California Failing

It is getting worse in California.  The latest news is that:

State revenue has already fallen more than $1 billion short of assumptions in the budget lawmakers passed less than three months ago, according to a new report from the state controller.

What is a billion anymore, right?  Well, if only it were not on top of a few other billions:

Even before the bad fiscal news, policymakers were bracing for a big budget deficit next year. The Department of Finance anticipates a $7.4-billion deficit in 2010-11. That’s a conservative estimate, because lawsuits have tied up or reversed some planned budget cuts.

The state is in so much of a mess that all the way from Britain, the Guardian asks "Will California become America's first failed state?"

There is a growing movement to call for a constitutional convention that could redraw the way the state is governed. It could change how the state passes budgets and make the political system more open, recreating the lost middle ground. Recently, the powerful mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, signed on to the idea. Gerrymandering, too, is set to take a hit. Next year Schwarzenegger will take steps to redraw some districts to make them more competitive, breaking the stranglehold of party politics. He wants district boundaries to be drawn up by impartial judges, not politicians. In previous times that would have been the equivalent of a turkey voting for Christmas. But now the bold move is seen for what it is: a necessary step to change things. And there is no denying that innovation is something that California does well.

Of course, it would be foolish to write-off California.  But, they better clean up the political mess fast if they want to maintain that California mystique.  And I want them to--some day I hope to return to Southern California .... for good.  After all, that is the place whereI was partly raised.