Recently, SJ's Planning Commission stood firm in the face of noisy residents and approved a new Costco store at the Westgate West shopping center. Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio made the case for the new store, noting that the ever-growing list of city services people vote for actually need, you know, an economic base to pay for them. The Merc reports.
Read MorePat Waite of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility says decreased population, fleeing young families, and our county’s already chart-topping tax rates make the wave of school bond propositions coming at us this November a bad idea. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreSJ City Council candidates George Casey (D10) and Joe Lopez (D2) are saying No to Prop 5, the tax-raising ballot initiative. In this, they are aligned with the City of Gilroy, its Mayor Marie Blankley, San Jose CMs Batra and Doan, as well as the SJ Mercury News and the SF Chronicle in opposing the proposition. Business leader Johnny Khamis also explains why he's a "no on 5" in a KQED interview, below (edited for clarity).
Read More{Update: Omar Torres has resigned from his SJ D3 CM seat over legal and ethical charges and widespread public repudiation.} Alert Opp Now readers email us to note that Torres' political star once rode high, elevated by enthusiastic support from the local progressive/labor community, according to Torres campaign literature. Endorser list below from 2022 Torres for Council mailer.
Read MoreOpp Now has likened city gov't mission creep to '50s movie "The Blob," as jurisdictions like SJ expand programs and positions that drain the budget while pushing out more essential services. City Journal's N. S. Lyons agrees with this assessment; in his article below, he defines and discusses political “managerialism"—and its devastating cultural consequences.
Read MoreProposition 5 will blow a massive hole in Prop 13 and Prop 218 protections, said Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers' Mimi Willard to North Bay residents this summer. She warned that cutting voters’ threshold from two-thirds to 55% to pass housing and infrastructure bonds would trigger a tidal wave of tax hikes, with nothing to stop them except, perhaps, voter fatigue. Prop 5 could also let Fairfax property owners get slammed with a 30-year road bond. Will Sherman reports in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreThe Heritage Foundation drops us into the '50s, when Milton Friedman first advocated for free market education. Later, U.S. states began adopting vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and ESAs. While CA could diversify its schooling choices, many students today are still benefiting from expanded opportunities—like the option to opt out of SJUSD, recently slammed by the Civil Grand Jury for "many failures."
Read MoreAs San Joseans wonder if they'll get slapped with new “infrastructure” taxes under Prop 5, Econlib's Richard Gunderman reminds—in an elegant deep-dive of Tolstoy's famous novel—that for all free marketism's strengths, economics ultimately can't account for the happiness of mankind. Gunderman's thoughts on this elusive, incalculable, wonderful pursuit we call “joy,” below.
Read MoreOakland has long resisted more aggressive techniques to address its crisis of crime and street homelessness. But on the heels of Grants Pass and directives from Gov. Newsom, its hard-left mayor, city council, and city staff are starting to act. The Merc's report excerpted below.
Read MoreAfter the agency got sued for an unforced math error on the RM4 ballot—and polls showed 2/3 of voters would not support the $48 billion tax hike—BAHFA took its ball and went home. Rather than fix its mistake and perhaps even rework the measure to get Bay Areans on board, the regional agency decided to “pivot to Prop 5," argues the Marin Post’s Bob Silvestri. When RM4 rolls around next time, they hope to win with only 55% approval.
Read MoreAs The Atlantic's podcast “Good on Paper” points out, most folks only consider school choice in terms of privatized options. However, the movement doesn't (and shouldn't) stop there: Los Angeles Unified School District's remarkably successful 2012 experiment—in which schools had to compete against each other for enrollment—shows how school choice frameworks can also strengthen traditional public schools.
Read MoreCiting the deceitful campaign practices of local agencies and businesses that financially benefit from passage of bond measures, the Merc (in a cogently argued and smartly written op-ed) joins the SF Chron in saying "No" to lowering the voter threshold for new taxes from 66% to 55%. All major Bay Area dailies have now come out in opposition to Prop 5, as has the City of Gilroy, its mayor Marie Blankley, and SJ CMs Batra and Doan.
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