San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and local Democratic leaders on Wednesday voiced their support for Proposition 36, a crime reform measure on the November ballot that they hope will force Californians who regularly commit drug crimes to receive substance abuse treatment.

“People are dying who don't need to die, businesses are closing who don't need to close. There is an answer. And that answer is treatment,” Mahan said at a morning press conference. New Fundraising Committee “That's why we're here today and support Proposition 36, not because we want to go back to the era of mass incarceration, but because we want to move forward into the era of mass treatment,” he said, authoring the bill with two other elected officials.

Their support runs counter to the views of Governor Gavin Newsom and leading Democrats in the state legislature, who have voiced opposition to the bill, fearing it would return California to an era of ineffective tough-on-crime policies that ballooned the state's prison population to unconstitutional levels.

But Mahan, who just won re-election, said Proposition 36 would help get needed treatment for people addicted to the deadly drug fentanyl by imposing court-mandated drug treatment on anyone convicted of a third drug offense. The measure also changes parts of Proposition 47, a decade-old ballot measure that downgraded some nonviolent property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors in order to reduce the prison population.

He was one of the first major city mayors to support the ballot measure, along with San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

Eight lawmakers have already endorsed Proposition 36 this week, but Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), House Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and several members of the Legislative Black Caucus oppose the bill.

Mahan, along with Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho and Elk Grove Mayor Bobby Singh Allen, have formed a new committee to support Proposition 36. They have been vocal supporters of the prosecutor-led ballot initiative, pointing to connections to the three pillars of the November ballot measure: homelessness, the fentanyl crisis and a surge in retail theft.

The Proposition 36 campaign received more than $9 million in support from major retailers including Walmart, Home Depot, Target and In-N-Out Burger.