The 2026-27 Budget: California Competes Extension

Mar 18, 2026 - Program staff must weigh these possibly competing factors, and the high recapture rate cou ld indicate a relative favoring of high-risk, high-rewards projects. In years where the program is fully subscribed, there is an opportunity cost associated with an agreement that is not fulfilled.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5162

Building Reserves to Prepare for a Recession

Mar 7, 2018 - By most measures, the recession of the early 1990s was more severe than the dot ‑com bust in the early 2000s. For example, unemployment in California reached 9. 7  p ercent in mid ‑ to late ‑1992, but peaked at 6. 9  p ercent after the dot ‑com bust.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3769

The 2018-19 May Revision: LAO Economic Outlook

May 12, 2018 - A multitude of factors, however, will influence the path of the state ’s economy in ways that are very difficult to anticipate. Some of these factors are discussed below. Tight Labor Markets. The state ’s unemployment rate (4.2  percent as of March  2018) is the lowest it has been in decades.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3829

How High? Adjusting California’s Cannabis Taxes

Dec 17, 2019 - Miller, Keaton and Boyoung Seo (2019). “Tax Revenues When Substances Substitute: Marijuana, Alcohol, and Tobacco. ” Mimeo, University of Oregon. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4125

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Moves Financial Institutions to Single Sales Factor Apportionment. Multistate and multinational corporations have their California tax liability calculated using a process known as apportionment. Most firms use the Single Sales Factor method, which calculates the percentage of a firm ’s sales that occur in California, and then subjects that percentage of the firm ’s profits to California taxation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081

Managing California’s Cash

Sep 3, 2019 - After a period of relative calm in the mid ‑ and late ‑1990s, California faced another series of years with acute budget problems following the dot ‑com bust and ensuing recession. Although the dot ‑com bust was relatively mild in economic terms, it hit the California budget —which is particularly reliant on the Bay Area ’s technology sector —especially hard.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4092

Updating the California Necessities Index

Aug 14, 2025 - For  example, changes in the price of luxury cars factor in to changes in these general price indices but are not often considered a necessity. As such, Options A, B, and C likely are reasonable candidates, but present different trade ‑offs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5065

Fixing Unemployment Insurance

Dec 2, 2024 - As a result of these factors, increases in contributions that result from increasing the taxable wage base would lessen the fund ’s annual operating deficits, but would not dependably result in solvency.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4943

The 2017-18 Budget: Governor's Gann Limit Proposal

Mar 2, 2017 - As revenues surged during the dot ‑com boom of the late 1990s, however, the state approached the limit. The state had excess revenues in 1999 ‑00, but because appropriations were under the limit in 2000 ‑01, additional Proposition  98 spending and taxpayer rebates were not required.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3596

The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit

Feb 28, 2025 - These estimates ignore some of the important offsetting factors discussed above, specifically that some productions receiving the credit would have filmed here anyway and revenues lost to the film tax cred it could have been used to fund other economically beneficial programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000