weeks of unemployment duration for workers who are currently unemployed.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/839

California Labor Market Showing Broad Signs of Weakness [EconTax Blog]

Sep 30, 2025 - The long-term unemployed now make up about 30 percent of all unemployed workers, up from 20 percent in 2023.     Average Length of Unemployment Spell Now Five Weeks Longer Than in 2023.   The figure below shows the average weeks of unemployment duration for workers who are currently unemployed.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/839

The 2026-27 Budget: California Community Colleges

Mar 5, 2026 - For example, the state i ncreased funding for the Student Equity and Achievement Program by $24  million (5  percent) in 2021 ‑22 and another $25  million (5  percent) in 2022 ‑23. Figure 5 Certain Categorical Programs Have Received a COLA in Recent Years 2019 ‑20
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5150

Income Tax Withholding Tracker: August 1 - August 27 [EconTax Blog]

Sep 7, 2021 - The next graph shows cumulative withholding since the start of the fiscal year compared to the same dates in 2020-21 and 2019-20. Collections were up $2.24 billion (20.2 percent) over 2020-21 and $3.10 billion (30.2 percent) over 2019-20.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/692

Local Sales Tax Rebates in 2023-24

Sep 16, 2025 - For example, to encourage a retailer to set up shop in a city, the city could refund half of the Bradley-Burns tax paid by the retailer. If retailers respond strongly to these rebates, then cities providing them could end up with higher revenues.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5074

The 2026-27 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan

Feb 4, 2026 - Several signs, however, suggest that the stock market has become overvalued. For example, the ratio of stock prices to corporate earnings (a measure of how expensive stocks are) is near historically high levels ( Figure  5 ).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5110