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

May 5, 2025 - We recommend the Legislature reject the Governor ’s proposal and instead fund past costs —which total less than $1  million —for three reasons: (1)  in a similar case in the San Diego region, a 2022 court decision found that local governments lacked sufficient authority to raise fees for stormwater mandates when they had to seek voter approval to do so; (2)  CSM
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5039

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Housing, Homelessness and Local Government

Oct 22, 2025 - Of this amount, 10  percent is set aside for California tribes. MHP provides low-interest (0.42  percent) loans to developers for the construction and rehabilitation of rental housing for lower-income households.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5082

The 2025-26 Budget: Oversight of Encampment Resolution Funding [Publication Details]

Mar 5, 2025 - To assist the Legislature in its fiscal oversight role of this large and multiyear program, this post: (1) provides data on the size of the population of people experiencing homelessness in California and recent state spending on housing and homelessness; (2) describes the ERF program’s goals, funding, and reporting requirements; (3) provides an update on ERF grantee awards,
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5007

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

May 30, 2025 - For a more detailed discussion of the administration ’s rationale —which also applied to the mandate addressed in the Governor ’s January budget proposal —and our corresponding assessment, please see our recent post .
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5054

An Initial Look at Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Local Government Fiscal Condition

May 12, 2021 - The state will have limited insight into which local governments have been most affected by the pandemic until after the SCO publishes additional years of local government financial data. The picture will beco me more clear next year when the Legislature considers the state ’s 2022 ‑ 23 b udget after the SCO has published local governments ’ 2019 ‑20 financial
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4428

Climate Change Impacts Across California - Crosscutting Issues

Apr 5, 2022 - Figure  3  shows how most of California ’s largest and most destructive wildfires have occurred in recent decades. This pattern has been particularly notable in the last few years, which have seen some of the worst wildfires in the state ’s recorded history.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4575

The 2025-26 Budget: Oversight of Encampment Resolution Funding

Mar 5, 2025 - Program Currently Is in Its Fourth Year of Funding … Figure  2 shows that, after an initial General Fund appropriation of $50  million in 2021-22, the Legislature has provided one-time amounts for ERF each year since.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5007

The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor’s Homelessness Plan

Feb 9, 2022 - For instance, funds could be used to purchase and install tiny homes and to provide time ‑limited operational supports in these tiny homes or in other housing settings, including existing assisted living settings.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4521

Climate Change Impacts Across California - Crosscutting Issues [Publication Details]

Apr 5, 2022 - This report contains four primary sections: (1) a description of the five key climate hazards affecting California, (2) the major ways those hazards impact sectors across the state, (3) significant existing state‑level efforts underway to address climate change impacts, and (4) key issues for the Legislature to consider in response to these impacts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4575

The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor's Housing Plan

Feb 14, 2022 - Specifically, these developments serve renters with incomes between 30  percent and 80  percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), with an option to serve renters with incomes up to 120  percent of AMI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4535