The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - These companies have made big bets on AI, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers and offering extraordinary pay packages to recruit AI researchers. This spending, coupled with sizable gains to investors and tech company employees via stock options, is boosting state income tax receipts.
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 2025-26 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - Current stock prices relative to companies ’ past earnings (a common measure of how “expensive ” stocks are) are at levels rivaled only by the transitory booms of 1999 and 2021. Furthermore, a single company (Nvidia) accounts for about one ‑third of the total gains in the S &P 500 stock index over the last year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939

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

Feb 4, 2022 - There are many options for tax reductions, including: broad ‑based rebates, targeted rebates, and expansions of tax credits and programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit. Compared to waiting to address excess revenues, this option would afford the state more flexibility in designing the reductions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4515

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

Oct 12, 2022 - SAL = state appropriations limit; CAC = California Arts Council; CSSSA = California State Summer School for the Arts; CDE = California Department of Education; CDFA = California Department of Food and Agriculture; CSL = California State Library; CTC = Commission on Teacher Credentialing; DCA = Department of Consumer Affairs; DCC = Department of Cannabis Control; DFPI = Departm ent of Financial
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4616/1

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - Were the markets to drop considerably, budget problems would be tens of billions of dollars larger, necessitating even deeper cuts and/or tax increases. These challenges would not be short-lived either.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

The 2022-23 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook

Nov 17, 2021 - Several major firms have posted historically high earnings. Consistent with this recent trend, under our main forecast, we estimate tax revenues (and transfers) are higher by nearly $28 billion across 2020‑21 and 2021‑22 compared to budget act estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4472

The State Appropriations Limit

Apr 21, 2021 - Figure  4 shows how these factors result in differential growth rates between personal income, total income for those earning more than $200,000 annually, and personal income tax revenue from those high  earners.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4416

The 2024-25 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Dec 7, 2023 - In  addition, the Legislature has committed tens of billions of dollars in previous years to one ‑time and temporary purposes, including billions of dollars in the current year. Some of these funds could be withdrawn to address the deficit, but the Legislature would need to request more information from the administration to know the precise amounts that could be feasibly reduced.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4819

The 2024-25 Budget: Proposition 2 Debt Payment Proposals

Mar 20, 2024 - Employee and Employer Contributions to “Normal Cost. ” The normal cost is the amount actuaries determine must be contributed to the system in a given year to fund the benefit earned by state employees in that year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4887