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

Improving California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

Aug 8, 2022 - Tax rates also go down if few workers become unemployed and get UI payments. (Under this practice, known as “experience rating, ” a business ’ annual tax rate can range from 1.5  percent to 6.2  percent depending on how many prior workers get UI benefits.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - How Did We Get Here? State UI programs are supposed to be self ‑ sufficient —that is, the system should collect enough funds to pay for benefits over time. This means, in some years, the system will collect more than necessary so that, during economic downturns, there is enough money to pay for rising benefit costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - In this section, we aggregate data over this period to track cohorts of workers born in the same year to see how their rates of low-wage work change as they get older. Cohort Example. Consider, for example, workers born in 1981.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/2

Overview of Diversity Efforts in the Film Tax Credit Program

May 1, 2025 - The statute outlining DEIA provisions for the film tax credit states that the goals of diversity workplans and initiatives should be “broadly reflective of California ’s population, in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status. ” To get a sense of how proportional the current labor force of tax credit recipients is relative to the population, Figure
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5036

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - All three of these changes could have contributed to the trend shown in Figure  2 if (1)  The 25  percent rule was favoring smaller businesses above better-qualified applicants from larger firms, (2)  larger businesses provide better evidence on how the credit affects their decision-making, and (3)  larger firms are more likely to have, or participate in, job training programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

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 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Agreements Shift General Fund Costs From Retiree Health Prefunding to Pension Liabilities. Proposition  2 (2014) requires the state to spend a specified amount of money (determined through a budgetary formula) each year towards eligible liabilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081

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

Mar 18, 2025 - If the Legislature wishes to prioritize funds for the CA RISE program, we recommend seeking additional information on the grantees, program participants, and outcomes from the first grant round. Using this information, they can assess whether the program is targeting the intended populations and how to prioritize future investments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5018

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