Would any of the variables in the article have anything to do with the massive ills of illegal immigration which would contribute significantly to poverty rates, educational woes, lack of jobs, legal issues and lack of health care coverage?

It's interesting how the author overlooks some very real data.

40% of all workers in L. A. County alone( L. A. County has 10.2 million people)are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card. The 80+ hospitals which have been forced to close across the state have done so as a direct result of unpaid bills by illegal immigrants.

The long-term problems and economic ills created by illegal immigration are intertwined and insurmountable. California has taken the brunt and should be considered for assistance from the bail-out process as they've essentially run interference for the rest of the country simply because of their location.

The immigration disaster is metastasizing. How long will it be until the other US/Mexico border states will be in the same shape?

There are large numbers of well to do Californians who are now declaring residency in other states to avoid paying ANY California income taxes. I have first hand knowledge of long term residents living out of state for 6 months and a day and living in CA the rest of the year. We lose 100% of the revenue! Is that insane or what?

I have no doubt that a large number of well to do Californians have been doing that right along, before any budget crisis. The ones who have only recently decided to do it are either the newly well off, or the ones who have been galvanized by the highlighting of California's budget deficit crisis.

Note: no one who has the option to do this is "being taxed to death." They may arguably be over-taxed. But no one with that option has the slightest idea of what crushing financial pain actually looks like.

I don't know what to do, except to let them go. Go on, leave. The rest of us will cope with it- perhaps even by assenting to huge tax increases. I speak as a low-income person who knows full well that I could hack another !% sales tax increase, as long as there was an ironclad agreement to roll it back after 2-4 years.

This is California. Just like you shouldn't live on Boardwalk or Park Place and expect to be charged the same rate as for living on Mediterranean Avenue, you shouldn't expect to pay the same tax rate for living in California that you do in Mississippi.

And if Mississippi ever wants to give itself a world-class university system, a top-notch library system, a large public park system, and strong environmental protections for its rivers, ponds, and beaches, and perhaps even the wherewithal to help revive the beleaguered Gulf Of Mexico, I don't expect it to do those things without substantial tax increases- and abundant Federal aid for the beaches and the Gulf, which also entails the use of revenue from...somewhere. Or do you think Big Petro Ag (which pretty much runs that state without any counterbalance, which is also the case for many of the other so-called "Red States") is going to volunteer to do that?

States like Utah, Arizona, and Nevada have it easier: the vast majority of their territory is uninhabitable desert. They don't require the sort of infrastructure upkeep challenges that California faces. The Feds pay for most of the upkeep of the highways. Nevada doesn't require an extensive police and public services presence in the territory between Winnemucca and Reno, for instance. And vice taxes pay for the state services of Nevada. Things sort of take care of themselves in that regard. I notice that Utah recently legalized hard liquor sales, incidentally.

Go on, think of all the reasons why you hate this place. Then leave.

"Prop 13 was a disaster from day one because it was poorly written by "citizen legislators" who only looked at the short term results, i.e., cutting property taxes. This piece of crap legislation is the perfect example of why the Founding Fathers of our country worked so hard to keep the running of government out of the hands of the great unwashed rabble."

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Prop 13 would've been supported by the founding fathers because it prevents government from taking too much and being too big.

Government does NOT have the right to take more and more simply because your property went up in value. They weren't there to help you purchase/upkeep/take the risk of investment, they shouldn't automatically get paid more simply because value has changed.

Prop 13 is GREAT. IT is NOT the reason the state is in trouble...I'll prove it. There were many years were we were in the black, an excellent run state WITH prop 13! It's just a scapegoat for a retarded Democratic government who cannot say "no" (not even to fraud) and does not want to cut back.

And why the hell do they CLOSE the parks, instead of just shutting down the services? You don't CLOSE roads even as you're cutting the pothole repair budget. It's just a scam to provoke people to call for more taxes.

They can't afford to do that. Those places re tailor-made to be taken over by vagrants, including a criminal class of transients. The state can't afford to let the parks turn into a public safety problem.

Note- that transient criminal class includes a large population of immigrants- but not primarily from foreign countries; from other states in the Union.

California can do nothing about this. They cannot bar the doors to immigrants from other states. And the state can't help it if, over much of its territory, it's possible for a person to sleep out of doors and and wake up in dry clothes, without suffering sunstroke, frostbite, or exposure, through nearly every month of the year. That isn't a function of "California liberalism."

As I pointed out in a previous comment, the illegal immigration problem cannot be solved by any of the states. It's a problem for the Federal government to solve.

That said, you've brought up some very serious consequences from the problem.