On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beemer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beemer.

Fire, everybody.

And thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beemer, and this week we are starting with San Antonio's mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones.

Thank you very much for joining me.

Busy time.

You're working on the budget.

There's all kinds of other things we'll be talking about as part of the budget.

You had mentioned and made headlines recently about the botanical garden and whether or not the city should still be funding that, given the $158 million budget gap that you have.

Explain what you'd like to have happen with with that botanical garden and maybe some other nonprofits.

So at the end of the day, with $158 million budget gap, which is what the city is facing down, we have to protect those things principally that keep people safe, right?

Keep people healthy.

And so that is where my focus is.

I know there's been a tension on kind of how I would get there, but, you know, you have to do those things and look at all of each of these issues, because at the end of the day, we've got potentially major cuts.

And we're also looking at a potential property tax increase, which we haven't done in 30 years.

And so if I go ask somebody to raise their property taxes, then I want to make sure that I can explain the due diligence that we've done right.

Which is why I've asked the city manager, let's make sure we've collected all that private debt that we are still owed.

Right.

Let's make sure that ters money, that that money and the tax increment reinvestment zone, that money that we forego from the general fund to allow these kind of certain projects right, to, to, to develop, you know, some of those things.

Is it right for some of that money to come back into the general fund?

Right.

So and then, of course, yes, the ways in which we invest in things, and I take particular interest in those kinds of things, whether it be the botanical garden, whether it be like fiesta events, right, that the city subsidizes.

We subsidize those things.

And there was a list at the that the city staff provided that was an exemplar of things that could be looked at.

For.

Potential cuttings.

So let me finish this point though.

So the botanical garden in this last year they received $1,080,000.

So in the next year they were anticipated to receive 1.2 million.

So the recommendation would be they instead of 1.2 million, they received 1 million.

Even if we did just cut them from 1.2 to 1 just last year, they got 1,000,080 K, their cut would actually only be 80 K. I have a really hard time justifying to the taxpayers of San Antonio giving the garden $1 million when we're also looking at cutting nutrition centers, cutting program elsewhere across the city, etc., etc.. So Botanical Garden has $48 million in assets.

Go look at their 990.

And this is this is where we're at, right.

We have to ask these questions.

Go look at their 990.

We're going to be real smart about these things because we just don't have endless resources.

And we have real needs in this city.

Yes.

Events.

That's right.

There's one event, the in Market Square.

And we went through this.

And folks remember they are now charging a fee to for security to come into their event.

However, the city just for that one event, the city still subsidizes that event through cops and trash to the tune of $700,000.

One event, right?

And so there was a proposal to no longer do that.

The 700.

But that's only my understanding, is half of what the city subsidizes for Fiesta events.

So again, these are entity.

And I'm not saying these are not great events for the community.

I'm just saying if you charge a ticket fee, you have other revenues, revenue streams, right to offset those costs.

And the people in Antonio should not be subsidizing.

Those people might not understand the budget process is that budget was presented to you, our proposed budget from the city manager with that 1 million for the botanical garden, where does it go next in terms of cuts and how does that process work?

Yeah, so we had an initial initial look.

Right.

We'll be presented with a budget on the on August 15th.

And again the recommendation is a property tax increase.

Right.

And so before I sign us up for that I want to make sure we've done the due diligence.

And we're cutting out the fat cutting out the fat.

Because let's be very clear, we're not only looking at a property tax increase not once, but potentially twice.

Next.

Two years, right?

Well, no, the second property tax would be to increase the bond capacity.

Right now we're only at 600 million, right.

The last bond capacity was 1.2.

But that's streets and sidewalks.

That's drainage right.

That's facilities etc., etc.. Oh by the way, there's that downtown infrastructure, right.

220 250 million is what is anticipated for that based on the last estimate.

So that's in the 600 million.

That's in the 600.

That's right.

Now they may change that that estimate.

But that's the last number they gave us.

So that's the last number I'm operating off of all that to say a rate raising property taxes.

At the same time we are seeing.

Right.

We're still going to see those cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Chip and Snap, based on the federal level, price of eggs hasn't come down, have they?

Price of gas still tough right.

So these are all the things that are informing certainly my thoughts.

What kind of pushback have you had on, say, the Botanical garden?

I know some people have said no, that's that's a city institution or they believe it's a city institution.

And given what you might have to do, what kind of pushback do you expect on that kind of thing?

I think so.

I mean, one, I'm actually one of the one of the nice byproducts of this actually has been the very thoughtful conversation folks are having about this, and I've appreciated that feedback that I've received because it's like, well, why do one?

We subsidize them, and yet I still get charged 20 bucks when I go pay admissions, right?

These are fair questions for people to ask.

The botanical garden in other cities is free.

Okay, so look, I. Think my city's.

Not to the tune.

I mean, the last.

Again, this is just an example, but this is the kind of intellectual exercise we need to go to.

I think the last 990 that I looked at for the San Antonio Botanical Garden, they received $3.2 million in government grants.

That's a lot of government grants.

Okay.

And I'm not saying I don't like the botanical gardens.

I'm just saying, y'all, we have $158 million budget gap.

