Extortion pays big.
Perhaps they could build some more water storage facilities.
They have to get the voters to approve that.
And they did, last Nov 2014, $7.5 billion in Prop 1.
Some of that money was for storage projects such as Sites Reservoir, Temperance Flat Dam and raising Shasta Dam.
Prop 1 actually began in 2009 when the lege worked up an $11 billion bond offering, but they didn't put it on the ballot in 2010 because there wasn't enough votes to pass it. In 2012 there still was not enough vote so it was not on the ballot.
So in 2014 the $11 billion was reduced to $7.5 billion, put on the ballot, and it passed.
In 2010, the drought was young, and the voters scoffed at these expensive water projects. But by 2014, the drought was worse, and these projects seemed more reasonable.