{"id":381875,"date":"2026-07-22T03:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/381875\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T03:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:30:09","slug":"mayor-jones-floats-ending-ready-to-work-early-to-redirect-funds-to-san-antonios-budget-shortfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/381875\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Jones floats ending Ready to Work early to redirect funds to San Antonio\u2019s budget shortfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of San Antonio is facing a $158 million budget gap next year \u2014 and\u00a0Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is now targeting a major city program to help make up that shortfall.<\/p>\n

In a memo<\/a> sent to San Antonio City Council members Tuesday, Jones proposed using Ready to Work funds for projects outlined in the general fund or the city\u2019s 2027 bond, which she said could end up being lower than $600 million, after previous estimates assessed the bond capacity at $625 million.<\/p>\n

The city-run workforce development program was approved by 77% of voters<\/a> in the 2020 general election. The program used a one-eighth-cent sales tax to fund training, scholarships and job placement support for San Antonio residents through 2025.<\/p>\n

Ready to Work has accumulated $100 million that it\u2019s set to spend before it sunsets in 2030, but the tax is still being collected \u2014 and those funds are now being directed toward VIA Metropolitan Transit Agency<\/a> projects, which voters approved in 2020.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 letter acknowledges that any changes to the fund\u2019s future use would require voter approval once more.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is a public vote is needed to redirect the Ready to Work funds,\u201d Jones said in the memo. \u201cThe city attorney is determining the scope of potential projects we could use the funds for under applicable state law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes could amount to ending the Ready to Work program early, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor illustration, if the program began winding down at the end of this year, approximately $100 million could be redirected,\u201d Jones\u2019 memo said.<\/p>\n

A tight budget cycle<\/p>\n

An early draft<\/a> of San Antonio\u2019s 2026-2027 budget called for raising property taxes as high as legally allowed without seeking permission from voters. To avoid steep increases, Jones has been closely examining<\/a> city programs for possible savings, and raised the possibility of cuts to San Antonio institutions like Fiesta<\/a>, the Botanical Gardens<\/a> and the Book Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Widely supported when it launched during former Mayor Ron Nirenberg\u2019s tenure<\/a>, Ready to Work planned to put 28,000 workers in jobs before wrapping up in 2030.<\/p>\n

That goal was edited down to 15,600 total jobs after Ready to Work struggled to meet its initial expectations for job placements and worker pay, and faced scrutiny<\/a> from City Council members.<\/p>\n

At its budget presentation in April<\/a>, Ready to Work officials said they are now on track for the 15,600-job goal. The program has placed around 2,700 workers in jobs so far in 2026<\/a>, nearly doubling its total job placements from the previous two and a half years combined.<\/p>\n

It had reached 5,756 job placements as of Tuesday, according to the program\u2019s dashboard.<\/p>\n

Ready to Work already had its $42.8 million annual budget<\/a> approved earlier this year.<\/p>\n

In a budget presentation in April, Ready to Work Executive Director Mike Ramsey outlined plans for spending $41.6 million in 2028, $23.5 million in 2029 and $18.2 million in 2030, a total of $83.3 million.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

Brenda Baz\u00e1n \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Mike Ramsey, Executive Director at Ready to Work, delivers remarks at a 2024 press conference.<\/p>\n

A similar city-funded program, Pre-K 4 SA, was reapproved by voters in 2021 at the end of its eight-year<\/a> life cycle and is up for reapproval again. Ready to Work would face the same decision after its sunset in 2030.<\/p>\n

Reached Tuesday, City of San Antonio spokesman Luke Simons said that following the mayor\u2019s memo, the City Attorney\u2019s Office is working to figure out \u201cwhat flexibility there is\u201d to hold a public vote \u2014 and then will provide guidance to City Council.<\/p>\n

If the program is ended early, he added, the impact will be that \u201cfewer residents will be served, making it harder for them to access high quality in-demand jobs,\u201d and local employers will have access to a smaller pool of trained workers<\/p>\n

Over time, the San Antonio community \u201cwould forgo the broader economic benefits associated with successful job placements,\u201d Simons said, such as higher household earnings, more tax revenue and economic activity, plus less reliance on public assistance programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effects would be felt most by residents who face financial and employment barriers, including low-income workers, single parents, veterans, and people seeking a second chance in the workforce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Can Ready to Work funds be moved?<\/p>\n

If a ballot initiative was put forward in November and voters approved redirecting funds,\u00a0City Council would need to choose a date to end the\u00a0Ready to Work program and fund current participants through that date, Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the agreed-upon date, the Ready to Work program would no longer accept new applicants and would begin to wind down, so the funds may be applied to other projects,\u201d she said in the memo.<\/p>\n

Jones said potential participants could be directed to other local career training programs, like those at Alamo Colleges.<\/p>\n

In an interview Monday on Texas Public Radio\u2019s \u201cThe Source\u201d<\/a>, Jones said funds redirected from the Ready to Work program could be used for drainage and street projects that would have otherwise been included in the city\u2019s 2027 bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got real needs in the community, we\u2019re talking about raising property taxes. I think we have to go look at where there\u2019s money and what is the best value for the taxpayers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would be doing ourselves a disservice by not looking at where there\u2019s big chunks of money, [including] the Ready to Work program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of San Antonio is facing a $158 million budget gap next year \u2014 and\u00a0Mayor Gina Ortiz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-381875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}