The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - This  is not a prediction of what will happen —state and federal laws and policies will change in the coming years —but rather serves as a baseline to help the Legislature understand its starting place.
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

The 2022-23 Budget: Initial Comments on the State Appropriations Limit Proposal

Feb 4, 2022 - The 2022-23 Budget: Initial Comments on the State Appropriations Limit Proposal 100 a Partial exclusions. Note: Includes proposals using General Fund surplus monies greater than $100 million. For a complete list of all proposals, see: https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2022/4492/Overview‑Appendix‑011422.pdf .
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4515

The 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - This is not a prediction of what will happen —state and federal laws and policies will change in the coming years —but rather serves as a baseline to help the Legislature understand its starting place.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

The 2022-23 Budget: Multiyear Budget Outlook

May 24, 2022 - In two recent recessions, in fact, total revenue losses were around $100  billion. These recessions necessitated very difficult choices for the Legislature about how to cut spending to balance the budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4602

Rethinking California's Reserve Policy

Apr 10, 2025 - That is: the state will face revenue downturns in the future, but we can ’t predict when those will occur or how big they will be. This makes the state ’s reserve policy more like an individual saving for retirement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5028

Despite Fiscal Forecasting Uncertainties, Multiyear Budget Planning Essential

May 27, 2021 - While events of the past year show that attempting to predict the future is a fool ’s errand, the value of multiyear fiscal estimates is not in their predictive precision. Rather, policymakers need insight on the condition of the state ’s underlying fiscal operations —annual revenues relative to expenditures —outside of any near-term surplus or deficit.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4443

Strong Tax Collections Belie California's Challenging Fiscal Outlook

Apr 26, 2022 - No one knows for sure, but in some scenarios, we found the cumulative estimated budget problem would substantially exceed the state ’s current combined general-purpose budget reserves of around $25  billion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4590

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

Nov 15, 2024 - But since macroeconomic dynamics are multifaceted and context dependent, successfully predicting the scenario that will play out is virtually impossible. 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.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4938

The 2022-23 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook

Nov 17, 2021 - Enhanced Federal Match for Home ‑ and Community ‑Based Services (HCBS). The ARP also included a temporary enhanced federal match rate for HCBS funded through the Medicaid program, which reduces the state ’s share of base program costs for these services by $3 billion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4472