Almost the entirety of Europe, together with big funders like the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, took a good stab at battling the cartels to get them to make articles Open Access, with Plan S: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S
Unfortunately, the impact seems to have been limited, primarily because the US didn't sign up to it.
So I'm afraid I don't see California being able to go on its own.
Elsevier are no doubt scum but I think that scientists share the blame. They all want to be published in the big famous journals. Which gives Elsevier the power to dictate terms.
Of course they want to get published in the big famous journals; the ones that don't lost their funding, and thus aren't scientists any more.
(Which is not to say that some aren't to blame; in particular, the ones on funding committees that still assign value to the journal/publisher names rather than the actual work produced by applicants.)
Unfortunately, the impact seems to have been limited, primarily because the US didn't sign up to it.
So I'm afraid I don't see California being able to go on its own.