Adjusted for population growth (including illegals!) and inflation, and using 1998 as our base year, California’s budget “should” be about $115 billion. Instead it’s about $145 billion.
That sure looks like a spending problem, not a revenue problem, to me. Furthermore, I believe CA’s revenue is slated to be about $110-$120 billion this year – even in these “troubling times.” Again, this looks like a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
I don’t recall Californians “suffering” from a draconian budget back in the late-90s. Somehow, they managed…