The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Oct 16, 2025 - During the special session, the Legislature added Control Sections 90.00 and 90.01 to the 2024 ‑25 Budget Act providing up to $2.5  billion one ‑time for response and recovery costs related to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5079

The 2026-27 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 12, 2026 - Appendix 1 provides a list of the Governor ’s budget solutions. Generates $5.6 Billion School and Community College Settle‑Up Obligation in 2025‑26. The State Constitution sets a minimum spending requirement for schools and community colleges.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5101

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

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - The added risk variable weighs on the range of revenue outcomes that we view as most plausible. The middle of the range, which becomes our main revenue forecast, is thus lower than if we did not include the stock market risk indicator.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

California's Legislative Analyst's Office and the Value of Independence

Nov 15, 2024 - Consider as evidence that in just the last several years —during and after the COVID-19 pandemic —consensus macroeconomic forecasts have been wildly off from actual outcomes. But adopting a budget requires a specific revenue estimate, so what to do?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4938

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Sep 27, 2022 - Provisional language in Chapter 43 of 2022 (SB 154, Skinner) provides a list of the eligible uses for these funds, limits the total cost of any effort and/or solution to no more than $5 million, requires that CDT submit a prioritized list of efforts and/or solutions to the Department of Finance for review and approval prior to expenditure of any funds, and requires semiannual reporting on the uses of this funding to the Legislature.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4626

The 2021-22 Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Sep 23, 2021 - In September 2020, the Legislature instituted the Main Street Small Business Tax Credit, which provides income or sales tax credits to firms with 100 or fewer employees that added jobs in the second half of 2020.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4452

Flexible Funding to California in the American Rescue Plan

Mar 23, 2021 - The state is not expected to experience a reduction in General Fund revenue in 2020-21 or 2021-22 compared to 2018-19 (the baseline revenue year in the ARP). Specifically, General Fund revenues (excluding constitutional reserve deposits) were $143  billion in 2018-19, while comparable revenues for 2020-21 and 2021-22 currently are estimated to be $158  billion and $161  billion, respectively.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4407

New Inflation Poses Not So New Budget Risk

Dec 15, 2022 - Not long after, however, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation trends and the Fed ’s orientation to them began to reverse. Once it emerged, inflation accelerated throughout 2021 and has remained elevated this year with as yet indeterminate signs of abating.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4653

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: The State Appropriations Limit

Sep 30, 2022 - Chapter  53 of 2022 (AB  182, Committee on Budget) created the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund, a special fund to assist schools and community colleges in the long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4631