For those of you too busy watching Idol to have this sink in, here’s the dirty dirty.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Note to Californians: Get ready for larger class sizes, fewer police patrolling the streets and more public offices shuttered on weekdays.

State officials are now scrambling to close a $21.3 billion fiscal shortfall, a gap that grew by $6 billion overnight after residents voted down five budget propositions Tuesday.

The state must make “severe cuts now,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. He and state legislative leaders will have to hammer out a budget deal before the fiscal year ends on June 30. The gap covers the rest of this fiscal year and the next.

“There will be around $5.3 billion in additional cuts in education, there will be severe cuts in health care, which is another area where you know we spend a lot of money, and then of course you have to go and look in other areas like prisons,” said the governor, who was in Washington, D.C., meeting with the Obama administration.

While most states are facing cash crunches as the economy weakens, California’s problems are larger than most. Only three months ago, state officials agreed on a budget deal that closed a $40 billion gap by cutting $15.8 billion in spending, temporarily raising the state sales tax by a penny, borrowing $5.4 billion and using nearly $8 billion in federal stimulus funds.

The state has also suffered mightily in the economic downturn. Its unemployment rate hit 11.2% in March, fourth highest in the nation, while its median home price dropped 54% over the past two years, according to the California Budget Project.

Meanwhile, revenues are running $2.1 billion below estimates, according to the state controller.

Now they are back at the table, facing another massive shortfall. And unless the budget problems are addressed, the nation’s most populous state won’t have enough money to pay many of its bills on time in the coming fiscal year, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office said earlier this month. The state controller already had to delay $3 billion in payments in February because of a lack of cash.

California’s options are more limited than most. Leaders are constrained by having the nation’s lowest state bond rating, which makes borrowing more expensive, and by a multitude of voter-approved propositions that dictate their spending.

“They are not flush with choices,” said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. Officials will look to education, health care and prisons because “they are about the only places you can find the money.”

The defeated proposals would have allowed the state to divert money earmarked for early childhood education and mental health programs into the general fund and to borrow funds from the state lottery. 

So… look, the good news is, Californians didn’t vote for this series of patchwork BS scotch-tape and gum fixes to the budget crisis.  That’s good.

The bad news is, now politicians have to go back in and find cuts, and cuts across the board.  Our sales tax is already at a ridiculous 9.25%, the roads already have the smooth consistency of Bill Murray’s face and many of our public schools are nothing more than glorified day care centers with metal detectors.

Ah well.

It really boils down to these ridiculous ballot initiatives that we get saddled with.  One study says that 90% of the state’s budget is set aside because of these propositions – things like schools, or transportation, or prisons. 

Need to cut 20 billion?  Great.  Do it out of the 10% you get to fiddle with.  

Then, of course, there’s the issue of term limits.  All this does is create a constantly rotating pack of amateur legislators, none of whom are rewarded in success, all of whom are hired by making bold promises that they’ll never be able to keep.

So you get clueless idealogues on both sides of the fence.  

As you can see, I’m not a big fan of citizen initiatives.  I like the idea that everybody votes for the person they want to represent them, and then that representative — REPRE-FRICKIN’-SENTS – the ideas of their district.  But you also trust that person to be smart enough to read the fine print on a bill and go “Ooo.  This is bad.  No.”

As opposed to the gut reaction of the population.  And make no mistake of it – the votes this time, were gut reactions.  ”No to everthing,” except punishing the legislators with no new pay raises until they can figure out the budget mess.  A budget mess, by the way, that the population is just as responsible for.

So glad we had a huge debate about Gay Marriage while this was coming down the pike.  Way to prioritize, California.

So, here it comes.  5,000 government jobs gone in a state with 11.2% unemployment.  Less cops on the street.  15 billion in bonds.  And 38,000 prisoners released – half considered low risk and put out on the street (with less cops on the street now), half illegal aliens that are going to be remanded to local immigration authorities (whatever that means).

Man, I love it here.  And I love what I do.  But I swear to God, if there was a way to do it anywhere BUT California, I’d have figured that out a long time ago.

The voters, and the government, have both made moves to set this state on fire.   Whatever it is – everything you know about what this state does for it’s people – is about to be turned to ashes.

What rises from that will either be awesome and work, or be nothing but dirt.

And all we can do is watch.