Malia M. Cohen

1What can this job do?

The State Controller is California's chief fiscal officer — the state's accountant and paymaster. The office pays the state's bills, issues state employee and tax-refund payments, audits government spending, reports on the state's financial condition, and sits on dozens of boards and commissions, including the tax boards.

✗It does NOT set the state budget or tax rates (the Legislature and Governor do), and it cannot decide spending priorities on its own.

2What has this person done with it?

We don't yet track a record of this official's actions here. For state offices, the public record is unusually good: recorded votes and bill histories are at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, and campaign finance is at the Secretary of State's Cal-Access. Those primary sources are the place to look — we'd rather send you there than summarize selectively.

We only log matters of public record, in the same format for every official — never opinion or news coverage.

3How does this affect you?

Every Californian shares this office. The state controller is California's chief fiscal officer — paying the state's bills, auditing state spending, and reporting on the state's finances. You share this one official with the whole state.

4How do you change it?

This is an elected statewide office with a four-year term, limited to two terms — every voter in California chooses it together, so your vote is one of millions. These offices are on the ballot in the same even-year cycle as the Governor. Registration, polling place, and mail ballots run through the Orange County Registrar of Voters (ocvote.gov).

☑This seat is expected on the ballot November 3, 2026 — that's the county's forecast, not yet the official notice of election.