The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Housing, Homelessness and Local Government

Oct 22, 2025 - In addition, trailer bill legislation creates new exemptions from CEQA requirements for various categories of projects, including specified “infill ” housing developments (such as certain projects on vacant land within an urban area), farmworker housing, rural health clinics, day care centers, food banks, broadband deployment in a right-of-way, and advanced manufacturing facilities (with each exemption type subject to various requirements and limitations).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5082

The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandate—Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board

May 5, 2025 - Because the California Constitution does not require the state to reimburse local governments for costs to comply with federal law, disagreements have arisen over the years about whether all of the requirements in a given water quality permit are specifically required by federal law or whether they impose ad ditional requirements from the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5039

Climate Change Impacts Across California - Crosscutting Issues

Apr 5, 2022 - Particularly within the climate resilience funding package, some of the funding categories are targeted specifically to assist vulnerable communities. Figure 7 Climate Adaptation Funding Packages Included in 2021 ‑22 Budget (In Millions)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4575

An Initial Look at Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Local Government Fiscal Condition

May 12, 2021 - A local government that falls into more than one of these categories, likely is in greater need of additional resources. Significant Reliance on Sales Tax Revenue. Many cities rely on sales tax revenue as a major revenue source for their budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4428

The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor's Housing Plan

Feb 14, 2022 - While we simultaneously continue to review the language, we suggest the Legislature ask: (1)  how would the scope of eligible recipients change; (2)  what activities could be funded through the program; (3)  what criteria would the state use to evaluate applications and make funding decisions; (4)  what steps would the state take to ensure geographic equity of awarded funds; (5)  how would the
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4535

How Has COVID-19 Affected Renters and Homeowners?

Jan 19, 2021 - We hope that by shedding light on how COVID ‑19 has added to the financial stress of renters, we can inform policy solutions to help renters through this crisis. In particular, the state and local governments will soon have to determine how to allocate recently authorized federal funding for emergency rental assistance.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4312