"Frustrated at California's woes, voters are sharply pessimistic about whether the next governor will be able to move the state in the right direction, and most believe California is in the midst of a long-term decline, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll shows. Against that grim backdrop, next year's political contests loom as potentially volatile, but Democrats start out holding the upper hand, the poll found. President Obama retains his popularity in a state that gave him a landslide victory one year ago, with 60% approving of his tenure as president. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican struggling in the last year of his term, won the support of only a third of voters." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

:( - Anna Lynn M.

A state brought down by rabid anti-tax fanatics and prop 13 - WarLord

A state that votes to spend $19 Billion dollars on half of a non-functioning high-speed railway prototype and can't come up with $11 Billion for education. - Glen Mistletoe

I don't get why Prop. 13 gets all the blame. It's not like our politicians don't tax us in a trillion other ways to make up for it. And I don't know about you but my property tax seems large to me. - Stephen Mack

Actually I'm thinking of the 2/3 super majority to raise taxes - madness, a roadmap to gridlock and yes failing to fund education and infrastructure guarantees best days are in rear view mirror - WarLord

I think our prop system has caused us failure. From the high speed railway mentioned by Glen, to stem cell research. In theory, yes these are great causes, but requiring them to be funded over basic services is a disaster. And on the flip side we have prop 13. I agree with Stephen in that it gets too much blame. However this sets us up for the problem we have. We required the state to pay for things we are not willing to fund. - Dario Gomez

Dario - I'm all over the map on this, Minnesota schools get most of their money from Property Tax with some state ie income tax money might be a bit of lotto but mostly Property Tax which here in inner city is regressive as hell plus underfunds district with big needs. I'd like to see more income tax less property tax but I also realize that I want lots of services and it all costs money tax dollres so I'm not living in a phony "prop 13" world where its Christmas every day, I know I live in a high tax high service state but I'm not ,moving any time soon - WarLord