On February 18, 2026, the San Antonio City Council received a first-quarter financial status update for FY26, a recommended FY27 budget calendar, a taxpayer impact statement proposal, and findings from a federal grants tabletop exercise. The meeting highlighted a general fund on track despite sales tax headwinds, emerging challenges in employee healthcare costs, and preparations for potential federal funding reductions.
Good afternoon. The time is now 104 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18th, and the City of San Antonio B session is called to order. Madam Clerk, please call roll. Councilmember Corps. Councilmember McKee Rodriguez. Councilmember Via Gran. Councilmember Mungia. President. Councilmember Castillo. Councilmember Galvan. Councilmember Aldereta Gabito. Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez. President. Councilmember Spears. Here. Councilmember White. Here. Mayor Jones. Mayor, we have Corum. Great. Thank you. Great. So today we're going to receive an update on the FY263 plus nine budget and finance report, the recommended FY27 budget calendar, taxpayer impact statement, and then the outcomes of the federal tabletop exercise. As we have, frankly, regardless of the topic, whether we're talking about rate increases or whether we're talking about infrastructure, we have routinely talked about the challenging economic environment that we see and that we anticipate, particularly with the implementation of the one big beautiful bill. And so each of the things today will help us understand kind of where we are, where we may have some potential leeway as we look at potentially shorting up any additional cuts at the federal level. Again, this is something that I asked Bidon not necessarily to generate all the answers, but really to help us understand what assumptions we might be making and then how we would better collaborate to mitigate any risks, at least as we understood them now, as we look to close the budget gap, understanding some of the changes in the budget may in fact affect the most vulnerable already, on top of those who will be more vulnerable once we see the federal cuts implemented. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. So uh yes, so Freddie is going to walk through our first quarter report. Um this is something we do every quarter in terms of the financial reporting to the council. It'll it'll give you an early indication of how we fared um in uh the fall of of twenty-five. Um the the report is part of our overall financial strategy to update the council on the city's fiscal position throughout the year, and our next point of uh of reference for the council will be our six plus six report, which is closely followed thereafter by um the five-year financial forecast and then the council's um budget work session. You'll Freddie will go through the calendar here with you shortly. Um you hear from Freddie uh this afternoon that our our financial position of the general fund is is in line. We've had some little bit of continued challenges with sales tax, um, but it's been mitigated by CPS revenue. Um we'll kind of point out um all the other major operating but uh funds that we have and where we stand, but but generally everything is moving uh on track. Um as the mayor mentioned, uh the back end of the we're also we've also included the taxpayer statement that was a CCR that went to governance earlier in the year and uh kind of laying out took taking the feedback of governance. Uh that is something that we would are uh expecting and recommending that we do as we go into fiscal year 27. And then the last part the mayor touched upon it, the federal uh tabletop exercise, which was um a worthwhile exercise for um us to go through as an organization and particularly the departments that were participated in that. Um I also wanted to um uh make sure that the council saw the email that Sally sent out here about a week ago that kind of gave an update in terms of the federal budget uh that was uh finally agreed upon, 11 of the 12 aspects of the federal budget and those appropriations more to come, right? It is a continued effort in kind of watching what's happening at the at the federal level. The president has yet to lay out his budget, will uh which will undoubtedly uh kind of lay that framework. The exercise was good for us to go through with our stakeholder partners because it helped narrow down the focus of who are we trying to serve, who do we need to serve, where are our vulnerable populations, and in a uh cataclysmic type of funding scenario, what do we do? Um and uh you'll hear from uh from Justina about that uh this afternoon. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Freddie. I'm the budget director for the city. And today we're gonna cover the uh FY26 first quarter financial status as well as some projections for revenues and expenses for the fiscal year. We'll also highlight some of our budget initiatives.