What We’re Watching This Week
The penultimate round of budget work sessions was held this week. The long-awaited FY2027 budget had the final of its second-to-last round of work sessions yesterday. Top-line items have not changed since the vote was taken to allow a rate increase, and we will almost certainly end up with a $4.4 billion budget which raises the tax rate in some form. Various cost-saving measures came and went, including redirecting TIRZ money and ending the Ready to Work program, but none caught on. As we have argued for weeks, there was never enough political will to prevent a tax increase, so the budget work at this point is massaging the numbers on the margins according to Council’s priorities. It is because of those competing priorities that the budget will likely look structurally similar to the one proposed in the August 13 budget proposal, and though Council could vote to adopt a rate lower than the one set in August, it would be a surprise at this moment. We’re watching to see if any of the final work session items become contentious or if there’s any newfound unity on Council regarding some cuts and programs in the final days.
A new agreement with the police department, and a new chief. Yesterday, Council approved a $102 million police contract which ensures substantial raises for SAPD officers each year for the next three years. The raises themselves are backloaded, with the FY2029 raise working out to a nearly $58 million total payroll increase compared to this year. This new deal helps San Antonio remain competitive with other major Texas cities, which may improve recruitment, but continues the long-running benefits creep for police and fire that has rarely been meaningfully impeded. Also this week: Council unanimously confirmed acting Police Chief Jesse Salame as the first new Chief of Police in a generation, replacing the retired Bill McManus. Mayor Jones raised eyebrows last week by skipping the announcement press conference to do “due diligence,” but voted to confirm him Thursday. We’re watching to see if new leadership and better pay translate to a meaningful dent in crime statistics, as San Antonio continues to battle a violent crime rate that, while now falling, was more than double the national average per 100k residents in 2022 and continues to sit meaningfully higher than the national average.
Three years after walking away, two of San Antonio’s business chambers reopen talks to collaborate. Three years ago, the Greater San Antonio Chamber and the then-North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce explored a possible merger, but talks ultimately stalled. The North Chamber would later go on to merge with the South Chamber, forming the Metro SA Chamber. Now, ahead of leadership turnover at the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the boards at both organizations have voted to form a joint committee on a formal partnership. The Greater Chamber and Metro SA are the two largest of at least 13 chambers of commerce in Bexar County, representing a good share of the collective business interests of San Antonio. As interim Greater Chamber President Pat Frost takes temporary lead of the organization, we’re watching to see if a substantive agreement is reached. With a national study showing that 55% of chambers nationwide are considering mergers, it appears unlikely that San Antonio’s donor base will continue to indefinitely support a latticework of overlapping organizations. Closer collaboration between the large chambers could trim that overlap and give the business community one credible voice at City Hall if the partnership works out to be more than a joint letterhead over two boards and two payrolls.
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The Reframe
New San Antonio facility aims to boost U.S. screwworm response (Express-News) → Recruiting to our strengths, San Antonio lands a company spending tens of millions to be here. Flyttr, a biosecurity company out of Virginia with space at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, announced that it will open a 130,000 square-foot facility on the East Side that could ultimately host over 100 employees working in research, engineering, and so on. The screwworm crisis was a major factor: the outbreak is being fought a few hours south, and the company says it will be producing sterile flies within six months. But the reasons Flyttr gave for choosing San Antonio were instructive: an 85-year-old research institute with the country's only privately owned BSL-4 lab plus a workforce shaped by JBSA and Army medicine. These are things that we can build on because the cheapest growth comes from companies that need what we already have.
$256,000 spent on mayor’s travel as city considers cuts to travel budget (News 4 San Antonio) → Travel like this is the definition of discretionary spending. The reflex to allow a quarter of a million dollars in travel spending is emblematic of the cultural problem that leads us to perpetual budget increases. Not long ago, the Mayor asked business leaders to cover the nonprofit funding set to be cut. Some of those totals were in the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, the Mayor is spending $2,721 on a seat upgrade. Worth noting, this is all reviewed and ultimately approved by the city. It's very easy to spend public dollars—which is why the Mayor gets upgraded seats and businesses don't cover the nonprofit cuts.
San Antonio’s housing authority has $2.5B plan for nearly 15K apartments (Express-News) → The market is already delivering the affordability we keep trying to subsidize. Opportunity Home proposes $2.5 billion in construction, acquisitions and renovations through 2037 to secure more affordable housing. Meanwhile, San Antonio's apartment-building boom and subsequent glut of supply have helped drive average rents down nearly 10% between 2023 and the end of 2025, and rents continue to fall. More apartments meant landlords competing for tenants, cutting rents, offering concessions, and so on. That is an affordable housing achievement, and we should be at least as interested in replicating that result as we are in assembling another subsidy package. Some families will still need assistance even when market rents fall, but only 500 of Opportunity Home's 5,500 proposed new apartments would serve households earning up to 30% of the area median income—the housing the article identifies as most in demand. That is where scarce public resources should be concentrated. For broader affordability, the priority should be making it easier and cheaper to build.
South San ISD draws only three candidates for three board seats (San Antonio Report) → We cannot keep demanding better leadership while leaving critical offices ignored. South San Antonio Independent School District has three school board seats up this year and exactly three candidates, including two trustees whose governing authority was suspended in the state takeover. There will be no challengers and no races on the ballot. This is actually a recurring problem, as four races went uncontested in 2024 and these races have struggled to recruit candidates for many years. Much ink is spilled about voter turnout as a sign of civic health, with the Mayor even forming a commission on the subject, but those voters need someone to vote for. Finding capable people willing to govern deserves our attention too.
The Pick
Our weekly recommendation for what’s going on in San Antonio
Tour de las Misiones
Tour de las Misiones brings cyclists, runners and walkers to the Mission Reach this Saturday to explore the river trails and San Antonio’s historic missions. Organized by the city’s World Heritage Office as part of the World Heritage Festival, it’s a good excuse to spend a morning enjoying the city. The event runs Saturday, September 12, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., starting at Mission County Park.
Thanks for another week. Follow us on your platform of choice: X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. Story tips and reader notes go to our reporter Jarrett Whitener at jarrett@thecivic.com, and my inbox is always open.
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Enjoy your weekend and see you Tuesday.
- Philip Reichert
Editor, The Civic
Given that SA remains a nat'lly ranked poor, impoverished, & economically segregated city, which obviously impacts "budget talks", and given that we take pride in greatly expanding "affordable housing" for the next generation, when will see ever celebrate that we have a strong, healthy, market economy to diminish affordability needs, to reveal that the 5O-yr, narrow, limited, "urban planning model" has been replaced by another framework which understands socioeconomic development, economic well-being, and economic policy, rather than state-led capitalism? Where is that competence toward such a worthy, adopted Vision?