SAN ANTONIO – On the day early voting began, candidates for San Antonio mayor faced off in a forum focused on the future of the arts.
KSAT's Tim Gerber moderated Monday's event, in which candidates debated on how the arts play a role in the city's development.
Candidates discussed how they would tap into the local arts community to create an economic engine to drive the city's economy into the future.
One key question asked was whether or not candidates would avoid using funding from the arts to settle the ongoing contract dispute between the city and its police and fire unions.
"As mayor, my No. 1 priority is to unite City Council behind the principal of financial sustainability so that we can provide the other services and make the other investments we need to make in our city to make us a strong, great city. Not just a big city, but a truly great San Antonio," Mike Villarreal said.
"There's no question, arts is not funded adequately enough as it is, so why would we touch that?" Tommy Adkisson said. "I think we sustain what we've got, and improve it, and grow it and everybody should be able to be happy. I think we can work this through."
"What I would do as mayor, is one, I would get rid of the fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars, because I feel the pinch that you feel," Paul Martinez said. "When you do that, you have extra money to invest and to disburse to other areas like public safety, into the arts, into our education."
"At this point, I believe that the economic environment that we're in, what I know about, our revenues and position would allow us to maintain our position in relation to arts funding. But I know ultimately, you want to grow it, and so I'd love to work with you to identify how we can beef up corporate support and also look at how we can better use the dollars that are already allocated," Mayor Ivy Taylor said.
"Our goal is to make sure that we have, yes, a sustainable budget, but that we also have the type of talent in our first responders so that the city has a great public safety record," Leticia Van de Putte said. "I know also that most of the funding that we have, a lot of that funding comes from the hotel occupancy tax, which cannot be used for police and fire."
Early voting started Monday and runs through May 5. Election Day is May 9.