{"id":969631,"date":"2026-07-30T19:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/969631\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:08:24","slug":"at-a-town-hall-jones-makes-the-case-for-ready-to-work-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/969631\/","title":{"rendered":"At a town hall, Jones makes the case for Ready to Work changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

With San Antonio staring down a $158 million budget deficit, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones devoted much of a town hall Wednesday night to preparing residents for difficult financial decisions ahead \u2014 including defending her proposal to ask voters to end the city\u2019s Ready to Work workforce development program early instead of raising property taxes.<\/p>\n

Speaking to dozens of District 1 <\/strong>residents at Edison High School, Jones argued the city should exhaust every available option before asking taxpayers to pay more, describing a financial outlook she said has worsened in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a $158 million budget gap,\u201d Jones said. \u201cFor context, if you closed every library, if you closed all of Animal Care Services, if you took all of the money in the general fund out regarding public health, you\u2019d still have to go find another $20 million.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones said after meeting with City Manager Erik Walsh earlier Wednesday, the proposed budget scheduled for release Aug. 13 is expected to include even deeper cuts than council members had previously anticipated, though she declined to identify which programs could face additional reductions before the proposal is unveiled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added that the city\u2019s next bond program \u2014 which funds major capital projects like streets, sidewalks, drainage improvements and parks \u2014 is now expected to be significantly smaller than originally projected because property values have not grown as anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how we get after those projects, drainage, in infrastructure projects, parks, etc. In the 2022 bond, we had a $1.2 billion dollar capacity,\u201d she said. \u201cThis year, we were expecting ideally something similar, but based on where property values are, we were initially at $600 million. We will now be south of $600 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said the combination of a shrinking bond program and widening budget deficit has forced city leaders to reconsider ideas that may have previously been politically untouchable.<\/p>\n

Chief among the ideas she\u2019s pushing is asking voters to allow the city to redirect roughly $100 million remaining in the Ready to Work program. Approved by voters in 2020, the program is funded through a one-eighth-cent sales tax and was created to help residents earn workforce credentials and secure higher-paying jobs after the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

While state law limits how the remaining sales tax revenue can be spent, Jones said several eligible programs \u2014 including literacy promotion, after-school programs and job training initiatives \u2014 are currently funded through the city\u2019s general fund. Redirecting Ready to Work dollars to those programs with voters\u2019 approval, she said, would free up general fund money for public safety, street maintenance and drainage projects.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks to residents during a District 1 town hall at Edison High School on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Where council stands on Ready to Work<\/p>\n

Jones would need six votes, including her own, to put the question to voters. She would need to find three more \u201cyes\u201d votes ahead of Aug. 17 to meet the November ballot deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Sukh Kaur (D1), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Teri Castillo (D5) and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) have all said they don\u2019t want to end the Ready to Work program early.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two conservative voices on the council, Misty Spears (D9) and Marc Whyte (D10), both expressed support for the idea.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Edward Mungia (D4) and Marina Alderete Gavito (D7)\u00a0 have expressed openness to discuss the proposal while Jalen McKee Rodriguez (D2) and Ric Galvan (D6) have not publicly taken a stance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to the press after the town hall, Jones said the scale of the deficit requires creative thinking like looking at the Ready to Work budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are talking about raising garage sale permits. What are we going to raise them to? $25,000 apiece? Let\u2019s be serious,\u201d Jones said. \u201cMy priority remains not raising people\u2019s property taxes in this very difficult time. So yeah, we\u2019re going to go through the intellectual exercise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not every community member at Wednesday\u2019s town hall was ready to support ending Ready to Work early.\u00a0<\/p>\n

District 6 resident Elijah Serena said he wants more information before deciding whether redirecting the remaining funds is the right approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily wholeheartedly agree with it or disagree with it,\u201d Serena said. \u201cI need to see what that funding would be going to if it were to be redirected \u2014 where would it go, and in what amounts?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Serena said he has questioned whether Ready to Work duplicates the workforce training already available through organizations like Alamo Colleges, but said he would need to see evidence that the program isn\u2019t filling a unique role before he\u2019d vote to end it early.<\/p>\n

Looking for cuts<\/p>\n

Jones also reiterated her recent call for corporations, foundations and philanthropists to help cover the cost of nonprofit organizations that currently receive city funding, arguing taxpayers shouldn\u2019t be asked to pay more before the city seeks private support.<\/p>\n

Last month, Jones floated eliminating city funding for nonprofits that charge admission, including the San Antonio Botanical Garden and San Antonio Book Festival. <\/p>\n

Wednesday, she doubled down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have yet to meet the person that says, \u2018Yes, please raise my property tax so you can give the Botanical Garden a million dollars,\u2019\u201d Jones said, drawing applause from many in the packed cafeteria.<\/p>\n

While the budget discussion dominated much of the nearly hour-long town hall, residents also questioned Jones and city department leaders about everything from homelessness, pedestrian safety, Animal Care Services, neighborhood infrastructure projects, data centers and the city\u2019s response to federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks to residents during a District 1 town hall at Edison High School on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The proposed budget is scheduled for release Aug. 13, with City Council expected to spend the coming weeks debating spending cuts, potential revenue increases and whether to place the Ready to Work measure before voters ahead of the Aug. 17 ballot deadline.<\/p>\n

Listen to this story:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With San Antonio staring down a $158 million budget deficit, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones devoted much of a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":969632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,9491,107621,193129,58248,59294,167262,27146,63230,17797,49500,49501,21469,39895,175327,95061,140639,83339,7202,7203,37446,49502,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,20705,389356],"class_list":["post-969631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-animal-care-services","tag-book-festival","tag-botanical-garden","tag-city-of-san-antonio","tag-edison-high-school","tag-edward-mungia","tag-erik-walsh","tag-ivalis-meza-gonzalez","tag-jalen-mckee-rodriguez","tag-marc-whyte","tag-marina-alderete-gavito","tag-mayor-gina-ortiz-jones","tag-mayor-jones","tag-misty-spears","tag-phyllis-viagran","tag-ready-to-work","tag-ric-galvan","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-sukh-kaur","tag-teri-castillo","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wc-750-1000","tag-workforce-program"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}