Enough already... the enemy in CA is the not conservative sick of paying half their income in various taxes. The enemy is liberal CA policies that every conservative Californian despises... especially open border policies that the entire nation pays for... we DO NOT support the liberal majority in Sacramento. Having said that, incomes are high because cost-of-living is high. A conservative Silicon Valley engineer making $200k annually and benefitting from sizable SALT and mortgage interest deductions likely has a significantly lower standard of living than a similar engineer in Austin making considerably less. Yet, the Californian pays more in federal taxes due to higher taxable income even after the deductions. Not slighting the TX engineer, but things are not as simple as you assert. Is conservatives in CA are fighting an uphill battle for policies that lower the cost of living, but without victories at the ballot box, we are stuck with what we perceive as paying more than our fair share as long as we are in this screwed up state. I know, no one is forcing us to be here, but the perception in much of the country that haughty Californians are living high on the hog while shirking our fair share of taxes is simply untrue.