Gavin Newsom’s website is topped by a photo of him talking to a group of children, and he has repeatedly stressed that as a governor and a father, he considers nurturing them to be one of hishighest priorities. Twice in recent weeks, Newsom has acted to protect California’s children from...
Walters: Battles Over Local Tax Measures Heat up
A change in the governor’s office and expanded Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature have emboldened long-frustrated advocates of increasing taxes to expand health, welfare and education services. The California Tax Foundation calculates that bills already introduced this year would raise Californians’ taxes by $6.2 billion a year with others to...
Walters: Both Abortion Factions Try to Silence Opponents
Abortion is a divisive moral and political issue that generates ceaseless heated debate, as it should. However, it also entices those who feel passionately about it, one way or the other, to use politics to shut down the other side. We saw a prime example of that in the California...
Valley House Delegation Joins in Omar-less Anti-Hate Vote
The Central Valley congressional delegation all supported a House resolution Thursday (March 7) condemning hate — anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and just about all other forms. That put the likes of House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and TJ Cox (D-Fresno) in step with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota). Approval came strongly on...
Walters: So Far, Prison Inmate Rehab Isn't Working
The state prison system’s official title, “Department of Corrections,” was for decades nothing more than a euphemism, as was the official nomenclature for the system’s guards of “correctional officer.” The system expanded from about 20,000 inmates during Jerry Brown’s first stint as governor to more than 160,000 when he began...
Walters: Kamala Harris Grabs for the Brass Ring
President Kamala Harris? She thinks so, anyway. After just 1 1/2 terms as California’s attorney general and two years as a U.S. senator, Harris this week declared her candidacy for the White House. She joins a Democratic field that grows larger every day and could eventually reach two or three dozen...
Walters: State Tax Reforms or State Tax Increases?
There is a substantial list of governance issues that former Gov. Jerry Brown said were important, but that he left on his desk for successor Gavin Newsom. For instance, although he and the Legislature enacted a very modest reform of public employee pensions, he repeatedly said it was only a...
Commentary: Two Arcane Ballot Measures Show Need for Reform
There’s a symbiotic relationship between two of the 11 statewide ballot measures facing voters next month, Propositions 8 and 11. Both would have voters decide very narrow union-management conflicts in two relatively small medical service sectors — with sponsors of both claiming that passage would reduce health care costs. And...
Cal Chamber Has Best Year Yet Steamrolling 'Job Killer' Bills
As CALmatters columnist Dan Walters notes in his Sept. 10 analysis, the California Chamber of Commerce quite often prevails in getting the Legislature to kill or quietly abandon bills that the pro-business lobby deems "job killers." But in the recently concluded legislative cycle, the chamber was even more effective than...
California’s Educational Crisis Framed by Two Events: Walters
In case you missed it, a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles is allowing an education lawsuit to proceed against the state. The lawsuit contends that California’s public schools have failed to adequately teach reading to some black and Latino students. California Achievement Gap Persists And, notes Dan Walters, in...