President Gerald Ford turned the city down for a bailout as a poor risk which generated the infamous Daily News headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead." Governor Hugh Carey, who lost confidence in Beame, stepped in with emergency controls that stripped the mayor of traditional power over fiscal matters and left the city under the Municipal Assistance Corporation. The state and federal governments then came through with financial support to save the city from bankruptcy.
The Lockheed bailout was a bad precedent, IMO, even though it cost the taxpayers nothing in the end.
Well there you go, I'm from NY and couldn't remember if it was the federal or state government.
The precedent in the private sector though has been set for granting loans and that's what you may see in California at first, but if they default what's the government going to do about it? Uncle Sam will never let California burn in flames, they'll rescue it in the end, Constitution or not.