There may finally be an answer as to why Californians want more government services, but not higher taxes.

And it’s a bummer: they don’t understand how government works.

The new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that many citizens need a crash course in California Civics 101, and may not understand the implications of some of the biggest measures they’re asked to vote on at each election.

Most notable are the PPIC’s findings that while 67% of respondents favor Governor Schwarzenegger’s call for a new round of infrastructure bonds (another $43.3 billion to be exact), a full 64% of those surveyed admit they know little or nothing about how bonds work. That certainly seems troubling, given the amount of bond debt currently on the books; payments on past borrowing now account for as many taxpayer dollars as those spent on the entire University of California system.

Meantime, 51% of all respondents chose either social services or prisons when asked to name where the largest chunk of state spending goes. Neither answer is right; it’s actually K-12 education (30% chose this answer). Similarly, slightly less than a third of those surveyed knew that most state revenues come from personal income taxes.

None of these findings, alone, is cataclysmic. But taken together, the poll results show some real holes in the knowledge of voters about how things work. And that’s troubling in a state where so many big policy issues are decided at the ballot box, says pollster Mark Baldassare. You can hear our conversation about those findings here.