Meh, original comment about shitty services holds

http://www.texasobserver.org/how-the-budget-got-cut/

I don't see anything in that article that isn't sensible. There's no reason government expenditures have to keep going up in good times and bad.

Quite the contrary, when times are bad, social services are needed more, not less.

In broad strokes states have essentially two functions - education and social services. Of course when you make substantive cuts that's where they're going. There's no "right" amount of social services - as a state you pay for what's reasonable at the time given budgetary constraints.

It's no coincidence the Economy in Texas has recovered while the economy in California hasn't. This is particularly galling given the number of tech companies in Northern California with highly compensated employees.

In any event, California didn't slip into a budgetary black hole by coincidence. State employees are grossly overcompensated, and much of that compensation takes the form of generous retirement benefits. The state will be raising taxes and using budgetary gimmicks for decades because the real problem is unfunded pension liabilities, not delivery of current services.