California is far less liberal than you imagine. This is the state of Ronald Regan and B-1 Bob Dornan. Conservatives got to have it their way in California long

California is far less liberal than you imagine. This is the state of Ronald Regan and B-1 Bob Dornan. Conservatives got to have it their way in California long before, and they left their mark on the state. The single greatest accomplishment was Proposition-13. It caps property increases to a level that is lower than inflation, with the end result that property tax bases are more-or-less continually shrinking. This leads to all sorts of effects: * Local governments are poor. In particular, local governments can't afford to pay for their own schools, shifting education to the state level. * It increases NIMBYism because there is no downside to property value increase. * Municipalities strongly prefer high-end development. * Government revenues come primarily from sales tax and income tax. These sources are highly sensitive to economic disruptions, so when the economy tanks, the state becomes extremely poor. * It gives entrenched businesses and landlords some advantages over new ones, as their fixed expenses decline over time. To give you an idea of the scale that we're talking about: In the early 2000's the city of San Francisco had a shortfall of $100 million one year. If the Transamerica building's property taxes had increased along with its value, it would have been paying an additional $50 million in taxes that year. That's was half the city's shortfall. [As an aside, anyone who tells you that California has high taxes probably knows nothing about how property taxes work there.] Also, don't let me get started on the recall systems and the proposition systems. Learn from California. Direct democracy sucks.