The 2026-27 Budget: CDTFA’s Cannabis and Tobacco Programs

Feb 23, 2026 - Our key findings and recommendations are: The state faces significant cannabis and tobacco compliance problems. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature approach the Governor ’s proposals not as one ‑time workload adjustments, but as components of a broader, more sustained effort to address these policy challenges.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - 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

Local Sales Tax Rebates in 2023-24

Sep 16, 2025 - The veto message described these agreements as “an important local tool that captures additional economic activity, particularly in rural and inland California cities that continue to face significant economic challenges like high unemployment rates. ” 2024 Law Requires Disclosure of Local Sales Tax Rebates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5074

The 2023-24 Budget: Multiyear Budget Outlook

May 23, 2023 - This means that, if the Legislature adopts the Governor ’s May Revision proposals, the state very likely will face more budget problems over the next few years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4772

Evaluation of a Tax Exemption for Zero-Emission Buses

Apr 15, 2024 - Some Transit Agencies Are Facing Ridership Declines and Operational Funding Shortfalls. Transit ridership in California declined gradually from 2014 to 2019. Ridership fell by more than 50  percent when the pandemic began in 2020.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4890

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - The language also requires OES to provide the Legislature with two progress reports on the project —which has faced significant implementation challenges —on or before November 1, 2025 and March  1, 2026.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081/

The 2024-25 Budget: Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development

Feb 20, 2024 - While both proposals offer some potential benefits, these benefits are insufficient to warrant new General Fund spending at a time when the state faces a significant budget problem and may need to consider consequential spending cuts in other areas of the budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4846

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - While the state ’s UI system has faced fiscal hurdles for decades, the pandemic represented an unprecedented challenge to the system. The  state entered the pandemic with about $3  billion of reserves in the UI trust fund.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - In all counties but Modoc, a single minimum-wage worker with three children can expect to face housing costs that exceed half of their gross incom e. In 20 of those counties —including the most populous ones —such households faced housing costs that exceed 100  percent of their gross income.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

The 2023-24 Budget: Considering Inflation's Effects on State Programs

Nov 16, 2022 - Under our Fiscal Outlook, however, the Legislature will face a $25  billion budget problem in 2023 ‑24 and will not have surplus resources available to address inflation absent other spending or revenue changes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4647