After five days of round-the-clock wrangling, the California Legislature finally agreed on a budget plan to close a huge $40 billion deficit. While the plunging economy has been cited as the cause of the bitter standoff, the state is famous for its perennial eleventh-hour budget dramas and crises.

Why is California, the world’s eighth largest economy and a national engine of growth and revenue, so often in the throes of fiscal disaster, even in flush times? A variety of experts weighs in …

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