Improving Legislative Oversight of Emergency Authorities

Apr 10, 2025 - Specifically, when a local emergency is declared by a city, county, or city/county governing body, CESA requires the emergency to be reviewed every 60 days by the governing body until the local emergency is terminated.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5029

The 2023-24 Budget: California Volunteers Proposed Program Expansions

Mar 1, 2023 - While CA  Volunteers provides some broad guidelines for how funds can be used, the selected cities and counties also have some latitude for designing their services at the local level, including what specific job responsibilities the youth would fulfill.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4723

The 2025-26 Budget: Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement

Mar 11, 2025 - Specifically, we are uncertain how the administration is defining and evaluating Californians ’ “sense of belonging, ” which makes determining how to assess and respond to such a potential challenge exceptionally difficult.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5015

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Financial Protection and Innovation

Apr 3, 2025 - We also recommend directing DFPI to report annually for three years beginning on January 10, 2026, on the amount of revenue received from each increased fee and how this compares to what the department projected would be received.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5025

The 2025-26 Budget: State Departments’ Operational Efficiencies (Control Sections 4.05 and 4.12)

Feb 19, 2025 - The budget specified that DOF would propose, as part of the Governor ’s 2025-26 budget proposal, the permanent elimination of vacant positions and associated funding to make the assumed savings ongoing beginning in 2025-26.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4975

The 2025-26 Budget: The California State Payroll System IT Project

Mar 7, 2025 - These aging systems make it difficult for the state to, for example, change how state employee payroll is calculated and disbursed based on updates to federal and state law. For over two decades, SCO —which is responsible for issuing pay to the state workforce —has led state efforts to plan, develop, and implement a new state payroll system.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5011

The 2025-26 Budget: CDTFA’s Tobacco Programs

Feb 14, 2025 - This makes each inspection more productive but also more resource-intensive due to the staff time associated with enforcement actions. Many Possible Explanations for Trends in Citations and Seizures.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4966

The 2025-26 Budget: Office of Emergency Services—Request for Reappropriation of Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Fund Resources

Feb 24, 2025 - This is problematic as it will make it difficult for the Legislature to determine whether to approve this pilot program on an ongoing basis. For example, if the goal is to reduce the burden of lengthy reimbursement wait times, information on changes in wait times and how this has benefited local law enforcement would be necessary to determine whether these funds were having the intended effects.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4982

Considering Changes to Streamline Local Housing Approvals

May 17, 2016 - To avoid this outcome, state policy makers would need to make major changes to how cities and counties plan for and approve housing. Consistent with this, the Governor ’s May Revision proposal includes proposed changes to how cities and counties approve multifamily housing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3470

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Real Estate

Mar 19, 2025 - This is because the underlying drivers of the decline in applications are not fully understood and, therefore, it is difficult to predict how the number of applications will change in the coming years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5019