The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Expanded Credit Pool Has Pros and Cons. On one hand, there is a clear strategic benefit to allowing the credit pool to increase beyond the baseline allocation: Changing macroeconomic conditions over the course of the business cycle means that there are years when businesses are more inclined to invest and expand operations than in other years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/852

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/852

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

Oversight of certain public benefit artificial intelligence (AI) companies. [Ballot]

Jan 20, 2026 - The measure would have the following major fiscal effects: Increased state costs that would likely be in the tens of millions of dollars annually to establish and operate a new regulatory commission overseeing certain public benefit AI com panies.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-033

Oversight of certain frontier artificial intelligence (AI) companies. [Ballot]

Jan 20, 2026 - Reviewing protection plans required of regulated entities that address specified categories of potential harm, including workforce displacement, safety risks, and loss of human con trol, and issuing, modifying, or revoking annual certifications based on commission-identified demonstrated best practices.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-034

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

Large health sector labor organizations’ political activities. [Ballot]

Nov 14, 2025 - While under current law the Fair Political Practices Commission interprets and enforces existing campaign finance and disclosure requirements, the measure would require labor organizations to submit to the state Labor Commissioner (who enforces laws related to wages, hours of work, and con ditions of employment) records of members ’ consent for each applicable political expenditure.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-021

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 2025-26 Budget: Department of Real Estate

Mar 19, 2025 - However, if the department is able to achieve additional savings similar to or beyond those captured in 2024-25, or if revenues improve instead of staying flat, then the con dition of the Real Estate Fund could stabilize or improve.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5019