Dan Walters

Walters: State Unemployment Insurance in Chaos

July 9, 2020

Long before the COVID-19 shredded California’s economy, the state’s unemployment insurance program was deeply troubled. Thanks to a decades-long political stalemate, the unemployment system, managed by the Employment Development Department (EDD), had scant ...

Walters: 2020 Ballot Measures Are Mostly Do-Overs

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

July 8, 2020

Four months out from November’s election — and just three months until mail voting begins — outcomes of virtually all major California races are preordained, including a win by the Democratic presidential nomin...

Walters: Newsom Now Owns the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

July 5, 2020

Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom was boasting about California’s apparent success in suppressing COVID-19 infections in implicit contrast to other states, such as New York, that were being clobbered by t...

Young children in a classroom reading together

Walters: It’s Time to Enforce Law and Help At-Risk Kids

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

July 2, 2020

During his second governorship, journalists occasionally would ask Jerry Brown what he was doing about California’s highest-in-the-nation poverty rate. Brown would tick off several actions, his centerpiece being the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), whi...

Walters: Newsom’s Confusing COVID-19 Decrees

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 29, 2020

Managing something as new and unpredictable as the COVID-19 pandemic is, by its nature, a difficult task. That said, Californians are rightfully confused by the rapid, even erratic, changes of course that Go...

Walters: Is the Economy Headed up or Down?

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 25, 2020

The 2020-21 state budget agreement, announced this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, assumes that California’s economy will perform a bit better than previously assumed — enough better to add a...

Walters: Budget No. 4 Won’t Be the Last

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 24, 2020

Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced this week that they have a deal on a new state budget to take effect on July 1. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic plunge, they said, “we have agreed on a budget that is balanced, resp...

Walters: LA County’s ‘Corridor of Corruption’

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 22, 2020

Southeastern Los Angeles County is a jumble of small cities containing mostly poor and/or immigrant residents who have been clobbered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the deep recession it induced. However, the ...

Commentary: CalPERS Gambles on Risky Investment Move

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 21, 2020

The California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation’s largest pension trust, benefited greatly from the runup in stocks and other investments during the last few years, topping $400 billion early this...

Walters: What’s the End Game for State Budget?

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

June 18, 2020

Drafting a state budget for California is always a difficult process, given the state’s diverse and often conflicting interests, but it became infinitely more so during the century’s first decade. Although Democrats controlled the Legislature, Republican Ar...

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Walters: State Unemployment Insurance in Chaos

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Walters: State Unemployment Insurance in Chaos

Walters: 2020 Ballot Measures Are Mostly Do-Overs

Walters: Newsom Now Owns the COVID-19 Pandemic

Walters: It’s Time to Enforce Law and Help At-Risk Kids

Walters: Newsom’s Confusing COVID-19 Decrees

Walters: Is the Economy Headed up or Down?

Walters: Budget No. 4 Won’t Be the Last

Walters: LA County’s ‘Corridor of Corruption’

Commentary: CalPERS Gambles on Risky Investment Move

Walters: What’s the End Game for State Budget?