{"id":401952,"date":"2026-08-09T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401952\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:12:11","slug":"nearly-a-year-later-bexar-county-still-isnt-collecting-new-taxes-for-spurs-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401952\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly a year later, Bexar County still isn\u2019t collecting new taxes for Spurs arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine months after voters approved<\/a> plans to help fund a new downtown Spurs arena, business leaders are concerned that Bexar County hasn\u2019t started collecting the money.<\/p>\n

Props A and B<\/a> on the November 2024 ballot authorized the county to raise the tax on hotel rooms from 1.75% to 2% on hotel rooms and extend an existing rental car tax to repay arena bonds.<\/p>\n

Together the hotel and rental car taxes, also known as the \u201cvenue tax,\u201d were projected to generate about $503 million over the next 30 years.<\/p>\n

But Bexar County leaders haven\u2019t voted to put the rate change into effect on the hotel tax, sources say, worrying those who are counting on the $1.3 billion arena to anchor a much larger downtown redevelopment effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of indecision means delays, overthinking, expenses go up, lost time, lost value of money,\u201d said Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to start collecting this stuff now, so the city and the county, everybody can leverage it for the projects it\u2019s intended for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, a different group of business leaders brought the hotel tax issue up to former Mayor Ron Nirenberg \u2014 now Democrats\u2019 nominee for Bexar County Judge \u2014 who was surprised to hear it.<\/p>\n

Bexar County\u2019s venue tax is expected to cover about $311 million of the $1.3 billion NBA arena, which also leans on money<\/a> from the city and the team\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai pushed hard to get Props A and B over the line last year, but has since expressed skepticism<\/a> about the city\u2019s plans to deliver the broader sports and entertainment district known as Project Marvel.<\/p>\n

This week, Sakai told the Report there\u2019s still \u201cnecessary due diligence\u201d the county needs to complete before moving forward with the hotel tax, in order to ensure it\u2019s \u201cprotecting the public\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county has one year from the November 2025 election to begin collecting the tax, Sakai said, and it\u2019s working with its bond counsel to stay within that timeframe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t put the cart before the horse,\u201d Sakai said. \u201d \u2026 Our responsibility is to follow the proper sequence, protect taxpayer dollars, and make sure the county is on solid footing before any commitment is made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other taxing entities<\/a>, Bexar County is headed into this fall\u2019s budget season with less property tax revenue than expected<\/a> thanks to slowed economic growth.<\/p>\n

Spurs Sports and Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In October, City Manager Erik Walsh estimated<\/a> it would take about a 60-month timeline to design and build the new arena after the funding was approved.<\/p>\n

Now Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is asking colleagues to put the city\u2019s portion of the arena funding up for a public vote<\/a> this November \u2014 something they\u2019re not legally required to do, and that most of her colleagues say they oppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine months after voters approved plans to help fund a new downtown Spurs arena, business leaders are concerned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-401952","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\/401952","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=401952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}