San Jose is in a really odd position where the people who live there work and spend their money in its neighboring cities like Santa Clara, Cupertino, and Sunnyvale. This means San Jose earns much less tax revenue per resident compared to other cities in the area, yet residents still expect the same services as nearby cities. Even though the valley is in a much better position than it was half a decade ago, San Jose still has a budget deficit and hasn't seen much growth. Plus they spent hundreds of millions renovating an airport that airlines don't want to use, which hasn't paid off. Overall they're in a really unfortunate position.

Here's a really great article about their situation, from 2015:

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25290777/san-jose...