Dan Walters

Commentary

Commentary: Should Legislature’s employees be unionized?

Four-plus decades ago, the Legislature and Jerry Brown, then in the first stages of his two-part governorship, decreed that public employees had the right to join unions and bargain for salaries and other working conditions. The argument for extending collective bargaining rights to state and local government workers, including teachers, was that they should have […]

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Dan Walters

• January 22, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: The yin and yang of California’s school crisis

California’s education dilemma can be stated rather simply, to wit: The state has 6 million kids in its K-12 public school system, 60 percent of them are classified as either poor or English-learners and as a group they trail badly in educational accomplishment. The state’s political leaders and education officials acknowledge what they call the […]

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Dan Walters

• January 21, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Brown relents a little on school accountability

For years, Gov. Jerry Brown has preached a secular version of a religious principle called “subsidiarity,” asserting that local officials should have flexibility to act without micromanagement from Sacramento. In practice, he’s not always adhered to the principle, but has been particularly stubborn about applying it to the state’s six-million-student public education system, rejecting demands […]

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Dan Walters

• January 18, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Brown’s worries about killing California’s golden geese

To intertwine cliches, Gov. Jerry Brown let the cat out of the bag last week and acknowledged that he’s concerned about killing the golden geese. Those geese are the few thousand Californians with the highest incomes whose taxes allow Brown and other California politicians to spend tens of billions of dollars a year and the […]

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Dan Walters

• January 17, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Setting the record straight on two politicians

Notwithstanding the maxim about not speaking ill of the dead, sometimes it’s necessary, as historians often do, to complete the record and teach a lesson about human behavior. That brings us to two major figures in the California Legislature three decades ago, both since deceased, John Vasconcellos and Lou Papan. Both were Democratic legislators from […]

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Dan Walters

• January 15, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Forensic report confirms Oroville Dam lapses

The verdict is in and California stands convicted of gross negligence in the construction and maintenance of the nation’s highest dam, Oroville. The dam on the Feather River came very close to failing last year, forcing the evacuation of a quarter-million people living downstream. Heavy outflows revealed structural flaws in the dam’s concrete spillway and […]

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Dan Walters

• January 14, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Brown’s final budget reflects cautious approach

Roy Bell, who was Jerry Brown’s first budget director 43 years ago, called it a “dog-and-pony show” and it’s one of the Capitol’s longest-running rituals. Each January, usually on the 10th, journalists who cover the Capitol file into a first-floor room dedicated to news conferences and settle into fiberglass swivel chairs that would command high […]

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Dan Walters

• January 11, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: In-and-out moves make Dem vs. Dem contests more likely

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and former Republican Congressman Doug Ose are polar opposites politically, but have jointly altered dynamics of this year’s California elections. Late last week, Ose, who represented a suburban Sacramento district for several terms, declared that he will run for governor. “Simply put, I’m running to rebuild the California dream.” Ose told […]

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Dan Walters

• January 10, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Senator’s creative tax plan faces many pitfalls

State legislators are floating some creative schemes to blunt the impact of the new federal tax law on California taxpayers. Several are in the air, but the main one, proposed by Kevin de León, the outgoing state Senate president pro tem, more than slightly resembles phony tax avoidance scams that entice the unwary and often […]

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Dan Walters

• January 8, 2018

Commentary

Commentary: Minimum wage hike, other acts have consequences

Outwardly, the McDonalds restaurant just off Highway 101 in Pismo Beach doesn’t look any different from the 1,500 or so others in California. But when you walk into this one, you immediately encounter a robotic kiosk that allows you to order your hamburger or other fast food on a touch screen, rather than verbally with […]

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Dan Walters

• January 7, 2018