My two cents having lived in CA for 12 years now: it boils down to the general perception that we residents pay a lot of money to the state to live here with not a whole lot to actually show for it. Our infrastructure sucks, our public primary schools mostly suck, homelessness is out of control, wildfires, water shortages, and power brown-outs seem to hit every year, etc. etc. And on top of that, our tax dollars seem more often than not to go to projects that are blatant rip-offs to the public (see: the "high speed" rail project through the central valley). Also from personal experience, California is about the worst state in the country I can think of to start a non-tech small business for multiple financial and labor reasons.

Now, the reality is that California's monetary situation is complex and not entirely the fault of the legislature. Prop 13, voted in by the residents themselves 40 years ago, is a giant sandbag on the state's finances. California's wealth inequality is also frankly ridiculous [1] and causes a lot of problems. The vast majority of the state's residents are not wealthy and thus need a lot of support services from the state, so if you're a wealthy tech worker it seems like your money is disappearing, but a lot of it is going to support families who make less than a third of your salary. The state also runs some excellent colleges and a bunch of fantastic national parks, beaches, reserves, etc. that cost a lot of money.

The net result is that if you're a high income earner, libertarian-leaning, or generally entrepreneurial, your perception can easily be that the state is a wealth-sucking behemoth funneling your exorbitant tax dollars into homeless shelters and welfare programs while your friends in Texas live in shiny new houses on acre lots with swimming pools, tennis clubs, and places that let you actually shoot guns while paying no income tax. As always, though, the full picture is more nuanced.

[1] https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/412928-middle-class-is-d...