The city of San Antonio has adopted its $4 billion budget for fiscal year (FY) 2026, placing an increased emphasis on public safety, housing and infrastructure. The city council’s approval of the spending plan includes $1.1 billion allocated to the Capital Fund – approximately a third of which is dedicated to airport expansion.
The approved budget arranged its priorities for the coming FY into five categories:
- Infrastructure.
- Public safety.
- Affordable housing.
- Homeless and homeless encampment clean-up.
- City employee compensation.
The air transportation program will benefit from the largest portion of the Capital Fund, receiving a total investment of $648.8 million to advance expansion and renovation projects. The San Antonio International Airport will spend $519.6 million over the next year to build a new terminal and related facilities.
The city plans to invest $40.2 million in the first phase of a new parking garage structure and ground transportation center construction effort. Another $21.9 million will go toward building three ground loading gates to provide additional capacity while Terminal C is constructed.
Street infrastructure will receive the second largest amount – totaling $186.9 million, prioritizing the street and sidewalk program. A majority of the budgeted amount will go toward improving mobility, pedestrian safety, multimodal facilities and other key forms of street infrastructure. The budgeted investments include:
- Building 21 miles of new sidewalks.
- Repairing and improving 11 miles of sidewalks.
- Reconstructing streets to include sidewalks, curbs, driveway approaches and other improvements.
- Improving intersections to provide better turn lanes, drainage and traffic control.
- Implementing multimodal connections to city centers and parks.
- Integrating pedestrian amenities and safety features.
San Antonio will spend $75.8 million through FY 2026 to improve its park infrastructure and offerings, targeting new facilities, rehabilitation work and nature preservation. A selection of projects receiving funding include:
· Developing multi-use, linear trails along the city’s creekways, greenways and urban corridors.
· Buying sensitive land over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, as well as several low-impact development projects.
· Making shade improvements at various parks.
· Building a facility to support senior and constituent services, meeting space, a natatorium and other recreational features.
The city plans to use $71.1 million to build, renovate and maintain municipal facilities, with major investments in integrating clean energy solutions with city-owned buildings. These capital efforts include:
- Installing rooftop and parking canopy solar photovoltaic panels across 42 municipal sites.
- Replacing or modernizing obsolete elevators and escalators in the older portions of the Herman B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
- Building a 10,000 square foot building with a full court gymnasium, game room, classrooms and staff offices.
- Renovating the Ella Austin Community Center. Work will include building envelopes, interior modifications, building system upgrades and site improvements.
- Improving and rehabilitating public health and safety facilities.
Photo by Katie Haugland Bowen, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, from Wikimedia Commons (The image was cropped to fit on-screen requirements. No other changes were made)
