The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook Executive Summary Not Safe to Bet Artificial Intelligence ( AI) Fueled Exuberance Is Sustainable. Both the California and U.S. economies currently face significant headwinds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

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

Jan 12, 2026 - That said, recent budgets have set the SFEU bet ween $3.5  billion and $4.5  billion, so the Governor ’s budget proposal to set the balance to $4.5  billion is generally in line with recent policy.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5101

New Inflation Poses Not So New Budget Risk

Dec 15, 2022 - History suggests that it is difficult for the Fed to weaken demand enough to reduce inflation but not so much as to tip the economy into a recession. This reflects that the Fed ’s tools for implementing changes in monetary policy are blunt and operate with a considerable lag, making attempts at fine-tuning very challenging.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4653

The Definition of Qualified Capital Outlay for the State Appropriations Limit

Feb 18, 2022 - Does the State Need to Own the Asset to Count It as an Exclusion? No, nothing in statute requires the state (or, indeed, an entity of government) to own an asset for it to be counted as an exclusion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4547

The State Appropriations Limit

Apr 21, 2021 - Funding That Cannot Be Counted Toward District Limits Is Counted at the State Level. In most cases, districts have greater proceeds of taxes than they are able to count toward their local limits. The portion of funding (whether from the state or property taxes) that cannot be counted toward district limits is counted using the state ’s limit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4416

The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2024 - As the left side of Figure  1 shows, we estimate the administration counts about $21  billion in budget solutions as baseline changes. The largest of these changes impacts schools and community colleges.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4825

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

Sep 30, 2022 - Additions to the Definition of Subvention Last Year ’s Budget Reflected Intent to Count Realignment Revenues as Subventions. The 2021-22 budget package reflected the intent of the Legislature to count realignment revenues to local government against local governments ’ limits, in accordance with changes in the state-local fiscal relationship that have occurred since 1980.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4631

The 2021-22 California Spending Plan: The State Appropriations Limit

Aug 30, 2021 - The Constitution allows subventions to local governments to be counted against that local government ’s limit (instead of the state ’s limit). The 2021 ‑22 budget package reflects the intent of the Legislature to count realignment revenues to local government against local governments ’ limits, in accordance with changes in the state-local fiscal relationship that have occurred since 1980.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4449

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - A  similar principle could be extended over time: that is, all tax revenues should be counted toward the limit, but the question is when. If the state excluded deposits, but included withdrawals, from the state ’s limit, it would change the timing of when revenues are counted, but would preserve the overall amount of tax revenue counted.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

The 2022-23 Budget: State Appropriations Limit Implications

Mar 30, 2022 - For example, instead of specifying that only unrestricted funds provided to local governments should count as subventions, statute could state that any funds provided to local government count as subventions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4583