Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - To ensure revenues match benefits over time, states enacted UI financing systems. These systems are comprised of three elements: (1) a tax rate “schedule” that adjusts up or down to match revenues and benefit costs, (2) a taxable wage base level to which the tax rate applies, and (3) an experience rating factor to ensure employers pay their fair share of UI costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

Improving California’s Unemployment Insurance Program

Aug 8, 2022 - In our assessment, today ’s problems do not call for fundamental reforms that could upend longstanding tenants of the state ’s labor market. Instead, targeted changes to state practices could improve the experience unemployed workers have when they need UI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615

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

Feb 23, 2026 - Under the Governor ’s budget proposal for the Cannabis Tax Program, this appropriation would increase to match current program spending. Administration Has Been Spending General Fund on Cannabis Tax Enforcement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5132

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - Finally, we described how we matched household types to apartment types for the analysis of housing costs. Strengths and Weaknesses of Data Sources Primary Data Source: Monthly Current Population Surveys (CPS).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/4

The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Namely, those tax credits could have been awarded to another applicant who would have been more likely to achieve their milestones. However, as we discuss next, this has not been the case in the last few years of the program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

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

Feb 19, 2026 - 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

California’s Low-Wage Workers and Minimum Wage

Mar 11, 2024 - For the most common types of low-wage workers —those who do not have children or who live with at least one other worker —the minimum wage is at least two times the poverty level. Official Poverty Measure Paints an Incomplete Picture.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4878/3

Annual Report on Tax Exemptions for Medicinal Cannabis

Jun 24, 2025 - The data do not tell us who received each donation. Some patients likely received more than one donation in 2024, so this total likely overstates the number of distinct patients. For example, if a patient received six donations in 2024, then the transaction total includes that person six times.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5059

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

Overview of Diversity Efforts in the Film Tax Credit Program

May 1, 2025 - One trend of note is that since the inception of the film tax credit, the share of Californians who identify as white only has decreased from 41.5 to 33.3  percent, making white no longer the largest ethnic group in the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5036