{"id":5363,"date":"2026-07-24T23:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5363"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:10:37","slug":"letters-billionaires-are-trying-to-buy-prop-40-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5363","title":{"rendered":"Letters: Billionaires are trying to buy Prop. 40 election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p><em><strong>Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Rich are trying to buy Prop. 40 election<\/h4>\n<p>Re: \u201cBig money Bay Area interests shifting tax burden onto poor\u201d (Page A6, July 22).<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5361\">Endorsed by Trump, Steve Hilton asks president\u2019s critics to vote for him<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I once supported the California Forever project, but the overlap between its major investors and the massive campaign to defeat Proposition 40 has raised serious concerns. Voters deserve to know whether this effort truly serves the public or primarily protects the financial interests of a small group of wealthy backers.<\/p>\n<p>The same donors pushing for large\u2011scale development and regulatory shortcuts are also bankrolling an $87 million effort to stop the wealth tax. They align when it benefits their wealth or advances the project, and separate when it doesn\u2019t. That\u2019s not civic leadership. It\u2019s coordinated convenience.<\/p>\n<p>I believed in the idea of building something better for California. The pattern of political spending has made me question the support I once gave. Transparency is essential.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kathi Miller<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Lincoln<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Hegseth policies are degrading US military<\/h4>\n<p>Re: \u201cThe Art of War\u201d editorial cartoon (Page A6, July 22).<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. military is the world\u2019s gold standard \u2014 physically fit, disciplined and 100% dedicated to their role in protecting this country against foreign enemies.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sec. Hegseth has jeopardized our image by slashing experienced leaders because of their gender or color. He\u2019s forced those in uniform into roles that are not only unconstitutional, but also domestic situations where they\u2019ve had no training. He\u2019s glamorized battles by describing wins no differently than a video game where soldiers don\u2019t really die, even renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. He\u2019s undermined confidence and discounted training with his concern on waist size, facial hair and testosterone levels.<\/p>\n<p>The secretary could learn a lesson from General Eisenhower, who said, \u201cI hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility and its stupidity.\u201d Our military deserves better than Sec. Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David Wilkins<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>San Jose<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>San Jose lacks spaces without price tags<\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019ve noticed something missing from San Jose: places to just be. Third places \u2014 the coffee shops, parks and hangout spots where people build community for free \u2014 are disappearing or never existed here to begin with. Everything either costs money we don\u2019t have or closes early, as if the city assumed no one wants to linger.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Silicon Valley has given us endless apps to \u201cconnect,\u201d but you can\u2019t replace a park bench where neighbors actually talk to each other. Students commute in, grind through classes and leave. Nobody puts down roots, because there\u2019s nowhere to root.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5359\">Mailbag: World Cup a flawed model for the College Football Playoff, Senate hurdles for PCSA, Big Ten scheduling and more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not asking for anything extravagant. I\u2019m asking why a city with San Jose\u2019s resources can still feel this lonely. We have the money. What\u2019s missing is the will to make space for people to spend time together without a price tag attached.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jada Widemond<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>San Jose<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>US must find ways to speed green energy<\/h4>\n<p>While on a recent road trip to Denver, we heard about Colorado\u2019s lack of winter snow, then passed through smoke-filled skies on the Utah-Colorado border. We also spoke with a friend in Paris about the blistering heat they were enduring, and during the holiday weekend read of the heatwave scorching the eastern United States. What will it take for our country to actively address the dire effects of burning fossil fuels that overheat our planet?<\/p>\n<p>A hopeful sign along our route was the massive solar arrays we passed in the Mojave Desert. Clean energy from solar and wind power will reduce climate pollution. However, roughly 95% of new energy projects are being held up by federal approval delays.<\/p>\n<p>Congress needs to pass legislation to reform the permitting process to help get clean energy online faster. Our new reality demands a response if we are to create a liveable future.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Diana Moss<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>San Jose<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>High court\u2019s ruling gave green light to ICE killing<\/h4>\n<p>The 52-year-old immigrant whom ICE shot and killed July 7\u00a0was reportedly not the man agents were seeking. In my opinion, ICE saw a van carrying brown-skinned workers and pursued it based on the assumption that its occupants were in the country illegally.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court recently allowed broader ICE enforcement operations to continue while challenges to those practices remain in court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that factors such as ethnicity or language may be considered along with other circumstances in determining reasonable suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, this man\u2019s death was a foreseeable consequence of that decision. When government authorizes agents to consider race, ethnicity, language, occupation or location in deciding whom to stop, innocent people inevitably become targets. I believe this tragedy is the human cost of the actions\u00a0of this Supreme Court and that of Justice Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5357\">New bill would improve the way U.S. families receive benefits for public service officer deaths and injuries<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Grzan<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Morgan Hill<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Also: Degrading military | Spaces lacking | Speed green energy | Green-lighting ICE. Mercury News reader letters to the editor for July 26, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters: Billionaires are trying to buy Prop. 40 election - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5363\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letters: Billionaires are trying to buy Prop. 40 election - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Also: Degrading military | Spaces lacking | Speed green energy | Green-lighting ICE. 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