"The long-term economic growth plan is not a feasible platform to be elected Mayor or City Council. The very people who are voting right now are not necessarily going to be the same people who will benefit from the plan. No one ever wins elections because of their austerity plan for local citizens."

That's because austerity isn't a plan for long-term growth. Who would buy into that? Europe is doing a great job of showing how austerity measures destroy economies and consign a country to a decade or generation of stagnation. You don't grow any economy by austerity. You grow by pairing long-term investment with restructuring plans to reduce inefficiencies and re-route resources to where they are needed most. That's the kind of plan that you can sell to residents and get them to buy into for the long-term. Whatever their level of education, people aren't stupid. They realize that austerity plans do nothing for them in the short or long-term.