The amount of is greater than the amount by which the state was below the Constitutional spending limit, so, no, it could not easily have done so; it maybe could have called it emergency spending to avoid the limit — which takes a supermajority vote and some other things (since the state had the choice of not spending it and allowing the Feds to collect it directly, it probably could not have used the federally-mandated spending exception.)
> The issue is in the end, the $18.5 billion will all be paid off. It's still an extra $18.5 billion being paid that would not have been paid otherwise, if CA had been more responsible.
Sure, if the state had had the foresight to prepare its systems for a once-in-ever event in advance, the costs that ended up needing paid back might not have been incurred.
I will respect this criticism somewhat if you can point me to the people making it advocating the necessary changes in advance of the need, otherwise...