Gov. Arnold is more liberal socially and fiscally than most Midwestern democrats. California is so blue-state that its republicans wouldn't pass as republicans in most other states.
It's actually the far-right Republicans who are part (but not all) of the problem with regards to the budget issues. They are mainly unwilling to compromise, any sort of tax increase is anathema, even the idea of bringing tax rates back to to late-1990s levels.
Tax revenues are now above those levels (after adjusting for inflation and population growth).
I mention revenues because you spend revenues, not rates.
Do you really want to argue that CA isn't spending enough money?
Got a source for that?
> Do you really want to argue that CA isn't spending enough money?
No, where was I saying that? CA has a problem where it's spending money it doesn't have, not that it isn't spending enough. There's certainly plenty of spending cuts that could happen too, but the Republicans and Democrats can't seem to agree on much of that either.