The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Natural Resources and Environmental Protection

Oct 16, 2025 - This amount was approved via three different 2025 budget actions: (1) $181  million provided through Chapter  2 (AB  100, Gabriel) in April 2025 (these funds were available for departments to spend during the final few months of 2024-25); (2) $2.9  million through Chapter  5 (AB  102, Gabriel); and (3) $3.3  billion through Chapter  104 (SB  105, Weiner).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5080

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

Feb 10, 2026 - GGRF = Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; DOF = Department of Finance; CalFire = California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; SB  840  =  Chapter  121 of 2025 (SB 840, Lim ón); AB 617 = Chapter 136 of 2017 (AB 617, C.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5114

The 2024-25 Budget: Salton Sea Management Program

Feb 26, 2024 - If funding these activities is a top priority for the Legislature in 2024 ‑25, we recommend it consider a couple of options: (1)  providing a lower amount of funding to support fewer projects or (2)  providing the full amount but to support a smaller number of projects all the way through completion rather than just for their initial stages (so the state does not start projects it does not have the funding to  complete).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4859

Cap-and-Invest: November 2025 Auction Update and 2026-27 Budget Context

Dec 9, 2025 - If there is no deficit, $500  million in CalFire costs. $125  million for transit passes. $85  million for climate-focused technological innovation. $25  million for seed funding for a University of California Climate Research Center. $15  million to rebuild Topanga Park (which sustained damage in the Palisades fire).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5096

The 2025-26 Budget: Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan

Feb 12, 2025 - Before the Legislature last extended the statutory authorization for the cap ‑and ‑trade program in 2017, revenues from GGRF began to decline due to investor uncertainty about the status of the program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4960

The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandates—Regional Water Quality Control Boards

May 30, 2025 - CSM has identified four new state-reimbursable mandates since enactment of the 2024-25 Budget Act . All four concern municipal stormwater permits issued by regional water quality control boards and costs incurred by local governments prior to 2018.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5054

Frequently Asked Questions About Wildfires in California

Jan 28, 2025 - In addition to the augmentations shown in the figure, we estimate that the state has dedicated over $800  million from 2017-18 through 2024-25 for CalFire infrastructure projects that support the department ’s wildfire-response activities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4952

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - In both cases, (1)  the assumed level of savings is lower than what was assumed as part of the 2024-25 budget package and (2) savings that were assumed unallocated in 2024-25 are assumed to be distributed to departments in 2025-26 Control Section 4.05: Reduced Operational Costs Distributed to Departments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081/

The 2026-27 Budget: Proposed Elimination of State Environmental Positions

Feb 17, 2026 - (We refer to these as “environmental positions. ”) By contrast, as shown in Figure  2, environmental positions comprised a majority of the residual positions reviewed by the Legislature (565 of 1,009) and of the positions the Legislature did not agree to eliminate (349 of 650).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5124

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

May 5, 2025 - This mandate is one of four newly identified mandates since enactment of the 2024-25 Budget Act . We will assess the other three mandates —also related to stormwater permits —after the administration proposes a course of action, potentially in the Governor ’s revised budget proposal in May.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5039