Dan Walters

Commentary

Stalemate weakens fund for jobless benefits

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 […]

By

Dan Walters

• April 26, 2018

Commentary

Legislature’s hypocrisy prevails as bill dies

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 […]

By

Dan Walters

• April 25, 2018

Commentary

Will $12 billion tax bite drive rich from California?

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. […]

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Dan Walters

• April 23, 2018

Commentary

The dimensions of California’s pension crisis

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 […]

By

Dan Walters

• April 22, 2018

Candidates for lieutenant governor debate before the Sacramento Press Club. Photo by Judy Lin for CALmatters

Commentary

11 aspire to a powerless political office

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 […]

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Dan Walters

• April 19, 2018

Commentary

‘Job killer’ list frames annual battle

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 […]

By

Dan Walters

• April 18, 2018

Commentary

Will Kevin McCarthy finally grab the brass ring?

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 […]

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Dan Walters

• April 16, 2018

Commentary

The victims of transcontinental gamesmanship

The long-distance spitting match between President Donald Trump’s Republican administration in Washington and California’s Democratic politicians in Sacramento over just about everything is either high drama or low comedy. The two sides are clearly looking for opportunities to do battle in the media and in the courts, often over the most innocuous ministerial issues. Each […]

By

Dan Walters

• April 15, 2018

Commentary

California again ranks low in academic testing

There was a bit of good news for California in the federal government’s latest round of academic test results: it’s one of seven states that registered four-point gains in reading comprehension among eighth-graders. But that positive morsel in the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing of fourth- and eighth-graders released this week was […]

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Dan Walters

• April 12, 2018

Commentary

Bullet train colliding with reality

Reality may finally be catching up with the vision – or pipedream – of a 200-mile-per-hour train connecting California’s northern and southern regions. A few weeks ago, the High-Speed Rail Authority released its latest “business plan” that was supposed to tell Californians how the brief stretch of track now being constructed in the San Joaquin […]

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Dan Walters

• April 11, 2018