San Francisco Mayoral Candidacy
In August 2011, Adachi formally entered the race for Mayor of San Francisco.
After filing his papers Adachi stated, “I’ve decided to run for Mayor of San Francisco to restore integrity and financial accountability to the city.” He then added, “It wasn’t until I really listened to what the candidates were saying in the last few debates about pension reform that I became convinced that either the candidates don’t get it or they don’t want to get it, and I want to make sure that there’s a voice in there talking about the fiscal realities of this city." Adachi added, “This debate needs to be about what is best for the city, not about what is best for City Hall”.
Adachi declined public financing under the City’s new public financing law, stating that although he believes in public financing, he did not feel it was right to take the $900,000 that each candidate could receive “at a time that we are cutting summer school for 10,000 kids because we don’t have $1 million to pay for it.” However, Adachi has agreed to abide by the voluntary spending limits contained in the new law.
In addition to restoring fiscal integrity to San Francisco through saving the City $1.7 billion over the next decade, Adachi has proposed a job creation program by investing $40 million in micro-loans to small businesses, creating up to 15,000 new jobs and $1 billion of new economic activity. Adachi is also proposing reforming the business tax through elimination of the current payroll tax system, which discourages hiring of new workers, and replacing it with a new business tax based upon net business revenue.
A cornerstone of Adachi’s plan is improving education by providing additional funding from the City’s reserve funds to restore summer school, which has been eliminated for the last two years because of the City’s fiscal crisis.
On October 12, 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle named Adachi one of the "3 S.F. Mayoral Candidates to Consider," stating: "Talk about courage. One of the city's most liberal politicians took on labor over the bedrock issue of pensions. He lost in his first attempt last year, but is back with a revised version after he wouldn't back a compromise measure also on the ballot. He's been unfairly vilified by much of the city's political establishment for daring to raise the pension problem that others preferred to ignore. His campaign shows he's more than a one-issue candidate. He has a clear grasp of a variety of issues ranging from homeless policies to taxes. His independence is unassailable." He placed 6th out of 16 candidates.
Read more about this topic: Jeff Adachi
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