I guarantee you that California would not have a budget problem but for illegal immigration. It is a problem caused by the US Supreme Court (when it decreed that illegals had to be served in schools and hospitals), by the Feds, allowing unfettered illegal immigration, and by the illegal alien lobby within California, which has taken over the legislature and which looks at illegals as the best path to Aztlan. They don't just fund the illegals, they actively seek more of them and lionize them.
The amount the budget is under water could be erased overnight if illegals were not here. Our streets would be safer and there would be more jobs with decent pay contributing to the tax base.
While I agree that a lot of California’s problems rest with the Federal govt, the fact that California has more than 12% of all the Representatives in Congress should have made Congressional “oversight” more stringent. That amount of political power available to California has been totally invisible.