SAN ANTONIO – Three of the main candidates in the 14-way race for mayor talked about their economic views in a mayoral forum Saturday.
The forum was hosted by the Asian American Alliance of San Antonio, a collection of 16 local Asian organizations, including several business-focused groups. Accordingly, the first question to Mayor Ivy Taylor, District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina was how the candidates planned to ensure the "vibrancy" of the city's economy.
Nirenberg's ideas included investing in small business jobs and also supporting entrepreneurship through incubator programs such as Geekdom. He said the city needs to focus on its foreign direct investment and export/import strategies.
"So what's important for this mayor is to make sure that we each take a strong leadership position in growing San Antonio businesses, which help encourage and grow and help our families thrive, despite what the politics in Austin and Washington may say about that," Nirenberg said.
Medina said the No. 1 issue is taxes. He promised to create an "intergovernmental board" to address the issue of numerous taxing entities.
"We not only need to keep the tax rate where it's at, we need to lower it. We need to do something about property appraisals, and we need to do something about that starting today," Medina said.
Medina called to "do something about" CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System but didn't say what, and also called for a favorable business climate.
Taylor also talked of a "business friendly" environment, specifically mentioning fewer regulations and addressing any issues with existing regulations. She also called for continued infrastructure investment, mentioning the current proposed $850 million bond program.
"We've created an organization called SA Works to serve as an umbrella to bring together all the various partners that are ensuring that you have the pipeline of people to actually fill those jobs that are being created," Taylor said.
You can hear the candidates' thoughts on subjects like these in KSAT's mayoral forum on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. on KSAT.com.