A few comments:
1. It is shocking that, although CA is #1 in personal income, it is also #2 in the number of welfare recipients per capita. A lot of "anchor" babies are getting welfare, even if their parents "technically" are not. This is part of the reason why CA ranks #3 in public employees per capita. Another reason is the California Teachers' Association which fought Prop 187 because they saw an endless stream of jobs for themselves.
2. Although CA has the four dirtiest cities in terms of air quality, the air quality over the last 30 years has tremendously improved. This is largely as a result of Federal Standards for vehicles and stationary ("smokestack") emissions. There is a tremendous amount of money wasted on fads and gimmickery (I know: I was involved in some of the grant-writing there). Take a look at the SoCal Air Quality Management District's Headquarters and the grants awarded.
3. In a state like CA, it is unconcionable that spending on highways is #50 per capita. This was supposed to be corrected by a proposition which passed (Don't remember the number) which required that taxes generated at the fuel pump were to be reserved for transportation improvements. One would think that this would be the intended purpose anyway, but in CA those monies were not reserved for the roads but spent on non-transportation items. This proposition was to correct this, but I believe that the CA catastrophe has caused the legislature to delegate these monies for other purposes again.
4. Keep in mind that all of the states received windfall tobacco litigation money, which, I believe, precipitated the spending binge by the state. Just as lottery winners often mortgage their futures and then go bankrupt, these monies prompted the states to enact programs which were not viable long term. Those monies should have been spent on capital improvements (AND NOT BONDED), not permanent programs. Incidentally, most of that money is gone, gone, gone....