Lean's not as odd as it might seem. California is still very much a gold rush state that's addicted to the boom-bust cycle. For newbies I like to recommend Pe

Lean's not as odd as it might seem. California is still very much a gold rush state that's addicted to the boom-bust cycle. For newbies I like to recommend Peter Schrag's book Paradise Lost. In it he analyzes California's problems through the lens of Prop 13 and the big cultural shift California saw in the late 70s. In broad strokes there are a bunch of things to weigh: - California's got an incredibly powerful initiative process (e.g. Prop 13, both Prop 8s) - Prop 13 capped one of the main sources of tax income (property tax) and made it significantly more difficult to raise taxes at both the state and local level by requiring a 2/3 majority. - California is no stranger to issuing debt (and unlike Texas we're not antagonizing the banks that underwite the bonds), and I believe bonds only require a simple majority at the ballot box. Look at Washington state if you want to see absolute fucking lunacy with bonds. - California is not immune to recession - To avoid raising taxes initiatives often promise things for free by carving things out of the general fund - As a strong proponent of public schools: California public schools are an absolute cluster fuck worthy of a few epics. Prop 98 forbids reducing the funding for K-12 schools even as revenue declines. So spending 25% of your budget on K-12 schools doesn't seem bad, but if revenue falls that dollar amount is not allowed to shrink. The two university systems are unfathomably top heavy – to everyone's detriment. Even if you could get 2/3 of all California voters to agree to raise taxes, it's going to be earmarked for something. And that's how you get death by a thousand cuts. Use fees, special tax districts (and all of their associated overhead), etc. It's how you get random taxes to pay for unrelated things. For instance, Schwarzenegger cut the vehicle registration fee (sounds reasonable, right?). To make up for that he doubled tuition at community colleges (note: at that point California public unis/colleges weren't allowed to charge tuition so it was simply called a "fee").