This story has been updated.
The City of San Antonio is facing a $158 million budget gap next year — and Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is now targeting a major city program to help make up that shortfall.
In a memo sent to San Antonio City Council members Tuesday, Jones proposed using Ready to Work funds for projects outlined in the general fund or the city’s 2027 bond, which she said could end up being lower than $600 million, after previous estimates assessed the bond capacity at $625 million.
The city-run workforce development program was approved by 77% of voters in the 2020 general election. The program used a one-eighth-cent sales tax to fund training, scholarships and job placement support for San Antonio residents through 2025.
Ready to Work has accumulated $100 million that it’s set to spend before it sunsets in 2030, but the tax is still being collected — and those funds are now being directed toward VIA Metropolitan Transit Agency projects, which voters approved in 2020. The transit agency started collecting those funds at the beginning of the year.
Jones’ letter acknowledges that any changes to the fund’s future use would require voter approval once more.
“My understanding is a public vote is needed to redirect the Ready to Work funds,” Jones said in the memo. “The city attorney is determining the scope of potential projects we could use the funds for under applicable state law.”
The changes could amount to ending the Ready to Work program early, she added.
“For illustration, if the program began winding down at the end of this year, approximately $100 million could be redirected,” Jones’ memo said.
A tight budget cycle
An early draft of San Antonio’s 2026-2027 budget called for raising property taxes as high as legally allowed without seeking permission from voters. To avoid steep increases, Jones has been closely examining city programs for possible savings, and raised the possibility of cuts to San Antonio institutions like Fiesta, the Botanical Gardens and the Book Festival.
Widely supported when it launched during former Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s tenure, Ready to Work planned to put 28,000 workers in jobs before wrapping up in 2030.
That goal was edited down to 15,600 total jobs after Ready to Work struggled to meet its initial expectations for job placements and worker pay, and faced scrutiny from City Council members.
At its budget presentation in April, Ready to Work officials said they are now on track for the 15,600-job goal. The program has placed around 2,700 workers in jobs so far in 2026, nearly doubling its total job placements from the previous two and a half years combined.
It had reached 5,756 job placements as of Tuesday, according to the program’s dashboard.
Ready to Work already had its $42.8 million annual budget approved earlier this year.
In a budget presentation in April, Ready to Work Executive Director Mike Ramsey outlined plans for spending $41.6 million in 2028, $23.5 million in 2029 and $18.2 million in 2030, a total of $83.3 million.
A similar city-funded program, Pre-K 4 SA, was reapproved by voters in 2021 at the end of its eight-year life cycle and is up for reapproval again. Ready to Work would face the same decision after its sunset in 2030.
City officials want to keep economic development
Reached Tuesday, City of San Antonio spokesman Luke Simons said that following the mayor’s memo, the City Attorney’s Office is working to figure out “what flexibility there is” to hold a public vote — and then will provide guidance to City Council.
If the program is ended early, he added, the impact will be that “fewer residents will be served, making it harder for them to access high quality in-demand jobs,” and local employers will have access to a smaller pool of trained workers
Over time, the San Antonio community “would forgo the broader economic benefits associated with successful job placements,” Simons said, such as higher household earnings, more tax revenue and economic activity, plus less reliance on public assistance programs.
“The effects would be felt most by residents who face financial and employment barriers, including low-income workers, single parents, veterans, and people seeking a second chance in the workforce,” he said.
Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) said Wednesday that she had yet to read the memo, but she supports a longer future for the program.
“We need to continue to look at our workforce, continue to bring in the qualifications and training they need,” Viagran said. “Ready to Work has taken some pivots. What I would love to see as we head toward 2029 is having a larger discussion with the community and say ‘What more would we need?’”
Viagran said improving incomes and jobs of San Antonio residents would help solve budget issues in the long-term. Keeping Ready to Work and creating qualified workers for local jobs was a part of that effort, she said.
“In order to build our revenue, we need a workforce in our community that spends and invests,” she said. “In order to do that, we need new businesses, we need new headquarters and we need to keep the headquarters that we have.”
But other council members are in support of Jones’ proposal, like Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), who has criticized the program’s failure to meet its goals in the past.
“Ready to Work hasn’t delivered the outcomes taxpayers were promised, and we owe San Antonians an honest look at why. Government can play a role in workforce development, but it was never meant to carry that job alone,” Whyte said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working with the rest of City Council to determine how we get the best return on this $100 million taxpayer investment.”
Can Ready to Work funds be moved?
If a ballot initiative was put forward in November and voters approved redirecting funds, City Council would need to choose a date to end the Ready to Work program and fund current participants through that date, Jones said.
“After the agreed-upon date, the Ready to Work program would no longer accept new applicants and would begin to wind down, so the funds may be applied to other projects,” she said in the memo.
Jones said potential participants could be directed to other local career training programs, like those at Alamo Colleges.
In an interview Monday on Texas Public Radio’s “The Source”, Jones said funds redirected from the Ready to Work program could be used for drainage and street projects that would have otherwise been included in the city’s 2027 bond.
“We’ve got real needs in the community, we’re talking about raising property taxes. I think we have to go look at where there’s money and what is the best value for the taxpayers,” she said. “We would be doing ourselves a disservice by not looking at where there’s big chunks of money, [including] the Ready to Work program.”
