[divyekapoor]

Because debt-to-GDP doesn't make sense as a financial measure and most people don't understand it. CA economy is $3.4T, CA debt-to-GDP is 14.9%, the US Federal Debt to GDP is 133.9%, so the total debt to GDP on the revenue dollars in California is 148.8%.

If California were a country, it would rank 5th highest in the world in debt-to-GDP ratio right behind Japan, Venezuela, Sudan, Greece and Lebanon.

That said, debt-to-tax-revenue is a more useful financial measure. The total CA tax revenue (income, sales, corporate tax) is about $173B [1]. The debt-to-total-tax-revenue is 293%. Since we don't want to shut down Schools, Medicare, SNAP, Pensions & Unemployment, the debt-to-discretionary-expenses is even more dire at 704% limiting the ability of the state to make a dent in the debt payments without increasing taxes.

In effect, CA is neck deep in debt no matter how you look at it.

[1] https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4448