San Jose, California arts groups are opposing an offer by the city’s mayor to be funded out of the city’s general budget rather than from a hotel-motel tax (which was sharply down this year. “Once you get into the general fund, you are then competing with police, fire, recreation. And the arts, whether you look at the state or the schools, are always the first to get cut. So if the arts have a dedicated source, like the transient occupancy tax, why would we want to jeopardize that?”