Elizabeth Brierly—Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association board member and lifelong SCC resident—criticizes Sen. Cortese's proposal to increase the sales tax rate by 33% from its current cap of 2%. SB 335 proponents say the extra cash would fund “vital” core services; but aren't those already covered in our regular budget? Brierly calls for gov't prudence and prioritization (a much-needed “financial diet”) in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreLocal political watchers have a warning for SCC residents: All those nice-sounding words in ballot initiatives could be camouflaging their real intent. Why the subterfuge? Maybe pols “think we're too stupid to understand what's good for us... like how you give a dog a pill and cover it in peanut butter,” says Manhattan Institute's Tim Rosenberger, Jr. Or perhaps they're simple money/power grabs, according to taxpayer advocate Jon Coupal and SCC Libertarian officeholder Brian Holtz. Below, more insights in this exclusive Opp Now series.
Read MoreIn an exclusive Opp Now interview, Adam Mayer—a Bay Area architect/designer specializing in adaptive reuse—explains why converting offices to apartments proves an elusive endeavor that isn't usually profitable for developers. Mayer suggests that local gov'ts focus less on cutting red tape for conversion projects, and work more to revitalize their downtowns by encouraging commercial activity.
Read MoreIn the second installment of an exclusive Opp Now series, three contributors—UC Berkeley College Republicans' Utkarsh Jain, public policy prof Joel Fox, and local housing provider Dean Hotop—analyze how State gov't performs verbal sleight-of-hand when it comes to titling and describing ballot measures.
Read MoreA recent Merc article observes that some developers are invoking the “builder's remedy” to downsize or downzone SJ projects, while the provision was intended to encourage and expand affordable housing options in NIMBY jurisdictions. Yet, YIMBY Law's executive director Sonja Trauss is all in favor of (what she frames as) developers bypassing minimum density restrictions to pursue fiscally feasible projects. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreIt's hard to bubble in “no” on pleasant platitudes like “The Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act” (which downplayed property theft penalties and—according to Mayor Mahan—wreaked havoc on SJ's downtown). And that, political watchdogs say, is exactly the point. In this exclusive, three Opp Now contributors (Pat Waite, Johnny Khamis, and Marc Ang) review some of the most egregiously titled ballot measures of recent years—and how taxpayers were “supposed” to read between the lines.
Read MoreIn this Opp Now exclusive, three experts (SJSU's regional planning professor Kelly Snider, Bay Area Council's senior VP Matt Regan, and California YIMBY's research director Nolan Gray) parse the builder's remedy provision of CA's Housing Affordability Act—which lets developers bypass local zoning laws for affordable housing projects if that city's Housing Element is noncompliant. The provision has yet to be tested in court, as many jurisdictions are negotiating with—or, like SJ, throwing their hands up at—developers to prevent lawsuits.
Read MoreLocal media recently celebrated a poorly designed Joint Venture Silicon Valley study, which discovered that people who get free money from universal basic income (UBI) programs (like Santa Clara County's) are more able to afford things that—hold your breath—cost money. Stanford economics prof John Cochrane provides deeper analysis, noting that UBI historically doesn't rescue people from poverty long-term or incentivize workforce participation. Wouldn't it help low-income folks better if cities purged their burdensome regulations/taxes and helped create real jobs instead? An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreLocal media remarks that SB 274, which deep-sixes the ability for schools to suspend students for “willful defiance,” is being questioned by some SJ teachers who prioritize safe learning environments. Lance Christensen, Education Policy VP at California Policy Center, discusses why defiant behavior is a valuable indicator of family life and future safety risk—and why teachers, admin, and students suffer when class discipline is curtailed. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreRabbi Dov Greenberg, Chabad at Stanford University executive director, comments on a now-removed professor's disturbing activity of singling out Jewish students for what the university acknowledges as “identity-based targeting.” An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreOn September 21, the State Auditor announced a winter release date for the audit of the troubled Valley Transit Authority (VTA). This audit could offer further insight into the murky reporting VTA staff has provided regarding the wild BART cost overruns, ever-lengthening completion dates, and ever-shrinking ridership projections. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreWith news that VTA's misbegotten plans to extend BART to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara have gotten (hold on to your seats) even more expensive than previous budget-busting estimates, Marc Joffe at the Cato Institute wonders anew if it's time for a re-think on the whole project. Even the Merc agrees. An Opp Now exclusive.
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