In the January 2019-20 State Budget Proposal, Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a K-12 education spending plan with an all-time high of $80.7 billion dollars. The budget proposal makes significant investments in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), special education, state preschool, and partial relief for pension liabilities. In addition, it includes a $10 million investment to plan and develop a state-of-the-art longitudinal data system that would link "student information from early education providers, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, employers, other workforce entities, and health and human services agencies" (Newsom, 2019, p. 41). The stated intent of the data system is to improve coordination across multiple, disparate data systems; improve collaboration between agencies; and collect relevant data on public education and its impact on workforce capacity. Based on lessons learned through the LCFF Test Kitchen, the authors offer four recommendations in this brief for making the most of the Governor's proposal: (1) Articulate the goals and desired outcomes of a single web-based reporting platform to align reporting structures; (2) Engage end users throughout the development process; (3) Foster competition to generate an innovative, single web-based reporting platform design; and (4) Create structures and supports to build trust between school districts and their communities. [Beginning in 2017, a project known as the LCFF Test Kitchen brought together a set of partners and three school district design teams to address the policy development and implementation process designed to foster innovation in local school districts as they implement LCFF. Azusa USD, Elk Grove USD, and Oceanside USD are the three local school district contributing partners to this project.]