Dan Walters

Under pressure from federal courts, California has sharply reduced numbers of inmates in state prisons. However, "corrections" costs are still rising and California is now spending $75,000 per year per inmate.

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

With dozens of candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor this year, handicapping the June 5 primary election is difficult. The biggest unknown is whether Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will have the luxury of a Republican opponent in November, or will face fellow Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa.

Gov. Jerry Brown once again is warning about the heavy impact of recession on the state budget. However, he continues to shun reforming the state's tax system to reduce revenue volatility and therefore lessen the impact.

Despite a surge of revenues, Gov. Jerry Brown holds the line on spending in his final budget. He says state overdue for recession and needs to build reserves to cushion impacts.

California’s Republican elite – yes, Virginia, there was once such a thing – gathered in the Capitol on Dec. 15, 1980, to cast the state’s 45 presidential electoral votes for Ronald Reagan. After the formalities, attendees lingered in the state Senate chambers, savoring the moment and believing that Reagan’s election was a harbinger of their […]

During his first stint as governor four decades ago, Jerry Brown exhibited a willingness to change his mind – or at least his position – on issues large and small at the drop of a hat. He implied that the trait was a virtue and evidence of a superior intellect, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson’s aphorism, […]

California was in a bragging mode last week because the state’s economy has climbed in global rankings to 5th place behind only the United States as whole, China, Japan and Germany. It’s a remarkable factoid, certainly, that one American state generated so much economic production – $2.7 trillion last year – that it could rank […]

It’s time for some fun with numbers, dissecting a new state report on population trends. The big number is 39.8 million. That’s the state Department of Finance’s latest calculation of California’s population as of Jan. 1. It’s doubtless a little low, since California has a very large number of residents who fly below the official […]

Sales taxes, once the primary source of revenue for the state budget, now play second fiddle to income taxes. That said, sales taxes are still very important to local governments, particularly cities, and often affect local land use decisions – favoring tax-generating retail business over housing, for instance. However, consumer trends are changing, radically affecting […]