And now also in the paper this week, an op ed by one of the foundation presidents, I believe, San Antonio Area Foundation, about the new campaign of all hearts on deck, recognizing that the city has budget issues, how much do you expect or want them to ask for, say, through the United Way and other things to to fund some of the nonprofits that you have funded in the past?

Well, if you remember, during that same budget discussion where I talked about not only that, but also looking at our $150,000 contribution to the Antonio Book Festival, I said, these are these are good things for the community.

I just don't know if there's an Antonio taxpayer needs to pick them up.

And that's why I said yes.

We need more help from corporate, from corporate donations, philanthropy, foundations and other communities.

That is where some of these things are funded.

And so when I and I actually reached out to the head of the Area Foundation, probably about probably about three weeks ago at this point, and made exactly this point in part because I, you know, I look at what other cities are doing, San Diego's area foundation, for example, late fall when they were looking at their own budget challenges, as well as what was happening at the federal level.

Those folks came together and raised $70 million, right?

So I asked, hey, you know, is this something that might be possible in our in our own community?

So I'm thankful that this effort has has come together.

I'm not sure how recent that is.

I'd like to it'd be helpful to see a number right.

That is raised so that we can all plan for that.

How about Chief William McManus announced last week that he was retiring early.

So as of this week, we're looking at an interim police chief.

Where are you in the process?

And were you surprised by that announcement by the chief?

Well, look, I certainly wish the chief best of luck, I think.

Yes, we were operating off of a different timeline.

So, you know, an exit of almost 70 days early is is is what it is.

But, you know, I respect his choices and respect his service.

I wish him the best.

Of luck.

The ice facilities still planned on the east side.

Recently it was announced that or they talked about seven of the warehouses out of 11 that Ice had bought.

They're not.

They're at least going to put off decisions on those because of lawsuits and other complaints.

Where are we in this?

It's going to and it's going to be a processing facility they want, not a detention center.

So I've submitted several letters to the Ice officials.

Again, open lines of communication is really important as we balance public safety and public trust here.

So we received a letter in the mail in late June.

And what that articulated is it confirmed a timeline, a processing facility about 1000 to 2500 a day, and it would be operational in the second quarter of fiscal year 27, so between January and March of next year.

And that was new pieces of information.

I responded quickly.

One reiterated my opposition, of course, to this facility in our community and wanted to ensure as well that when they are making renovations to this facility, we have a permitting process at the city that would be very useful for them to to use in the interests of transparency in us, ensuring that we know exactly what is was what is happening there.

But I continue to oppose this.

I mean, I think this is terrible for our city.

I think it's terrible in particular for the East Side, which is why Sage, the nonprofit economic development group on the East Side, was very vocal in, in in their support for, again, the ordinance that we passed last year that would zone these these things and not these for profit ones in certain.

Areas and other ways that you might be able to fight this.

Some other states have actually sued by the state.

I think it was in Michigan and in Georgia.

They shut off the water literally to the building.

Is that kind of thing that you could do or looking.

At what I've asked, what I asked for in the letter is not only, again, a request that they use our processes, right.

But secondly, we need better clarity on where they are in their environmental review.

This is the Nepa process, right?

This is normally a process that is done before a property is purchased.

And so the fact that they're doing it after the fact is odd.

So we need more transparency into what they've actually done.

So when the public comment portion of that takes place, people can actually knowledgeably comment on what's taking place.

This was a warehouse that was built recently.

It's one of the newest, biggest.

Largest warehouse in San.

Antonio so that you would not expect to have the EPA turn that down because of environmental issues, say, in.

The paper.

I mean, a 640,000 square foot warehouse was not built to house people.

Right?

And so those are the environmental conditions that we also need to be accounted for in that process.

How about the Spurs and you send some letters on to Michael Dell a couple of months ago asking maybe for.

Michael Dell.

He's been busy.

He's been at the white House.

He's he's now he's one of the Spurs owners.

And you'd ask maybe for him.

I'm not sure how you phrased it in the letter.

I'd like you to help pay for the pay for the arena and a portion or all of of the 489 million have not received a response.

But look, I've done what I know to what I think is appropriate, which is ask those that can pay to put in more, have not received a response.

The other thing you were going to you mentioned asking me about I do believe, right.

I do believe the San Antonio Spurs should play their home games here in San Antonio.

I think I think, you know, until Austin taxpayers start chipping in for this arena or frankly, any of it then then, you know, until that changes, right?

This is this is.

Our cuts the room nights.

Now the county okayed this yesterday.

They had done it in the past up to four games outside the city.

Although they argue that, you know, like the NBA finals, you get so much more recognition now internationally it's going to be France and UK.

Everyone knows the San Antonio Spurs like I mean, but also I think there's I don't want to discount also the economic piece of this.

Right.

Which has always been part of for example, it certainly was during the propositions, the economic piece, the jobs and whatnot.

Well, our arena, hourly workers and the small businesses, local businesses that would only benefit by the home games being played in San Antonio.

They don't benefit when those games are played elsewhere.

So I think those San Antonio Spurs are well known.

Toyota plant.

Yeah.

