A week that started with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones floating the proposal of using Ready to Work dollars to address the city’s $157.7 million budget deficit ended with another idea: asking community leaders to help fund certain San Antonio entities, in the process freeing up vital dollars.
In a letter sent Friday “to the business, foundation and philanthropic community,” according to her staff, Mayor Jones asked recipients to “consider a three-year funding commitment” that at least matches the 2026 budget allocation for 15 groups. Among them: the San Antonio Botanical Garden, Book Fest, Parks Foundation and Siclovia.
The 15 groups received a combined $6.52 million in 2026 budget allocations, with the San Antonio Education Partnership Scholarship & Outreach Program nabbing the biggest slice of that financial pie (nearly $2.48 million). The San Antonio Botanical Garden was the other entity on the list to receive more than $1 million this year through the General Fund, which also covers services like the police and fire departments, street upkeep, and parks.
The mayor’s office did not say specifically which local leaders Jones sent her letter to. But it comes after a June budget conversation in which she pushed city staff to examine which events and organizations are being subsided through the budget – citing the Botanical Gardens and annual Book Festival as examples – suggesting any group making profits by charging admission may not need the city’s help.
“Our community is fortunate to have many worthwhile organizations that strengthen our city, and many of (them) have received financial support from city taxpayers via the city’s General Fund as a result,” Jones wrote in her Friday letter. “However, the economic environment has changed.”
The city is weighing options to stave off the forecasted two-year $157.7 million budget deficit, a financial gap brought about by expenses outpacing city revenues, including a projection that the city will receive $8.2 million less in property tax revenues next year. Staff earlier this summer provided moneysaving routes ranging from widespread department cuts and increased fees to the city’s first property tax hike in 33 years.
But some on City Council, including Jones, don’t want to raise property taxes on residents.
“This is hard and it should make all of us uncomfortable and concerned and worrisome,” District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears told her council colleagues during the June 23 budget discussion. “You should lose sleep at night over it. I know I do.”
Earlier this week, Jones told city leaders in a memo that she was asking officials to table-set the possibility of redirecting tens of millions of dollars funding Ready to Work, the city’s jobs training program slow to meet early targets, to create budget flexibility.
But it would take voter approval, and there’s an Aug. 17 deadline for City Council to approve placing such a ballot measure before Bexar County voters this November.
Jones said in a Friday statement that City Attorney Andy Segovia has notified her the Ready to Work funds “could potentially be used to pay for qualified programs currently paid for out of the General Fund.”
“Services like literacy programs, afterschool programs, and early childhood education,” she continued. “Diverting Ready to Work funds for qualified programs may then free up General Fund money for core services like public safety and drainage, and helps to minimize potential budget cuts and property tax increases.”
City staff are expected to present a proposed 2027 budget to Jones and the rest of City Council in mid-August. They have until the end of September to approve a final financial plan for next year.