The Bay-Delta Plan and Voluntary Agreements: Ensuring Effective Legislative Oversight

Mar 18, 2026 - While VAs can result from litigation, they differ from regular court orders or traditional top ‑down regulations in that the affected parties negotiate a settlement to try to achieve agreed ‑upon objectives.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5163

The 2026-27 Budget: Cap-and-Invest Expenditure Plan

Feb 10, 2026 - By including funding for state operations in Tier 1, they are taken “off the top ” before allocations are computed for nearly all other activities. The main implication of this approach is that any activities that are added to this category essentially result in less funding available to support programs in other tiers and a greater likelihood that Tier 3 programs may not receive their full statutory allotments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5114

The 2023-24 Budget: Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Revenue Estimates

Mar 2, 2023 - After accounting for the continuous appropriations and off-the-top allocations, our estimates project the state will have a total of about $800  million available in additional discretionary GGRF revenues from the current and budget years compared to the administration. 2022-23.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4730

The 2025-26 Budget: Natural Resources and Agriculture Discretionary Spending Proposals

Feb 18, 2025 - During its deliberations, we recommend that the Legislature (1)  view this proposal as a distinct set of projects and evaluate their merits independently of previously funded projects at the museum and (2)  consider whether improvements to nonstate ‑owned infrastructure are a top priority given current budget  constraints.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4967

Cap-And-Trade Auction Update and GGRF Projections

Dec 6, 2021 - This could be similar to the Legislature ’s action to allocate $200  million “off the top ” to forest health and wildfire prevention as part of the 2021 ‑22 budget agreement. The Legislature could also consider allocating a specific annual amount to each continuously appropriated program, rather than a set percentage of auction revenue.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4480

Assessing Early Implementation of Urban Water Use Efficiency Requirements

Jan 4, 2024 - Identify top water users within each of those business categories. Implement best management practices to help those top water users reduce their water use. Ensure that CII customers with large landscapes convert to using dedicated irrigation meters (or an accepted alternative).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4823

Overview of California's Ports

Aug 23, 2022 - This combination of disproportionately high pollution exposure and vulnerability results in the neighborhoods adjacent to the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports scoring in the top quartile for their overall CalEnviroScreen assessment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4618

The 2021-22 Budget: Initial Comments on the Governor’s May Revision

May 17, 2021 - (We also include links to Appendix tables at the end of this post and the top left of this page. These appendix tables itemize select proposals by policy area based on our understanding at this time.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4432

The 2024-25 Budget: Flood Management Proposals

Feb 26, 2024 - If the Legislature believes these projects are a top priority and chooses to fund them, it likely will need to make additional reductions to other planned expenditures given the worsening budget picture.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4856

The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 4 Spending Plan

Feb 12, 2025 - This means that $68  million of Proposition  4 funding is not being provided on top of previous funding for land stewardship, but instead replaces those previous allocations. As  noted earlier, the Governor uses the freed ‑up funds for a number of other expenditures throughout the budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4958