It's worth noting that CA is basically getting ripped off, as we receive only 0.79 for every $1 we pay in federal taxes. See: http://www.taxfoundation.org/User

It's worth noting that CA is basically getting ripped off, as we receive only 0.79 for every $1 we pay in federal taxes. See: http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Blog/ftsbs-large.jpg http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Blog/ftsbs-larg... Also, there are a variety of problems at work here, in no order: 1 - property taxes are basically frozen as long as you own your home, eviscerating the most stable form of local tax revenue for cities and counties (and not to mention screwing any newcomers); 2 - government via direct balloting initiatives, freezing spending on various popular causes which cannot be changed via the legislature unless the ballot initiative specifically allows this (and none, to my knowledge, do). Note this essentially freezes certain spending, which means that when cuts come, other areas have to bear far more than their proportionate burden; 3 - the same law that created situation #1 also requires 2/3 vote to raise taxes; 4 - enough republicans in the senate from conservative areas of CA to basically veto all tax increases; 5 - long term mismanagement of the states finances, increasingly relying on borrowing to pay the bills, which is now starting to come due; 6 - term limits, which both inhibit professionalization of the legislature while simultaneously insuring that legislaters aren't around to be confronted with the consequences of their laws; 7 - horrific effects of the financial crisis, particularly the housing bubble, as the cost of even the most modest homes rose far above the median incomes (see commuter cities where 15+% of houses have been in foreclosure!); 8 - a populace which seems unwilling to bring the costs of desired government services in line with our net tax proceeds, though the fact that the politicians hasn't been blunt about delivering this message has massively compounded this problem; 9 - as mentioned, CA is getting utterly screwed on federal taxes; 10 - it's also worth noting that CA also has a very powerful prison industrial complex that is seemingly immune to reform, and we bear huge costs related to the US' retarded drug policy which goes out of it's way to line the pockets of both the police and prison guards while not actually, say, reducing the costs to society in any way, along with the moral burden of ruining so many peoples' lives; 11 - Arnold Schwarzenegger -- the man is a venal moron, directly responsible (via the cuts to the car taxes), for simultaneously cutting tax income while increasing spending; 12 - effects of the financial crisis, which have dramatically raised borrowing costs for the state. Note this is even after the effects of borrowing to pay bills; the state borrows to pay bills in the normal course of operations until tax revenues come in towards the end of the year; this suddenly costs a lot more. 13 - etc, etc; i'm sure there are more, but I think these are the primary drivers