The state of California Department of Finance serves as the Governor's chief fiscal policy advisor in order to promote long-term economic sustainability and responsible resource allocation through the state's annual financial plan.
The department’s commitments and strategies are mainly to:
- Serve as the statewide leader for fiscal and budget policies.
- Recruit, develop, and maintain a premier workforce, consistent with Finance’s fiscal and budget policy leadership role.
- Promote transparency and trust by developing efficient processes and systems that allow easy access to state data and information.
The fiscal process is a dynamic one as new laws are enacted, new regulations are adopted, priorities change, available resources increase or decrease, and the Administration itself changes. The Department of Finance impacts the fiscal activities of other state departments because of the general authority granted to the Department in Government Code Section 13070. This section provides the Department of Finance with authority over all financial and business policies of the state. There are numerous other code sections that direct the operations of the Department.