Legislative Analyst describes LAO’s role: budget reviews, midyear notifications and ballot fiscal estimates

Gabe Pedic, the Legislative Analyst, told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) was established by joint legislative rule in 1941 and is funded from the legislature's budget. Pedic said the office provides independent fiscal analysis to the legislature and noted several core responsibilities: revenue and expenditure estimates, rerunning state funding formulas (including Proposition 98 and Proposition 2), assessing the governor's budget proposals, reviewing midyear administration budget notification letters, and producing impartial fiscal estimates for ballot measures under the Political Reform Act of 1974.

"Our mission is ... to ascertain facts and make recommendations pertaining to the state budget, revenues and expenditures of the state, and also the functions and…