Disaster looming in CA

California is now $41b in the hole and is having serious difficulties closing its budget deficit.  The problem is the ridiculous legislative system in CA whereby taxes can be cut by a simple majority of legislators, but a 2/3 supermajority is required to both raise taxes and to pass budgets.  This functions to create a "ratchet down" where it's much easier to repeatedly cut taxes than it is to raise them when necessary.  Add to this a system where as much as a third of the budget is untouchable because it has been set directly by voters through initiative and referendum.

Another serious problem is the term-limits in the state legislature.  It prevents members from having spent the time in Sacramento necessary to develop competence in the legislative process and (much more critically) the personal relationships with members on the other side of the aisle.  Add to that the gerrymandered districts that make the average CA legislator much more extreme (to the left and right) than the average CA voter, and this sets the stage for the sort of paralysis we're seeing now.