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Budget accountability begins at City Hall

Re: “Firefighter is highest-paid SJ employee” (Page A1, June 9).

Well, the cat’s finally out of the bag. San Jose’s chronic, multimillion-dollar structural budget deficit is not a revenue problem, as our elected officials would like us to believe; it’s a profound overspending problem.

You can chalk it up to the extraordinary amounts of generous overtime compensation paid to the city’s police and fire employees — $71 million in 2025, which, incidentally, was $45 million over budget — topped by one firefighter earning more than $1 million in overtime over the last three years.

Next time our politicians reach out to the electorate, hat in hand, asking for more tax increases, demand to know what is being done to better manage and control the city’s expenses. Accountability should start and end with City Hall.

Nick Cochran
San Jose

Column misleads on Hilton’s chances to win

Re: “Hilton must face Trump and back state elections” (Page A10, June 7).

In her Sunday opinion piece, under the subheading “True Math,” Anita Chabria states that Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by “nearly three to one.” According to the California Secretary of State, as of May 18, 2026, there were 10,397,692 registered Democrats and 5,779,786 Republicans. That’s less than two-to-one. She claims, based on her “simple math,” Hilton doesn’t have a chance of being elected governor. Her simple math is false. The odds of him winning are slim, but they are not insurmountable. Chabria’s simple math failure undermines her argument.

If Hilton makes it to November, the majority of Californians who think the state is on the wrong track will have a decent alternative to the status quo. Hopefully, voters will focus more on the myriad issues specific to California (structural deficits, poor K-12 performance, homelessness, water) and less on what lame duck Donald Trump is doing in Washington.

David Reynolds
Scotts Valley

Hometown conference is where AI news is

Re: “Tech is turning to religion in a quest to create ethical AI” (Page C7, June 8).

Today’s Mercury News had an Associated Press story about tech turning to religion to create ethical AI. There was no mention of Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical, and even worse, the story came out of L.A.

This is another example of how the journalistic landscape has changed so dramatically with the demise of coverage for important local news. On Saturday, June 6, a fantastic conference sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of San Jose and the California Catholic Conference brought together an amazing group of local and international tech executives, theologians and educators to unpack the meaning of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. There were more than 200 attendees, but where was the media?

People like Chloe Lubinski of Anthropic, Father Brendan McGuire or folks at Santa Clara’s Markkula Center know what is happening, where the action really is … here in the Valley of Hearts Delight rather than in L.A.

James Purcell
Los Gatos

Trump’s new intelligence chief isn’t up to the job

Re: “Pentagon wary of spying by Israelis” (Page A1, June 7).

Leading countries in the world have serious intelligence agencies run by professionals, not by neophytes like Bill Pulte. His marching orders are to fire agents the president doesn’t like and investigate voter fraud — no mention of the national intelligence service’s real mission to, well, gather intelligence. Trump has managed to find a director less qualified than Tulsi Gabbard, who was shut out of important decisions leading up to the Iran war. Now the Israelis are spying on us.

Why pay any attention to the U.S. intelligence apparatus when you get your marching orders from the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin? Every day, Trump shows he had no idea what would happen when he launched this war, and he has no idea how to end it with any tangible accomplishment.

He has also revealed again that his government is incompetent, wasting billions of our tax dollars through pure malfeasance.

Dave Riggs
Aptos

Trump’s tax breaks are costly to veterans

President Trump promised to reduce the cost of living for you and me, but made his first-term billionaire tax break permanent. He shifted the budget deficit to the middle class by killing important federal programs and by imposing extravagant tariffs.

Trump’s attacks on veterans’ healthcare coverage are heartbreaking. Vietnam veterans suffering from the effects of Agent Orange could systematically lose the promised care they have been receiving, to pay for Trump’s “huge” tax break for himself and his wealthy friends.

You and I cannot allow this charlatan and draft dodger to renege on America’s promise to honor and to care for our veterans. They have already paid a high cost in their service to America. Tell your senators and congressional members they must stand up and oppose the destruction of the veterans’ healthcare system.

Bill Wallace
San Jose