The Biggest Reason Why California Is Bankrupt

We have a rule, usually observed in the breach,* that we don't link to the same source twice in one day.
A reader had sent this piece in last week and I meant to post it on Friday.
From The Atlantic:

The Sacramento Bee unearths a stunning fact about the growth in spending on state workers.

After crunching some census data, Dan Walters of The Sacramento Bee reports a remarkable figure. In the decade that ended in 2011, California's state government employed roughly 9.3 percent more people, a number that roughly tracks the increase in population seen in the Golden State.

You'd think that payroll costs would've increased by roughly the same amount.

Nope.

Says the newspaper: 

California's state government had 9.3 percent more employees in 2011 than it did 10 years earlier - closely tracking overall population growth - but its payroll costs had jumped by 42.4 percent, according to a new Census Bureau report.

Needless to say, California residents are not earning 42.4 percent more than they were just prior to 9/11....MORE

*The actual Hamlet quote is:

...And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honor'd in the breach than the observance

Which is not at all the same thing as 'honor'd"