The 2025-26 Budget: Partial Income Tax Exclusion for Military Retirement Income [EconTax Blog]

Feb 13, 2025 - Tax Expenditures Should Clear High Bar. Relative to spending proposals, tax expenditures tend to be reviewed less rigorously once they are adopted. Furthermore, again relative to spending proposals, assessing the effectiveness of tax expenditures is challenging given the limited information the state receives about taxpayers who benefit.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/820

The 2025-26 Budget: Partial Income Tax Exclusion for Military Retirement Income [EconTax Blog]

Feb 13, 2025 - Tax Expenditures Should Clear High Bar. Relative to spending proposals, tax expenditures tend to be reviewed less rigorously once they are adopted. Furthermore, again relative to spending proposals, assessing the effectiveness of tax expenditures is challenging given the limited information the state receives about taxpayers who benefit.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/820

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

Feb 28, 2025 - CFC reporting shows total expenditures associated with projects receiving a tax credit have averaged about $2.5  billion per year over the three most recent fiscal years. Relative to the gross domestic product of California ’s motion picture industry in 2023 of $54.4  billion, this represents a little under 5  percent of the sector.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5000

The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit [Publication Details]

Feb 28, 2025 - The 2025-26 Budget: California’s Film Tax Credit [Publication Details] Description: This brief discusses California's film tax credit and assesses the Governor’s Budget proposal to raise the amount of tax credits available for the California Film Commission to allocate to $750 million starting in 2025‑26.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5000

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - New Tax Expenditures of $150   Million. The Governor ’s budget includes some revenue proposals, which would expand existing tax expenditures and create new ones. This includes increasing the existing film tax credit from $330  million to $750  million per year and excluding some military retirement income from taxation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2025-26 Budget: Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development

Mar 18, 2025 - Recent evidence from academic research has found that the California Competes tax credit is fairly effective at increasing employment and providing an economic benefit to the state, especially relative to other tax expenditure programs in California and elsewhere.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5018

The 2025-26 Budget: Undertaking Fiscal Oversight

Feb 24, 2025 - This evaluation applies to both traditional spending programs and tax expenditures. Why Is It Particularly Important Now? State Faces Notable Deficits After 2025-26, Meaning Difficult Choices Are Ahead.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4983

The 2025-26 Budget: Transportation Proposals

Feb 12, 2025 - As we discuss in our January 2025 report, The 2025‑26 Budget: Overview of the Governor’s Budget , overall, the Governor proposes $2.2 billion in actions that would create capacity in the General Fund to support $570 million of discretionary proposals (including this proposal), $150 million of tax expenditures, and a larger discretionary reserve than the state typically plans.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4961

Cannabis Tax Revenue Update (2025 Q2) [EconTax Blog]

Sep 15, 2025 - Proposition 64 created two excise taxes on cannabis: a 15 percent retail excise tax and a cultivation tax. Chapter 56, Statutes of 2022 (AB 195, Committee on Budget) eliminated the cultivation tax on July 1, 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/838

Cannabis Tax Revenue Update (2025 Q2) [EconTax Blog]

Sep 15, 2025 - Proposition 64 created two excise taxes on cannabis: a 15 percent retail excise tax and a cultivation tax. Chapter 56, Statutes of 2022 (AB 195, Committee on Budget) eliminated the cultivation tax on July 1, 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/838