They learned a very important lesson in Sacramento back then. The politicians learned that they can do whatever they want and spend as much as they want because the people will not punish them for their betrayal. It's the same two parties that get elected continuously, even in times when the state is financially destroyed.

Frankly, given how people vote, there is no reason for them to change their ways. They get a nice salary, personal power, a ridiculous number of perks and the ability to help out their contributors no matter what they do to the state. If one party hurts the state, they might be voted out for a couple of years replaced by the other party, but even this isn't very common. An election or two later the parties trade places again having suffered no lasting damage. By that time, the people who hurt us have already made their powerful friends and collected their money and are laughing their way to the bank.

The way to change this is to throw them all out of office when they mess up. 95% of the state legislature should be unemployed after the next election. The next group should consist of virtually anyone who is not part of the big two parties. At this point I don't care if we end up with a motley mix of libertarians, independents, greenies, socialists and whatever, as long as we don't reward the jerks who put us in this position. Heck, we'd be better off if we ran the next few elections by random lottery. If bankrupting the state meant that your party was destroyed for a decade, politicians would behave more responsibly.

Too bad we can't make them pool all of their wealth into the state budget when they are sworn in. When they finish their term, they can have the same return on their investment that the tax payers get. If taxes and the deficit went up, when they leave office they are bankrupt and in dept to the state. If taxes and deficit went down and/or we end up with a budget surplus, they leave office wealthy.

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