☆ Advice to Mahan: “Carry a chainsaw” and cut city spending

Before SJ’s State of the City speech, SCC Libertarian Party officer Elizabeth Brierly has some rec’s for Mayor Mahan: Discuss deregulating. Trimming SJ’s budget (without harming core services). And, yes, protecting the free market. An Opp Now exclusive.

I would like to see Mayor Mahan carry a chainsaw on stage and invoke the resolve of Argentina’s President Javier Milei, whose policy of deregulation and 28-percent cut to spending—in just his first year!—have yielded the country’s first budget surplus in 14 years.

In 2022, Mahan successfully campaigned on, “Government should focus on the basics.” So he could explain how, if practical libertarian solutions can work for an entire, economically desperate country, they could also work for our city.

Go Deeper:

• The city that’s never hiked taxes: “Live within your means” (4/4)
• Waite: Same old budget issues return to SJ
• Analysis: BART's anachronistic, stagnant business model makes DTSJ extension nonsensical

What I hope not to hear are noises about cutting police, the fire department, or road maintenance. Don’t get me wrong: I fervently advocate private-sector options for fulfilling such necessities. But threats to the most popular city services serve as an omen that, come next election, the mayor and council will be imploring us voters, residents, and business owners to come to the financial rescue of such “core” services (how could we refuse?). Instead, these elected representatives should be working to eliminate costly, extraneous, vanity programs first.

Americans yearn for the free market to flourish. Mayor Mahan still has the chance to lead San Jose to a remarkable period of prosperity and innovation, by unapologetically reigning in the size and scope of city government—incidentally solving his budget-deficit problem, to boot.

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