Dan Walters

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 9 days ago
There are uncanny parallels between the political dynamics of California's budget stalemate and those of the Washington impasse over a $700 billion banking industry bailout – and also a more direct financial connection. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 9 days ago
During one of the pregnant pauses in the Capitol stalemate over a new state budget, a top aide to Don Perata, the Democratic Senate leader, sidled up to a reporter and asked a question. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 7 days ago
In 2000, then-Gov. Gray Davis and legislators of both parties squandered most of a one-time, $12 billion windfall of income tax revenues on permanent spending and tax cuts – one of the most indefensibly irresponsible political actions in California history. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 6 days ago
As California's population and economy expanded dramatically during the mid- and late 20th century, it did so with a unique development pattern. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 4 days ago
A sandwich shop in downtown Sacramento has been offering some footlong "subs" for a bargain price of $5, but when a customer orders one of the hot items on the list, the counter person quickly warns the patron that the cost will be $5.39 because of sales tax. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 3 days ago
California's political leaders sighed with relief last week when Congress passed the $700 billion bailout of the banking industry, hoping that banks now will lend the state $7 billion this month to stave off a cash crunch – but their semi-optimism is misplaced. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 2 days ago
The conflict between California and federal judges over operation of the 170,000-inmate prison system could evolve into one of those epic legal struggles that involve bedrock constitutional principles and wind up in an historic Supreme Court decree. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 24 days ago
They had to be kidding. Nobody could have dreamed up a less responsible, more gimmicky, sure-to-backfire state budget than the one California's political leaders cobbled together and were jamming through the Legislature on Monday night to end a months-long stalemate. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 28 days ago
If you were to examine a 1958 political map of California, it would look much different from today's version. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 26 days ago
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are on the verge of making a monumental mistake by enacting an expedient state budget, one that would conclusively prove that the state is fundamentally ungovernable. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 17 days ago
The state's budget imbroglio had many casualties, and a big one was doing something about the festering mess we call a prison system. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 39 days ago
The near-record political stalemate over the deficit-ridden state budget may – repeat, may – have moved a notch closer to resolution Friday even though the Senate rejected a new Democratic version. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 10 days ago
Senate Bill 1237 was one of hundreds of routine measures that make some incremental change in law and sail through the legislative process without a hitch. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 23 days ago
Arnold Schwarzenegger has talked a good game about ending "crazy deficit spending" for five years, but he's been curiously unwilling to confront the Legislature over the state's hopelessly tangled budget. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 33 days ago
This year's budget stalemate is drenched in three decades of tortuous political history. Today's conflicts echo those we've seen in one form or another since 1978, when voters passed Proposition 13, the iconic property tax cut. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 19 days ago
Having conquered bodybuilding and the movies by magnetic presence, Arnold Schwarzenegger thought that governing California would be a breeze. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 31 days ago
Unable to crack a months-long partisan stalemate on closing the state's whopping budget deficit, the Legislature is falling back on a time-dishonored practice of conducting "drills" – exercises that are, like Jerry Seinfeld's TV program, "shows about nothing." ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 39 days ago
A hoary aphorism about crime goes like this: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." We need a similar warning about the politics of crime: "If you won't spend the dime, don't whine about crime." ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 37 days ago
One relatively tiny aspect of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposal to close the state budget deficit is a $228 million per year hit on local redevelopment agencies. ...

Source: www.sacbee.com --- 25 days ago
No legislative session would be complete without at least one bill granting an exemption to the state's quaintly named "tied-house law" on liquor sales. This year is no exception, once again illustrating the fundamentally unchanging nature of political policymaking. ...