I find it interesting how people are so keen on making it look like wanting to leave is a specifically conservative hangup, given that polls find that roughly half of Californians are pondering leaving. Guess California is just a really conservative state.
I have already been forced to leave the city I was raised in due to exorbitant housing costs, but I stayed in the Greater Bay Area. It's almost like people have things like friends and careers that don't make it feasible to pick up and go whenever they aren't happy with where they are.
California is scheduled to LOSE a Congressional district after the 2020 Census. This is quite a remarkable thing for a state that has had the most remarkable growth in my lifetime. (Only Texas and Florida rival it.)
California gained:
***9 Congressional seats after the 1930 Census
***3 Congressional seats after the 1940 Census
***7 Congressional seats after the 1950 Census
***8 Congressional seats after the 1960 Census
***5 Congressional seats after the 1970 Census
***2 Congressional seats after the 1980 Census
***7 Congressional seats after the 1990 Census
***1 Congressional seat after the 2000 Census
***0 Congressional seats after the 2010 Census
California’s State and Local Liabilities Total $1.5 TrillionOur findings may appear to contradict reports that suggest a state budget surplus of about $9 billion. But the state’s spare cash and rainy day funds pale before the mountain of long-term liabilities that California governments at all levels have accumulated. Moreover, if the stock market drops, personal income tax and capital gains tax revenue will decline precipitously, wiping out these surpluses.
Our analysis differs from government reporting in a few ways, the most significant of which is governments’ use of a very generous expected rate of return on their pension fund investments. Using a more accurate rate, we calculate the total of unfunded pensions in California at $846 billion – $530 billion more than the official estimate of $316 billion. But even using only the officially reported estimates, California’s state and local governments are about $1.0 trillion in debt.
dead00man brings up an interesting point. The local liabilities faced by local governments are immense. Local governments are not sovereign; they are creations of state government, and these liabilities are liabilities that impact all of the people of California, whether they like it or not.
California's governace has long been complicated by its governing by "Propositions". Recalling public officials. Proposition 13 style limitations on taxation and spending. I, personally, despise provisions that allow voters to approve Constitutional amendments, recall officials, cap tax rates, etc. These measures end up causing chaos and binding states in ways they ought not be bound. (They are also abused by monied interests.) But the end result is that these features, as well as other factors, have contributed to California's decline. And it is, indeed, a decline if you view people voting with their feet and not having children.
