Mayor Jones floats ending Ready to Work early to redirect funds to San Antonio’s budget shortfall 6%
By Jasper Kenzo Sundeen7%
7/22/2026, 12:43:35 AM
Keywords: Budget Deficit, City Council, Gina Ortiz Jones, Ready To Work, Top Story, Type Daily, Wc 750 1000
BS Summary: This article contains 2 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 7.7% saturation with 58 hits. Analysis detected 116 faulty-reasoning hits from 756 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 22.8% and a BS Rank of 6% (19,258 of 20,497 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.00% of the article peer group.
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.
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 representative for the Ready to Work program did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
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.
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.”
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