Dan Walters

We may assume that voters make their choices after carefully studying candidates and their positions on issues. That assumption lies at the heart of earnest efforts in news media and elsewhere to provide voters with as much objective information as possible. However, we also know that voters often make snap judgments based on ideological predispositions […]

California’s perennial debate over taxation is showing up in ballot measures placed before voters.

The death of recent housing legislation crystallized a conflict that’s been simmering in California for decades.

Gov. Jerry Brown regularly warns that California is overdue for an economic downturn that could devastate tax revenues. Even a moderate recession, his administration projects, could cost the state $60 billion in lower revenues over three years, underscoring the need to build a hefty reserve as a cushion. Brown’s “rainy day fund” tops out at […]

The California Legislature, as noted in this space previously, has a shameful history of exempting itself from the countless laws it imposes on everyone else. Last week, the Assembly’s Public Employment, Retirement and Social Security Committee had a golden opportunity to close one of the Capitol’s many hypocritical loopholes. But, true to historic form, its […]

California is a deep blue state and one manifestation of its left-leaning politics is a very high level of taxation, particularly levies on personal income. The state has the nation’s highest income tax rates, topping out at 13.3 percent of taxable income, and depends on those taxes for 70 percent of its general fund budget. […]

California’s public employee pension systems have immense gaps – called “unfunded liabilities” – between what they have in assets and what they will need to meet their obligations to retirees. The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest pension trust fund, and other state and local systems are desperately trying to close those […]

Decades ago, a clever person – precisely who is somewhat obscure – quipped that the California lieutenant governor’s job is to wake up in the morning, check the newspapers to be sure the governor is still alive and then find a service club to address for a free lunch. That’s not exactly accurate, but it […]

The Capitol’s struggles over big issues such as housing and water get a lot of public and media attention, but the building’s bread-and-butter, so to speak, are hundreds of bills that would benefit some interest group, often to the disadvantage of a rival group. That’s especially true of the legislative agendas of four such factions […]

Will the second time be the charm for Bakersfield Congressman Kevin McCarthy? The three years ago, McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed due to opposition from a conservative House bloc, calling itself the Freedom Caucus, that saw him as too centrist. McCarthy continued in the No. 2 leadership position […]