Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said other states can learn from California's mistakes by making sure they have flexibility in their financial management systems and "avoid walling things off" so that cash reserves can be tapped during a downturn.

He also said states "need to get out of this culture of silos where everyone is trying to protect themselves and stand up and do what is right for the entire state in the long term, rather than everyone protecting their own slice of the pie."

California's panoply of problems may make its budget crisis stand out, but some experts say similar budget nightmares are likely to hit other states during the years ahead.

"When the budgetary choices become more politically painful, there's a danger that other states will descend into California-style gridlock," said Robert B. Ward, director of fiscal studies at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.