They recently (2 weeks ago) voted on an initiative to maintain the surcharge income tax on the uber rich...so that $ 4 billion (using today's revenue/spending forecast) is no longer valid. But yes...lots of uninformed don't know the dif. between annual deficits and long term debt. As far as long term debt per capita, this site paints a clearer pic on the comparison of each states long term debt. It's a year out of date, but CA at #8 and AK at #3.

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/where-does-your-state-stand-state-local-debt-capita