Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - Figure  3 provides our overall ranking of each measure across the three criteria. Option C ranks best in both historic similarity and fidelity to the current concept. While it faces some risk from future publication decisions, these risks are similar to the risk for options A and B, which still require metropolitan area statistics on prices for specific spending categories.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2025 - California is the only state that has an explicit competitive element to its tax credit, as it ranks projects using a formula that weighs the wages that will be generated by a production versus the value of credits that will be allocated t o that project.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - In unadjusted dollar terms, at $380 per week, California ’s average weekly benefit rank around the middle of U.S. states. However, wages are higher in California than they are in most other states. As a result, California ’s average weekly UI benefits as a share of average weekly wages rank near the bottom, as shown in Figure  9 .
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943