Dan Walters

Photo of smiling college graduates holding their degrees

Walters: Community College Report Ignores Reality

January 29, 2020

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, which advises state lawmakers on budgetary matters, prides itself on taking an independent, nonpartisan and even nonpolitical approach to important policy issues. That well-established tradition continues in a new LAO repor...

Walters: The Pardon Power, for Good or Ill

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 27, 2020

The power of presidents and governors to overrule judges and juries by pardoning convicted felons or commuting their sentences is a vestige of ancient monarchial authority. As one history of the pardon power...

Walters: California’s Big Educational Dilemma

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 26, 2020

California’s largest, most important — and perhaps most troubled — governmental program is the education of nearly 6 million elementary, middle and high school students. Federal, state and local taxpayers ar...

Walters: Voters Face Hundreds of Local Tax Measures

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 23, 2020

California voters have seen a deluge of local government tax and bond measures in recent elections and will face even more this year. The California Taxpayers Association has counted 231 local sales and parcel tax increases and bond issues (which automatica...

Walters: State Budget Depends on the Rich

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 22, 2020

The final pages of the 2020-21 budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed this month contain arguably its most important factor — an utter dependence on taxing a relative handful of high-income Californians. Per...

Photo combination of the California Capitol and "Wild Bill" Richardson

Walters: The Man Who Changed the Capitol

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 20, 2020

As strange as it may seem now, California’s state Senate was once a bastion of bipartisan — almost nonpartisan — comity. Although Democrats were in the majority, they willingly shared power with Republicans....

Photo collage of President Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders

Walters: An Uber-Complex Presidential Primary

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 19, 2020

A new poll of California voters finds a virtual tie among Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden just a couple of weeks before mail voting begins for the March 3 Democratic presidential primary. Sanders crept ahead of ...

Walters: More Entitlements as Economy Slows?

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 13, 2020

Gov. Gavin Newsom is tiptoeing into a political region that predecessor Jerry Brown purposely skirted — expanding expensive services and benefits that are difficult, and perhaps impossible, to shrink if Califor...

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Walters: The Politics of Slow Population Growth

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 12, 2020

During the first decade of the 21st century, demographers in California’s Department of Finance and those in the U.S. Census Bureau found themselves in a genteel conflict. Years by year, the two agencies’ es...

Walters: Winnowing Legislative Grain From Chaff

Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary

January 9, 2020

During the pre-industrial era, crops of wheat were planted, cultivated, harvested and processed by hand. The latter included “winnowing,” typically by using a shallow basket to toss the crushed kernels of wheat into the air, allowing the wind to separate ed...

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Walters: Community College Report Ignores Reality

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You’ve Been Named California’s Homelessness Czar. What’s Your First Move?

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Walters: Community College Report Ignores Reality

Walters: The Pardon Power, for Good or Ill

Walters: California’s Big Educational Dilemma

Walters: Voters Face Hundreds of Local Tax Measures

Walters: State Budget Depends on the Rich

Walters: The Man Who Changed the Capitol

Walters: An Uber-Complex Presidential Primary

Walters: More Entitlements as Economy Slows?

Walters: The Politics of Slow Population Growth

Walters: Winnowing Legislative Grain From Chaff