California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - We assess the pseudo-out-of-sample prediction errors for each specification using the monthly CPS from January to December 2022 as our training set and the monthly CPS from January to December 2023 as our test set.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

The 2026-27 Budget: State Mandate—Disclosure Requirements and Deferral of Property Taxation

Feb 19, 2026 - The California Constitution specifies that the property value used for determining property taxes is set at the property ’s purchase price and then increased annually by 2  percent or less. However, Proposition  19 (2020) allows certain homeowners (such as people who are 55 years or older) to transfer their existing home value for property tax purposes to a new home anywhere in the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5130

Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - Therefore, any measure that requires statistics on the prices of a small set of goods in metropolitan areas —which includes options A, B, and C —may be at higher risk to future BLS publication changes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

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

Feb 23, 2026 - To support this sustained effort, we recommend that the Legislature set up opportunities to revisit program resources in the 2027 and/or 2028 budget processes. The administration has been spending General Fund on cannabis tax enforcement, which should be funded exclusively by the Cannabis Tax Fund.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

Overview of Diversity Efforts in the Film Tax Credit Program

May 1, 2025 - Equity Education: learning about the historical and contemporary experiences of underrepresented communities and people, existing civil rights and discrimination laws, and setting goals for ensuring DEIA for everyone on the production.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5036

Local Sales Tax Rebates in 2023-24

Sep 16, 2025 - For example, to encourage a retailer to set up shop in a city, the city could refund half of the Bradley-Burns tax paid by the retailer. If retailers respond strongly to these rebates, then cities providing them could end up with higher revenues.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5074

The 2022-23 Budget: Supply Chain and Port Infrastructure Proposals

Feb 15, 2022 - The Governor ’s budget includes $6  million from the General Fund in 2022 ‑23 for DMV to fund overtime for 200 Licensing Registration Examiners, as well as the necessary office and support staff, so that field offices with wait times of 30 days or more for commercial drive tests can offer additional testing slots on Saturdays.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4540

The 2025-26 Budget: Update on Implementation of New Firearm and Ammunition Tax

Feb 19, 2025 - The 2024-25 budget package required CDE to set aside up to $35  million of its 2025-26 GVPSS allocation for providing youth behavioral health training to staff who work directly with students in grades 7 through 12.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4970

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Many California cities —and the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and San Mateo County —set minimum wages that exceed the $16-per-hour statewide minimum. We list some of these policies in Figure  1 below.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - We first recommend the Legislature substantially increase the state ’s taxable wage base, which is currently set to the federal minimum of $7,000. Nationwide, the average taxable wage base is around $21,000.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943