California schools now one of the worst in the country. Most public parks closing etc etc. collapsing infrastructure, roads filled with pot holes, bridges rusting and collapsing. not enough police - people running red lights like crazy.

a tax dodgers dream. Having visited many developing countries (where there is little gov regulation and low taxes) Its painfully obvious that the libertarian dream is a freakin nightmare. Moneyheads are under a narcissistic delusion that if they starve the poor people, the economy will remain healthy. instead it will turn the state into a mad max movie.

FYI Washington state is nice if you like rain 364 days out of the year.

It was not the right wing that sank California, it was both wings. The people of California had the opportunity to approve a tax increase that would have avoided this but they declined. Your colleague Mr. Leonard blamed this on what he thinks is a ridiculous requirement for passage - a 2/3rds majority. As is frequently the case, Mr. Leonard is wrong. My observation is that democracy isn't about right and wrong but rather about what we all agree to. 50.1% isn't we all. It's barely half. And the people who vote no are effectively disenfranchised so you need that number to be small. 1/3 of anything is still large but small compared to the other 2/3. So after the voters spoke, the legislature should have gotten down to paring social programs and fascistic programs (like cops and prisons) and they didn't. That's a bipartisan failure.

If Montana winters are so horrible, why do droves of wealthy Californians rush out here to build mansions and run hobby ranches?

Besides, you would only be foolish enough to describe Montana winters as horrible if you'd never spent the winter in northern North Dakota or Minnesota.

There are a lot of highly intelligent people in the world who would rather spend their winters skiing and playing in the snow than spend their whole year marinating in pollution fumes....

P.S.

The reason we get so much money back is so we can maintain the national parks that you out-of-staters are so fond of visiting, and maintain the vast stretches of interstate highway that you out-of-staters are so fond of breaking the speed limit on.

A constitutional convention. It is the only way we can get rid of 13 without a 2/3rds majority. And it is the only way to reshape the entire initiative process.

A classic example is the 1994 "three strikes" initiative, which mandated harsh prison sentences for repeat offenders. The bill was cathartic for citizens who wanted to get tough on crime, but it had serious budgetary consequences. As a result of the initiative and other tough crime laws, California's prison population has increased 82 percent over the last 20 years. State institutions now house a mind-boggling 170,000 prisoners. Corrections costs California $13 billion a year -- a fivefold increase since 1994, and more than the state spends on higher education. Former Gov. Gray Davis gave the powerful prison guards union a 30 percent pay raise from 2003 to 2008.

Right after Arnold took power, he announced a plan to reduce prison costs through a variety of means -- releasing nonviolent offenders, focusing more on treatment and rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration.

What happened to that plan?

It was ripped to shreds in a carefully calculated assault by Susan Kennedy and other former Gray Davis lackeys, who banded together with Republicans in the state legislature to play the politics of fear and kill the whole idea.

Because our prison system is so overcrowded, it's become racially segregated and partially administered by gangs by necessity.

Racialism isn't just a philosophy in there -- it's a survival strategy.

The unintended costs of the "throw them all in prison" strategy for ensuring public safety now include the spread of racialist ideology outside of prison into gang territory, as seen in recent shocking ethnic cleansing incidents in certain gang neighborhoods.

This is not sustainable.

THE SHORT ANSWER IS LEFT WING SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS HAVE BANKRUPTED THE STATE. YOU CAN LIE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT - BUT THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE. THIS GUY CONVENIENTLY LEFT OUT OVERPAID GOVERNMENT UNIONS AND THEIR TAXPAYER PENSIONS, MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOW COLLECTING BENEFITS, AND FRAUDULENT,OUT OF CONTROL, SOCIAL PROGRAM. WHERE IS THIS WRITER FROM - BOSTON?

Democrat puppets for the Public Employee Unions, have driven California off a cliff. Why we even have Public Employee Unions for government workers is forever a mystery to me. What we do know is that these unions have been phenomenally successful in bribing and intimidating Politicans like Steinberg. Their pensions that, we the taxpayers, are on the hook for are unsustainable. Governor Davis (and Steinberg) upped the pensions to the overpaid gov workers now make 90% instead of the outrageous 60% they were making. Anybody replacing your 401K money! I didn’t think so. Let us not forget the millions of now unemployed illegals that California loves to support. Illegals have destroyed the schools, filled up the prisons, and made most neighborhoods unsafe. But please, ask us for more tax money to support this broken system. THERE ISN’T ENOUGH MONEY IN THE WORLD TO CONTINUE THIS! BUSINESS ARE LEAVING AND TAKING THE TAX BASE WITH THEM!!

California has more rigged districts resulting in more disenfranchised voters than any other state. That is how these extreme left wing nut jobs stay in power.

We are Bankrupted!! HOW COULD WE BE ANYTHING ELSE!!!

AS CALI GOES, SO GOES THE AMERICA! GOING OVER A CLIFF IS FUN! THE REST OF YOU ON THE OBAMA EXPRESS WILL SOON GET TO EXPERIENCE IT!!

California has among the highest overall tax rate in the nation, yet it is broke and billions in debt. Why?

It's not libertarians or conservatives. Democrats and liberals control the state legislature and have for decades, and they went on a spending spree for all their favorite causes, most particularly public-employee unions.

Teachers and others will lose their jobs while retired government workers will not lose their overly generous pensions and benefits. The state also insists on paying for benefits to illegal immigarants, who are overwhelming the state.

There's only one party responsible for California's mess: the Democrats.

In the meantime, California, once the Golden State, has a net loss of population and jobs and a net increase in people who work off the books or pay no taxes.