Despite a months-long push, San Antonio voters will not be asked in November if they want to invest tens of millions of dollars into youth services, but the ambitious proposal is far from scrapped, according to the nonprofit behind it.

Since April, youth advocacy nonprofit UP Partnership has been organizing a coalition of youth service providers to ask City Council to put dedicated funding for such services on the ballot. That effort failed last week.

This comes as public spending on some nonprofits that serve youth has decreased, federal coronavirus recovery funds run dry and San Antonio remains one of the poorest cities in the U.S.

“We’re not going away, it’s just the beginning,” said Christina Martinez, managing director of public engagement for UP Partnership.

That coalition will try again when the next charter election opportunity presents itself and will be advocating to keep youth services off the list of any cuts from the city’s 2025 budget, said Martinez, who also serves as the president of San Antonio Independent School District’s board of trustees.

UP, which stands for “unlocking potential,” has a mission “to ensure all young people across Bexar County are ready for the future.” The nonprofit, which coordinates with youth service agencies to enhance outcomes, will also keep a close eye on council elections, CEO Ryan Lugalia-Hollon said.

“We do plan to do mayoral forums for the next candidates,” Lugalia-Hollon said, noting that the nonprofit won’t endorse candidates, but plans to vet them. Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s administration, “by and large, has done a great job for San Antonio families — and that administration is wrapping up. So whoever’s running now, what is their vision for young people?”

So far, at least three sitting council members will appear on a crowded mayoral ballot in May 2025.

Nonprofit leaders knew the proposed ballot measure — which would have asked voters if they wanted to reserve 20% of future city budget growth toward youth services — was a long shot. UP estimated that measure would set aside $10 million to $56 million for youth services annually.

Now, Lugalia-Hollon and others hope voters will see a similar measure on their ballots in the future, either by a majority council action or by petition. The latter would require collecting at least 20,000 local voter signatures.

“That’s the backup option,” he said. “But young people can’t wait and families can’t wait, so our intent is to get it done as soon as we can.”

Nirenberg’s Charter Review Commission did not discuss the idea while it deliberated for months over the mayor’s proposed amendments, despite dozens of testimonials during open comment sessions from youth advocates who asked it to. Most council members and the mayor pledged last week to support the city’s youth, but none made a motion to place that commitment on the ballot.

A May survey of likely voters commissioned by UP showed that 76% would support a measure to set aside a portion of the city budget each year to fund “child care, job skills training for youth, youth violence prevention, support for children facing homelessness and foster youth, mental health services and before- and after-school activities.”

None of the proposed funding would go to UP, Lugalia-Hollon said, instead it would go to organizations that provide direct services for youth.

Youth, who make up more than one-third of the population, don’t have a union or chambers of commerce to represent their interests, Lugalia-Hollon told City Council last week, just before the council placed six other administrative measures — some of which were supported by unions and chambers — on the ballot.

“We have to have a permanent commitment to zero to 24-year-olds and to growing that investment,” he said. “Most of them can’t vote for themselves and … most working parents are swamped and overwhelmed and often have less time to participate in political processes.”

Push for permanent funding

For some youth services nonprofits, city funding has already shrunk.

During the last budget cycle, several agencies that had previously received operating and project dollars through the city’s consolidated funding process saw that money for fiscal year 2024 reduced or cut entirely. Ultimately, City Council decides how funding for delegate agencies is allocated.

Big Brothers Big Sisters South Texas’ line item was initially proposed to be cut by 56% to $50,000 — but the organization advocated council to restore its allocation to more than $113,000.

“That’s a process that’s really hard and most organizations don’t have the experience or the resources to be able to go and do that,” said CEO Denise Barkhurst.

With federal coronavirus pandemic recovery funding now fully pledged — of which the city dedicated about $10.4 million toward youth — many in the youth services industry were looking last year for a permanent funding stream that isn’t dependent on the whims of an elected body.

“We really need to figure all this out and have designated revenue with a purpose,” Barkhurst said.

The idea to take the funding push to voters came from “national research on best practices,” Lugalia-Hollon said, and much of that has been done by the Children’s Funding Project. He is the chair of that nonprofit’s board.

UP started circulating the idea of a charter amendment during the Project’s 2023 Children’s Funding Institute at UTSA in April.

