That’s according to a new study by the U.S. Census Bureau, “State Government Finances Summary: 2013. Economy-Wide Statistics Briefs: Public Sector.”

According to the summary by Dan Walters, “California contains 12.2 percent of the nation’s population but its state government accounted for 13.8 percent of all state spending in the 2012-13 fiscal year.”

Of course, California is an extremely expensive state. So the higher spending might be justified to pay for higher salaries for government workers.

Except a previous Census Bureau study found California has the nation’s highest poverty rate. So one reason non-government workers are so poor is their salaries are drained to support an above-average size of state and local government.