California has been effectively bankrupt since about 2008, but democrat politicians have effectively covered it up, but the problems began before 2008. What's weird, well not really because this is how the parties work, but when George Deukmejian was governor (R) he was able to balance the state budget from a poor budget from the previous Jerry Brown fiasco. He did some things that would make cyclist cringe but when you don't have money you don't spend what you don't have, so he was able to cut over 1 billion dollars out of the budget and part of that 5 million dollars for bike infrastructure.
But the next governor Pete Wilson (R) is my all time favorite governor of any state and I wish he would have ran for president. Anyways he put California on the recovery, this man was so good, he came into a state with a debt and left the state with 16 BILLION dollar SURPLUS! And that was AFTER paying for the damage caused by the Northridge earthquake!!
But then along came Gray Davis (D) who was able to spend that entire surplus and put Calif back into debt, and due to his new programs eventually put Calif into a budget crisis that ended up being a 34 billion dollar shortfall. My god, and this is the sort of **** that all democrats do and we all sit around with our heads buried in the sand and vote democrat, I don't understand this at all.
Then came Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who I thought would be good governor, boy was I ever wrong! This guy was only a republican by status but not by thought, he was as liberal as they came despite what some say that he moved toward the center...no, he moved to the far left. He was rated one of the top 10 worst governors in the history of the United States! Jackass.
Now you have good ol Jerry Brown (D) who put California into debt when he ran the first time as governor years ago, and now he's done the exact same thing and spent money like water they don't have.
I can't understand for the life of me that all people have to do is look at political parties track record of financial success as mayor, governor, senator, congressman, representative or president and vote for those that won't bring financial ruin to their cities, states, and country, but no for some reason people like watching their taxes and inflation go skyrocketing and their communities, states and federal government go bankrupt, it excites them to see themselves, city, state and country go into financial ruin so they vote democrat.
I'm so glad I left Calif, the only thing I miss about Calif, is my friends, family, and weather, but I don't miss the cost to live there.