More than 50 voter-approved funds across the U.S. generate more than $1.5 billion in support for youth, according to the Children’s Fund Project’s website. Funding comes from a variety of sources including annual budget set-asides, hotel occupancy taxes, or sales taxes like San Antonio’s Pre-K 4 SA. The early education program was approved by voters in 2012 and re-upped in 2020.

The city has maxed out its sales tax and UP didn’t want to take funding away from other initiatives, Lugalia-Hollon said, so the city budget is “the best available mechanism.”

The city’s charter, which acts as a local constitution, can only be updated once every two years by voters. If any of the current measures on the ballot are approved, the soonest a children’s fund could be on the ballot is 2026.

“We actually had a more conservative ask” than other cities that set aside a percentage of the total budget, Lugalia-Hollon said. “We were only asking for a set aside of growth.”

The City of Sacramento, for example, sets aside 40% of revenue in its budget that comes from a cannabis tax.

UP and other nonprofits were expecting pushback against the idea, he said. “Most cities have to launch multiple campaigns before they get it done. It’s not a one-and-done type thing. So we were expecting that this campaign was going to be about getting the ball down the field.”

The most common concern of opponents of similar measures in other cities, and some inside San Antonio’s City Hall, has been that it would prevent future councils from responding to the shifting needs of the community.

Council will review a draft 2025 budget Thursday and is slated to finalize it on Sept. 19.

Street maintenance, homeless encampments cleanups, services to assist people experiencing homelessness and sidewalks emerged as top budget priorities for residents, according to a city-commissioned survey.

The urgency to fund youth services more fully arises from the fact that a lot of government spending is aimed at fixing issues that started in childhood that could have otherwise been prevented, Barkhurst said.

“Being in a place where we don’t have to fill those gaps would be less expensive,” she said.

A network of support

UP Partnership, formerly known as P16 Plus Council of Greater Bexar County, launched the Future Ready Bexar County plan in 2022. The plan’s “North Star” goal is to increase enrollment of recent high school graduates in postsecondary degree or credential programs from about half of Bexar County youth to 70% by 2030.

The plan currently boasts more than 100 signed institutional members, according to UP.

Last year, New York-based philanthropic investor Blue Meridian Partners, which invests in programs that target poverty, contributed $50 million to the Future Ready plan. The San Antonio Area Foundation and United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County each committed to direct $25 million toward the plan and other funding came from the Charles Butt Foundation, the H. E. Butt Foundation, USAA, the Greater Texas Foundation and Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas Inc. for a total of nearly $114 million.

“What philanthropy can do is it can demonstrate what’s possible, but it takes public funding to really scale,” Lugalia-Hollon said. “Philanthropic dollars will never be enough.”

Once it became clear the public funding proposal wasn’t going to make it on the ballot, UP sent a letter proposing a “joint revenue” task force with the city “that diligently studies and recommends lasting revenue solutions to the underinvestment experienced by children, youth, and — by extension — their families.”

On Friday, Nirenberg sent a memo establishing a new, temporary committee on Youth and Family Development to “lead a community-wide effort to evaluate how the City, Bexar County, and other local agencies distribute funds and services to improve local children and family outcomes.”

It’s still unclear when the committee will have its first meeting, but its membership includes councilwomen Sukh Kaur (D1), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) and Teri Castillo (D5). Castillo will serve as chair.  

“Our community’s youth are a priority,” Nirenberg said in a statement sent to the San Antonio Report on Wednesday. “After the [fiscal year] 2025 budget has been approved, we will begin working on a process to assess the scope of the need and potential revenue sources in our community to address unmet needs. This effort will require thorough analysis of the youth services landscape.”

And that analysis is needed, Barkhurst said. “We need to study this more.”

Now that work can begin in earnest, she said. “The fact that we’re having these conversations is amazing. That’s a victory in and of itself.”

The Charles Butt Foundation, the San Antonio Area Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries and USAA are financial supporters of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members and supporting foundations, click here. UP Partnership CEO Ryan Lugalia-Hollon’s wife, Michelle Lugalia-Hollon, sits on the San Antonio Report’s board of directors.

This story has been updated to reflect the formation of a city task force.