'); } -->
When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.
When California's political consultants share war stories, 1988's immensely expensive, multifront battle between insurance companies and lawyer-backed consumer groups takes center stage.
When the state assumed full financial responsibility for the court system a decade ago, it was billed as a way of relieving pressure on county finances.