Budget Practices and State Expenditures: Lessons for California

This report examines whether the adoption of certain kinds of administrative mechanisms in California’s annual budget process could make that process more efficient. If so, some of these budget practices could help reduce state spending. Six practices are used by other large-population states. But California now uses only one: the May revision of the governor’s budget. The author finds that the adoption of certain practices might indeed reduce per capita expenditures, but that others are unlikely to do so. The May revision, however, produced no significant savings.