As the City Council vote on San Antonio’s $3.7 billion 2024 budget nears, council members considered Tuesday how to spend a “highly unusual” $20 million surplus in revenue from the city’s electric utility.

Council reviewed a long list of budget proposals, but there was general consensus among members that the surplus should be used to — among other initiatives — expand citywide mental health response to 24 hours, street and sidewalk projects, access to women’s reproductive health services and the Animal Care Services department.

The budget priorities discussed Tuesday are in addition to those expressed throughout the months-long budget process. Another budget work session is set for Wednesday afternoon and last-minute changes could still be made by council ahead of budget adoption on Thursday.

The one-time surplus came after the utility’s payment to the city in August was $17.5 million more than the city had anticipated. During recent close calls experienced by the Texas Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the statewide electricity grid, CPS Energy was able to sell the electricity it produced to other regions for a profit. In total, CPS Energy estimates that it earned about $104 million from such off-system sales.

City Manager Erik Walsh said the revenue, triggered by a record-breaking hot summer, was “highly unusual.”

“Never have we had that much in one month,” Walsh said. “CPS Energy [was] producing enough energy to cover San Antonio and help the rest of the state.”

Unlike last year’s $75 million utility surplus, roughly $50 million of which was returned to CPS Energy customers, this revenue does not come from local ratepayers.

Combined with September’s higher-than-expected utility revenue and subtracting lower-than-expected sales tax revenues, $20 million was added to the fiscal year 2024 budget, which is still being debated.

Each of the 11 members of council have their own priorities, but members and city staff will need to further whittle down the list of 66 budget amendments — some of which overlap, but combined would cost roughly $60 million.

Walsh suggested Tuesday that the council could allocate just $5 million of the CPS Energy surplus through the budget process and regroup in October to allocate the rest, but much of council’s conversation indicated little appetite to wait.

Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) provided his colleagues with a draft proposal of about 30 different funding requests that totaled more than $18 million.

“The air of compromise was definitely in the room [today],” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, praising McKee-Rodriguez’s proposal. “I would just urge us, as we get that final list from [Walsh], to keep that air about us because certainly there’s going to be minor tweaks to make to the very end. But if we get caught up in that process, we can unravel the good work that’s already been done here today.”

A proposal to fund organizations that support reproductive health access garnered support from most of the council.

The $500,000 Reproductive Justice Fund “would be managed by [the city’s health department] for the purpose of directly funding and supporting community based organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care services, resources and education,” Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), who proposed the fund, said Tuesday.

Those organizations could include Jane’s Due Process and the Lilith Fund, statewide nonprofits that help women travel out of Texas to get abortions, and local organizations such as Sueños Sin Fronteras and Corazón San Antonio.

In August last year, council approved a resolution in support of abortion rights, Castillo noted, and “I believe now there’s an opportunity to put some money behind that.”

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) was the only council member who made it clear that he would not support the initiative if it in any way funds access to abortions.

“I’m adamantly against this,” Whyte said. “I will always stand for life.”

Whyte said such a fund would likely open up the city to litigation as abortion is essentially outlawed in Texas.

While Senate Bill 8 allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks — the city could not, under the current law, be held criminally liable, Liz Provencio, first assistant city attorney, told reporters after the meeting.

As various abortion laws are challenged across the state, the city’s “liability will evolve” according to decisions made on appeal, Provencio said.

If the Reproductive Justice Fund is approved by council, City Attorney Andy Segovia said, “we’ll give advice to the health department [and] we’ll give advice to the city council … it all depends on what scope of services they want to provide.”

The likelihood of a lawsuit against the city may “depend on what exactly it is that we are funding,” he said. Such a fund would likely be aimed at supporting community groups that provide “an array of services” which may include abortion, a more legally defensible position.

“I don’t foresee the council saying all of [the fund] is going to go to funding out-of-state procedures,” Segovia said.

Mayor Nirenberg and council members McKee-Rodriguez, Sukh Kaur (D1), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4), Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), and John Courage (D9) expressed support for the Reproductive Justice Fund.

Courage, however, suggested a name change: Reproductive Health Fund.

“Sometimes I think by using the word ‘justice,’ we’re saying there’s some injustice that we can’t do something about — but we can do something about women’s health,” he said.

Other initiatives that several council members supported include:

Iris Dimmick was the San Antonio Report’s first managing editor and reported on government, politics and social issues from 2012 to 2025.