Headed into an already high-stakes midterm election, the San Antonio City Council is considering a trio of possible policy items to add to the Nov. 3 ballot.
During the council’s normally sleepy July recess, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones floated calling a public vote on the city’s $489 million contribution to the new Spurs arena, plus reprogramming $100 million from the Nirenberg-era Ready to Work job training program to fill gaps in the city budget.
At the same time, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) filed a four-signature memo calling to preemptively extend funding for a popular early childhood program, Pre-K 4 SA, for 20 years.
It’s unclear whether any of these ideas have majority support from the council — which is only the first hurdle.
They’d also need support from voters and the deadline to put a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot is approaching quickly this month.
On Aug. 13, the same day city staff is slated to present its 2026-2027 budget, the council will debate whether to put each of the three items on the November ballot.
Given the already strained council relationships, it’s likely to be a tense setting. A considerably lower-stakes debate over a community advisory committee for Project Marvel ended with one council member accusing the mayor of lying from the dais this week.
Ready to Work was approved by voters in 2020, and therefore requires another public vote to sunset it early. Pre-K 4 SA is also a voter-approved program which needs periodic recommitment.
The city’s contribution to the new Spurs arena doesn’t require a public vote, since it comes from a tax increment reinvestment zone that has its own oversight board, and received tentative approval from the City Council in a term sheet last year.
Most of Jones’ colleagues say San Antonio voters already had a chance to weigh in on the spirit of the agreement when they approved Bexar County’s contribution last November.
But the mayor said Thursday that she’s making good on a promise to constituents, and she’s pushing ahead with listening sessions on the matter this week.
“Some have said that the amount of time we’re considering a November vote is too short a timeline,” Jones said in a statement Thursday. “Last August, we had the Terms Sheet for the Spurs arena for all of 96 hours. I asked for a strategic pause and was out-voted. That day, I let my colleagues know I would ask them to let city taxpayers vote on the city’s $489 million contribution.”
The November election will be a jam-packed time in San Antonio, with voters weighing in on the U.S. Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico, a heated governor’s race, high-profile congressional contests in this area, a Bexar County Judge race and more.
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.