The biggest "high tax" component of California's system is that capital gains gets taxed as if it were regular income. This was another California Republican i

The biggest "high tax" component of California's system is that capital gains gets taxed as if it were regular income. This was another California Republican idea, namely Reagan's, and I think he implemented it nationally when he was president too. This means that in boom cycles with lots of IPOs and acquisitions, the California state coffers are bulging with money, but in a broad economic downturn there are a few news cycles of "California has a $XYZ billion state budget deficit" before the new budget is set since that deficit is how the new budget is set (no news articles on the balancing, though). There's a big appetite for anti-California news and I have little patience for the assholes who gobble up that misinformation...