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<\/p>\nSAN ANTONIO \u2014 Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wants voters to decide whether the city should issue up to $489 million in revenue bonds for a new Spurs arena, arguing San Antonio residents are being asked to pay twice and should therefore get to vote twice.<\/p>\n
The proposal is already drawing pushback from some City Council members, who say residents previously weighed in on the larger arena project and that another election could jeopardize the deal.<\/p>\n
Jones told us she warned her colleagues last August that she wanted to allow city voters to consider this. Then, in a Friday memo, Jones wrote that voters should weigh in on “what they are paying, what they are receiving in return and whether the latter is good enough.”<\/p>\n
Bexar County voters already approved $311 million<\/p>\n
Bexar County voters approved a contribution of up to $311 million toward the new arena in November 2025.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s venue projects are financed through a combination of its existing 5% short-term motor-vehicle rental tax and an increase in the county hotel occupancy tax from 1.75% to 2%. Those revenues support both the arena contribution and improvements to the Coliseum complex.<\/p>\n
Bexar County voters approved raising the hotel venue tax and maintaining the rental-vehicle tax to finance the arena and improvements to the Coliseum District.<\/p>\n
Now, Jones wants voters within the City of San Antonio to decide whether to authorize the city\u2019s separate arena contribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you, city voters, agree to issue revenue bonds in the amount of $489 million?\u201d Jones said, describing the question she wants placed on the ballot.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Spurs arena ballot battle: Mayor calls for city residents to vote on contribution<\/p>\n
What is the city\u2019s $489 million?<\/p>\n
Under the city\u2019s nonbinding term sheet with the Spurs, San Antonio would contribute up to $489 million to the arena.<\/p>\n
The Spurs anticipate the arena will cost approximately $1.3 billion. The term sheet calls for the Spurs to contribute at least $500 million and to cover construction costs in excess of the amounts committed by the city and county.<\/p>\n
The city expects to issue revenue bonds for that contribution, which Jones says aren’t required to go to a vote, but she says residents should get a say in an investment that large.<\/p>\n
The city term sheet identifies four repayment sources:<\/p>\n
Operating rent paid by the Spurs for the new arenaGround rent paid by private developers leasing city-owned property near the arenaRevenue from the Hemisfair Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZRevenue from the Project Finance Zone, which is state tax revenue that must be used on venues<\/p>\n
The proposed arena financing is being debated as San Antonio faces a projected budget deficit.<\/p>\n
Councilman Marc Whyte said it is important to distinguish between the city\u2019s operating budget and the proposed arena bonds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not $489 million that is just sitting around that we can use in our budget right now,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>\n
Jones acknowledged the arena financing could not be used to immediately erase the city\u2019s current deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe $489 million would not do anything for the deficit we\u2019re in today,\u201d Jones responded, saying the concern is whether the city should commit future revenue and borrowing capacity to the arena while also confronting financial pressure in its operating budget.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Spurs arena ballot battle: Mayor calls for city residents to vote on contribution<\/p>\n
What would San Antonio receive in return?<\/p>\n
The proposed arena would be publicly owned and leased to the Spurs. The team would be required to remain in San Antonio and play its home games at the arena during the lease term.<\/p>\n
The term sheet also requires the Spurs and the city to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement.<\/p>\n
Under the current framework, the Spurs would provide $2.5 million annually for community programs or projects. That would total $75 million over the initial arena lease. City Council would determine how the money is allocated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s short of what our community deserves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Are residents really paying twice?<\/p>\n
Jones claims that San Antonio residents are \u201cpaying twice.”<\/p>\n
“A city voter is responsible for contributing not only to the county’s 311, but they will also contribute to the city’s 489,” Jones explained, referencing the millions each entity pledged to the arena.<\/p>\n
San Antonio residents live within Bexar County, so both governments represent many of the same taxpayers.<\/p>\n
However, the two contributions would not be financed through the same funding sources.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s contribution would come from venue-tax financing supported by hotel and rental-vehicle tax revenue.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s contribution would be financed through bonds repaid with Spurs rent, private-development ground rent, Hemisfair TIRZ revenue and state hotel-associated revenue captured through the PFZ.<\/p>\n
The city term sheet does not propose a general citywide property-tax increase to repay the $489 million arena contribution. It also does not mean every resident would personally pay two new arena taxes.<\/p>\n
Jones says the potential cost to city taxpayers is less direct: future growth in city property-tax revenue within the Hemisfair TIRZ would be directed toward arena debt rather than flowing into the General Fund. She is questioning whether all of that increment must be committed to the TIRZ or whether a portion could continue going to the General Fund.<\/p>\n
Whyte says another election is unnecessary<\/p>\n
Whyte said the city conducted town halls and public outreach about the sports and entertainment district before the county election.<\/p>\n
He argues residents were able to consider the larger project when they voted on the county\u2019s arena contribution, even though that ballot proposition did not authorize the city\u2019s $489 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo think that we need to spend taxpayer time and money to go through the whole debate again, I think that\u2019s not a good use of our time and money,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>\n
Jones argues the county election and her proposed city ballot measure address two different public contributions, and that city voters have never directly approved the city\u2019s share.<\/p>\n
What happens if the measure makes it to the ballot and voters reject it?<\/p>\n
Political science professor Jon Taylor said it is not surprising that the arena financing is receiving more scrutiny as the city confronts a budget deficit.<\/p>\n
But he warned that placing the city\u2019s contribution on the ballot could have significant consequences for the larger sports and entertainment district.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not forget here. If there\u2019s a vote and it goes negative, we\u2019re almost back to square one when it comes to Project Marvel,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n
The term sheet remains nonbinding. The city, county, Spurs and developers must still negotiate final agreements before the project can proceed.<\/p>\n
Another bond vote could still be coming<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s $489 million contribution would go toward the arena itself.<\/p>\n
The broader district would also require transportation, pedestrian and other infrastructure improvements around the project.<\/p>\n
Early city estimates have placed the first phase of those improvements at approximately $220 million to $250 million, though the final cost and project list have not been established.<\/p>\n
The arena financing addendum makes the city\u2019s contribution contingent on voters approving a separate city bond program for the first phase of transportation and pedestrian improvements.<\/p>\n
That means city voters could ultimately be asked to consider two different financing questions: revenue bonds for the arena and general obligation bonds for infrastructure surrounding the district.<\/p>\n
City Council must approve Jones\u2019 proposed arena election before it can appear on the November ballot.<\/p>\n
The deadline for the council to call the election is Aug. 17.<\/p>\n
Whyte says, at this point, he does not believe the measure will have enough support to pass.<\/p>\n
We have reached out to each councilmember to get their thoughts on the proposal. Councilman Spear’s released the following statement:<\/p>\n
“The Mayor\u2019s memo is misleading taxpayers into believing the $489 million can be redirected to offset the city\u2019s budget deficit or spent on general priorities like roads and public safety. It cannot. Those funds are legally restricted and generated within the Sports & Entertainment District only. San Antonio voters deserve facts, not confusion. It\u2019s time to respect the will of the voters, move forward with the project, and stop creating confusion.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wants voters to decide whether the city should issue up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-397465","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\/397465","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=397465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}