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As far as I know California has unfunded mandates far exceeding the tax windfall.

True, but those "unfunded mandates" are mostly related to public employee pension obligations. The unfunded portion can be excluded from the annual state budgets because because the CalPERS (govt ees) and CalSTRS (teachers) systems have been using wildly optimistic assumptions for their expected investment performance. This all harkens back to the early-mid 90's when the economy was booming and investment performance was strong. Some govt agencies started enriching their defined benefit pension plans to attract employees, and once a few agencies did that, most of the others followed so that they could remain competitive. Pension obligations grew like Topsy, to the point that employee contributions and investment performance could no longer support the actuarial obligations. Add in the optimistic investment projections. Combine that with increased lifespans. Add in in all the money that the state govt pisses away on problems of its own making (illegals, homeless, foolish energy policy, fraud, suing the federal govt, etc.), and the result is that the taxpayers are getting royally screwed. This state's government is beyond incompetent and inept. It is criminally negligent.