California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - After the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, it took four and five years, respectively, for revenues to recover. Incorporating revenue risk into the budget now, therefore, reflects prudence, not pessimism.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

Flexible Funding to California in the American Rescue Plan

Mar 23, 2021 - Current estimates suggest that California counties will receive $7.7  billion and California cities will receive $8.4  billion. Use of Fiscal Relief Funds Funds Must Be Used for Specific Purposes. Both the state and local governments can only use the funds for specific purposes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4407

The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Sep 6, 2024 - Second, it notably reduces how much tax revenue is used for augmentations, instead using more money to help offset General Fund spending ($3.5  billion through 2024 ‑25 and $7.7  billion through 2026 ‑27).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4922

The 2024-25 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Dec 7, 2023 - The state could use up to $7.7  billion of this balance to cover school spending that exceeds the Proposition  98 minimum requirement in 2022 ‑23. Using the Proposition  98 Reserve in this way would allow the state to lower General Fund spending to the constitutional minimum level in the prior year without reducing the funding allocations it previously approved.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4819

The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - For California, the dot ‑com era —when stocks rose and then fell precipitously in response to widespread adoption of the internet —offers the most salient example. The internet has proven to be a transformative technology and, yet, the stock market ’s initial reaction was clearly overly exuberant.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Oct 12, 2022 - This includes $7.7  billion —$3.7 billion in 2021 ‑22 and $2 billion in both 2023 ‑24 and 2024 ‑ 25 —to fund transit and rail projects throughout the state. The package also includes (1) $1.8 billion in 2021 ‑22 to support active transportation, climate adaptation, and grade separation projects, and (2) $100 million in 2023 ‑24 to augment a local litter abatement and beautification grant program initiated in 2021 ‑22.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4616

Whether or Not to Tap Reserves to Solve Estimated Budget Problem Emerges as Key Fiscal Decision Facing California’s Legislature

Apr 19, 2023 - Other downturns, such as the 2001 so-called dot-com recession, had severe fiscal implications while inflicting somewhat milder economic damage. The 2008 Great Recession had brutal effects on both the state ’s economy and budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4762

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - In March of 2004, on the heels of the dot ‑com bust, voters passed Proposition  58, which created the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA). In the 2006 ‑07 budget, the Legislature deposited $472  million into the BSA and in 2007 ‑08 deposited $1.5  billion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

The 2023-24 Budget: Multiyear Assessment

Feb 15, 2023 - Three of those —the recession in the early 1990s, the dot ‑com bust in the early 2000s, and the Great Recession —resulted in large revenue shortfalls and ensuing multiyear deficits, even for some years after each recession ended.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4687

The State Appropriations Limit

Apr 21, 2021 - The state ’s appropriations subject to the limit fell substantially during the dot ‑com bust in the early 2000s and again during the Great Recession due to the significant decline in state revenues during those downturns.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4416