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4,865 Publications Found
October 16, 2025 - This post begins by providing an overview of total spending for the departments overseen by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). Next, we discuss a number of cross-cutting issues that affect departments in both agencies, including Proposition 4, budget reductions, and spending from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). We then discuss individual departments that had notable budget changes within each of the two agencies.
October 16, 2025 - Each year, our office publishes the California Spending Plan to summarize the annual state budget. In this publication we: provide an overview of the 2025-26 budget package, give a brief description of how the budget process unfolded, and then highlight the major features of the budget approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.
October 16, 2025 - In this post, we summarize some of the most notable components of transportation program budgets in the 2025-26 spending plan.
October 16, 2025 - This post describes the first year of implementation funding for Proposition 4 as authorized by the 2025-26 budget package. We begin with a high-level summary, then provide an overview of each of the major Proposition 4 categories.
October 16, 2025 - This post summarizes spending on health programs in the 2025-26 spending plan.
October 6, 2025 - The Supplemental Report of the 2025-26 Budget Act contains statements of legislative intent and requests for studies that were adopted by the Legislature during deliberations on the 2025-26 budget package.
September 16, 2025 - Some of California's local governments offer partial sales tax rebates to try to boost the amount of taxable sales within their borders. In 2023-24, these rebates totaled $140 million. In this post, we describe the distribution of rebate payments across cities and counties. We also examine some economic and demographic characteristics of rebate-paying jurisdictions.
September 9, 2025 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Units 10 (Professional Scientists) and 18 (Psychiatric Technician). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
August 28, 2025 - Senate Committee on Transportation; Subcommittee on LOSSAN Rail Corridor Resiliency
August 20, 2025 - Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 7 on Accountability and Oversight
August 19, 2025 - We reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Bargaining Unit 8 (Firefighters). This review is pursuant to Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
August 14, 2025 - Recent changes were made to the publication of statistics required to calculate the California Necessities Index, which is used to adjust certain benefit rates and cost-of-living adjustments. In this brief, we provide details on the changes and evaluate alternatives for the index that require only currently available data and conform to the original intent of the index.
July 14, 2025 - On July 10, 2025, our office received from the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) a proposed successor memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the state and Bargaining Unit 16. Unit 16 consists of physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, podiatrists, and other medical professionals who work in institutionalized settings, such as prisons and hospitals. Unit 16’s current members are represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). The current MOU between the state and UAPD expired on July 1, 2025. If the proposed successor MOU is not ratified, the provisions of the expired MOU generally would remain in effect as is required by the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act). This analysis of the proposed agreement fulfills our statutory requirement under Section 19829.5 of the Government Code.
July 11, 2025 - The final 2025-26 budget package approved by the Legislature maintained the May Revision level of savings in employee compensation and set an expectation for the administration and the state’s 21 bargaining units to meet and confer in good faith in order to achieve those savings through the collective bargaining process. To effectuate those savings, the budget package provided legislative ratification of any agreement that achieved budgetary savings and was entered into before the start of the 2025-26 fiscal year. In total, the administration and 19 of the state’s bargaining units were able to enter into agreements by midnight on June 30, 2025. The purpose of this analysis is to serve as a historical record of these legislatively ratified labor agreements with the 19 bargaining units.
July 10, 2025 - In this brief we review a once-narrow workers' compensation supplemental payment, known as the Subsequent Injury Benefit Trust Fund (SIBTF), that has looser standards, broader eligibility, and more generous benefits than the standard workers' compensation system. The program pays generous lifetime benefits to injured workers who also have pre-existing health issues. The program's use and associated employer costs have risen dramatically now that injured workers are able to access the state's most generous benefit ($1,700 per week for life) with claims that are often based on common pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, sleep apnea, diabetes, headaches, allergies, or sexual dysfunction.