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

Feb 23, 2026 - Money returned to the General Fund can be spent on a much wider array of programs than those supported by the Cannabis Tax Fund. Consequently, shifting enforcement costs from the Cannabis Tax Fund to the General Fund is inefficient.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

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

Nov 16, 2022 - Throughout this section, we sometimes discuss spending in terms of its real value. The nearby box describes this term. Real Value The real value of a dollar refers to the amount of goods and services that dollar can buy.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4647

Local Sales Tax Rebates in 2023-24

Sep 16, 2025 - The second is encouraging retailers to shift the legally-defined place of sale without changing the location of any real economic activity. E-commerce can enable this type of revenue shifting. As another example, consider a fuel supplier that makes advance sales of large amounts of fuel from a sales office.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5074

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - This means that California ’s maximum benefit has, in real terms, fallen by nearly half over the last two decades. California ’s Benefits Meet Federal Standard for Only Half of Workers. The UI program is intended to replace half a worker ’s wages for 26  weeks.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

The 2025-26 Budget: Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development

Mar 18, 2025 - Analysis Target Populations Have Real but Varying Needs. While characteristics of CA RISE participants are not available, data from LA:RISE show that likely participants have difficulty maintaining stable employment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5018

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Proposition  2 (2014) requires the state to spend a specified amount of money (determined through a budgetary formula) each year towards eligible liabilities. It has been state policy to satisfy this requirement through the state ’s General Fund contributions to prefund retiree health benefits and annual supplemental pension payments to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081

Evaluating State Economic Stimulus Proposals

Feb 1, 2021 - The state is prohibited from borrowing money to finance state operations. In most cases, voters must approve new bond authority before the state can raise the funds —a process that increases the amount of time between when the need for stimulus is identified and when any new spending may occur.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4331

The 2021-22 Budget: Business Tax Incentives

Jan 28, 2021 - When the state spends money, it generally cannot draw upon revenues designated for local governments. The state can, however, fund state economic policies with local revenues —for example, by exempting certain purchases from local sales taxes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4327

The 2022-23 Budget: Fuel Tax Rates

Feb 11, 2022 - The Governor proposes using the State Highway Account —which funds state highway projects —to backfill money to local governments and to state programs that support local projects to offset the revenue they would lose due to the proposed tax holiday.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4528