Retirement Costs

• More than one million retired state workers draw an average yearly pension of $36,000 from the state pension fund, and almost 10,000 retirees take in more than $100,000 a year. Retirement payouts topped $3 billion in 2010. When the pension costs rise it is at the expense of other groups and programs.
  
  

Tax Revenue

• Personal income tax revenue declined by 44 percent between 2008 and 2009. The super-rich make much of their money in capital gains, which are returns on investments. Since the recession caused the stock market, housing market and commodities market to nosedive, wealthy people have lost billions of dollars. This has caused programs funded by state income taxes to suffer dire funding setbacks.
  
  

Debt

• California's debt nearly tripled to $78 billion between 2003 and 2010. Most of this debt must be paid out of the state's general fund, meaning the rising debt burden takes huge bites out of funding for other state programs.