"paragon of small government" You must be thinking of a different Texas than I live in. :P Even if the $25B deficit pans out in the end, and aside from the ot

"paragon of small government" You must be thinking of a different Texas than I live in. :P Even if the $25B deficit pans out in the end, and aside from the other differences between the states (including the counter-intuitive one that Texas has been less hard-hit during this downturn), you still end up with a situation where states face major budgetary crises at every downturn because revenue only balances spending near the height of economic booms. That's a budgetary policy problem even when it's not unique to California. And for California, it's turning out rather badly.