SAN ANTONIO – After Bexar County voters signed off on the county’s portion of a proposed downtown Spurs arena, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones continues to remain quiet about whether she still plans to push for a second election on the city’s share.
The $1.3 billion arena proposed for Hemisfair would be funded by up to $800 million in public dollars between the city and county, with the Spurs kicking in at least $500 million, plus any cost overruns.
Roughly 52% of Bexar County voters approved the use of a venue tax on hotel stays and car rentals to fund the county’s share of up to $311 million through Proposition B on the Nov. 4 ballot. The hotel portion will also be raised from 1.75% to 2% while the car rental portion of the tax remains at 5%.
Though she never took a public stance for or against Prop B, Jones was critical of the funding deal’s terms and questioned whether the city had done enough due diligence.
While the city’s share of the funding —up to $489 million of revenue bonds backed by leases and special tax capture districts — doesn’t require a public vote the same way the county money did, Jones said in the run-up to the county election, she wanted to put the city funding in front of voters anyway.
“I do want to manage the expectations of my colleagues that I will be seeking their support for such an ordinance,” she said on Aug. 21, shortly before a majority of her colleagues voted against her to push the arena deal forward.
Discussing the county election on a KSAT Q&A session the following week, Jones used the same phrase the San Antonio Express News would later quote her as saying at a Sep. 4 town hall meeting: “if you pay twice, you should vote twice.”
Since election results came in Tuesday night, though, Jones has avoided directly addressing whether that’s still her position.
“So we have a lot of work to do to make sure we’ve got a really strong community benefits agreement, one that is worthy of the investment that we are — this generational investment that we are all working on here, and I look forward to doing that,” Jones said at a news conference with council members and Spurs officials Wednesday.
“I think the best way that we do that, though, is by doing what we’ve done here today, which is show we recognize and respect most certainly the will of the people. And frankly, we hear from all of them.”
Jones twice refused to answer KSAT’s questions at the conference when asked whether she still planned to push for a second election.
She released a statement through a spokeswoman on Friday, but it did not directly address if another vote was on the table either.
“The next step is that we all come to the table – my Council colleagues, City Staff, the Spurs, and community leaders – to negotiate a deal that invigorates our city, creating quality jobs, driving economic activity and providing affordable housing. It is premature to discuss any further steps at this point.”
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones
Though the city council could choose to put the revenue bonds on the ballot, it would require Jones to rally support among the rest of the council — a majority of whom voted against her back in August to move the deal forward.
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran was one of the staunchest supporters of the deal moving ahead. She noted the council hasn’t officially discussed a second election, but she believes the council is ready to move ahead on negotiations.
“I think it’s been answered through this election that the citizens of San Antonio, if we spent that money, it would be unnecessary because they’re going to vote for it,” Viagran said.
Bert Santibañez, a political consultant who worked with the Spurs-funded Win Together campaign ahead of the election, crunched the unofficial results.
He found 51.7% of City of San Antonio voters passed Prop B, compared to 52.1% of all Bexar County voters.
“This is clearly the will of the voters that it passed. And I think a — to call an additional election would be a bit redundant,” he said.
COPS/Metro, an activism coalition of local community groups, was one of the biggest opponents of Prop B. When asked about the possibility of a second election, the group sent a statement calling it an “open question.”
“There are still many, many open questions including whether or not San Antonio voters should have the opportunity to vote on the City funding. This week’s vote was just the first step for funding Project Marvel, and the term sheet remains non-binding. We will continue working to ensure that a public and accountable process takes place with the use of our public tax dollars.”
Mike Phillips, COPS/Metro Leader
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