Of course, you cannot cut a program completely, or limit the largess to those with citizenship status, or other such thing.
Socialism on a statewide scale designed to socially engineer our choices, does not work. I offer for proof the State of California as “Exhibit A.”
The pension situation...which grows daily...is really their number one problem. When you pay some guy $150k a year as a senior fireman for some town or district...his pension ends up being close to $100k. Frankly, once you start to multiply this one guy by 100,000...then your entire pension fund starts to become an anchor.
I was reading a retirement and hire episode from a university in California from last year. This gal was the chief of security for the university...making around $180k a year...and retired...to collect around $130k off the pension. They hired a temp chief...for twelve months, then rehired the old retired chief (she kept getting paid the $130k pension), and then got her old pension of $180k back. The budget department figured out the entire game (which the Director signed off on)...and it was totally legal. They were paying her almost $310k a year.