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$177 million seems much too high for a replacement system. Of course 200K employees seems much too high for a state government as well.

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California is awful big and has a ton of people in it. I'm not entirely convinced that California considers itself a country but just hasn't told anyone yet. They do everything different here and even check you at the state borders.

177 million does seem like a lot though.

> and even check you at the state borders.

What are you talking about? I live in California, have been in and out a great number of times, and have never encountered anything of the sort. Besides, it would be unconstitutional.

When I first came to California I was driving west on I-80 and I was stopped at the Nevada border. But they just asked if I had any plants or animals in the car and when I said no they left me alone. Apparently they are very concerned about invasive species. Hawaii is similar.

At night, there are border patrol stops coming into CA from AZ and within the state heading north to Los Angeles from San Diego.

Considering the complexity of the system, it doesn't seem like that much. Remember that staff at the UCal systems (7 schools now?) are all state employees. A single college would probably be paying in the tens of millions for a new payment system created from scratch at market rates.

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