[central_va]

If California was a stand-alone country without an inflow is US tax dollars, picking up that expense alone would sink their economy.

Your logic is faulty. The federal taxes and payroll taxes that Californians used to be paid to DC would now funnel to Sacramento. Not much change for the Californian taxpayer.

[Oldexpat]

Tech and real estate keep CA in a bubble. Remember that both of those collapsed in the past. They still are billions short of funding their govt pension funds.