Just this week we heard about more than $3 billion investment overall new 2000 jobs.

What in addition to that are you looking at?

Maybe in that area, is there anything on the back burner that you're pushing for?

Well, I mean, as anyone knows, that's driven in that area.

It's booming, right?

And it's very exciting, which is why we continue to push and argue for things like the South Texas Parkway that would connect 35 and 37 and really just help with traffic in that in that area.

But it is very exciting that Toyota's announcement, which is not only good for their presence, but as you know, what's key to that has also been all the on site suppliers, right?

Which is a key contributed there.

There was also, though, a key lesson learned for myself and the city Council through that process.

So as a result of state chapter economic development code, you know, when a city gives incentives like that, 10% of that can be asked of that recipient to invest in what, just for a shorthand called the community benefit, right?

So, for example, child care.

And I believe that's what Toyota's going to invest in here.

However, we were not able to account CPS and saw as contribution toward that.

So a lesson learned for us because by not doing that, that was $8 million.

That isn't allowed at this point.

So you want to go to the legislature and have them change.

Change it so that cities that own their municipal, their own, their you, their utilities can count that contribution toward the incentive.

So our 10% is higher.

Tax rate increase.

You mentioned that earlier.

Are you looking.

Well, first of all, what are you what's proposed right now and what would you like to see instead.

Well, I mean.

If there is one.

Well so so there's as I mentioned, there's a property tax increase potentially looking at one for the budget but also for the bond.

And so those are two different circumstances.

One for the budget.

I think there's some still outstanding things.

Right.

What's the status of that private debt.

That's the city.

How have we review the status of the ters to understand how much some how might some of those things actually be right to come back into the general fund?

Because to me, it's not just property tax or no property tax.

Right.

There are grades of this.

There is there are numbers, different numbers that it could potentially be.

So I think until we have a good idea of of that, we have gotten everything back into the general fund.

I think it may be premature to look at what a property tax amount might be.

And sometimes in late summer, CPS reveals, hey, we made more money than we thought and that may help with that budget gap.

Or you're looking at that as early.

But that's right.

I mean that's that also helps with what their potential rate increase may be.

Right.

So yes, that's still outstanding.

CPS is a strategic advantage.

They are the largest contributor to our general fund at this point.

If there is a tax rate increase and it would be again tax rate, our property taxes have gone down, which is one reason you need the tax rate increase.

So it may not be a net increase for the average taxpayer as much.

Is that how you would sell that to.

I'm not talking about selling anything at this point.

I'm talking about making sure that whatever we've got, we that we understand how we have covered down on the most essential things in our budget and and if we need that right to cover down on some other things.

The reality is there are some costs that are just beyond our control at this point.

Right.

So for example, as you know, the largest pieces of our budget have to do with public safety.

And so there are things written into both of their contracts.

Well, we just don't have a lot of leeway.

Right.

So we have to account for those things.

And because of that, if we don't have an increase in revenue, right then, then we do have to look at some cuts, which is why I asked the city manager, you know, we have a financial policy now that we budget, excuse me, that we balance our budget over the two years.

However, our five year deficit growth increased 17% in one year.

So we always have that five year outlook.

When we did this exercise last year, our five year deficit was if we did, nothing was 224 million.

This year.

If we did nothing, we looked at 2031 one second we get to 264.

That's a 17% increase in your deficit growth in one year.

That's unsustainable, which is why I think we also need to find a policy that caps out your growth, i.e.

hey, it can't be more than 10% because then you're actually going to start looking at revenue.

One other issue and you may know more about it.

Your military background, the Defense Health Agency looking at having their headquarters here, County is pushing for that city is pushing for that, though we don't have apparently five we're short $5 million for renovating the big building on the east side.

Where are you on that?

We had a defense official in last week.

Is looking likely that we would get that and win.

Well, so I sat down with the individual that you're speaking about.

And as they were looking at facilities all across the all across the city, and I think they know that there is no better location than San Antonio, not only given the presence they have here, the quality of life, but also the defense, health, infrastructure and ecosystem that we have here.

When we look at again what UT San Antonio offers, we look at partners like Velocity Texas even.

Right.

These are great entities to be near with, to collaborate with, etc., etc.. So I think it's it's I think there's a lot of excitement about what is what is potential here.

But of course you've got to make the the dollars and cents.

Do you have a timeline on that decision yet from them?

No, and I don't think they do either.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

A lot to talk about and a lot we got through.

Thank you very much, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, appreciate you coming in.

Thanks, Randy.

On reporter's roundtable this week, we are talking one of the headlines, literally, that you saw in the Express News.

Toyota picked San Antonio for a $3.6 billion expansion total.

Here to talk about that.

A reporter who wrote that story.

Kelsey Brown, thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

Now this we have been hearing recently about an axle production line that's going to be built there.

This is totally in addition to that.

And bring it back to me, I think.

Right.

Yeah.

Correct.

So it is finishing up a $530 million rear axle plant that's going to start operations at the end of this year, adding 411 jobs to the South side plant.

But this new expansion is 3.6 billion.

And it's going to bring 2000 jobs to the South Side plant.

What's the timeline for that?

As you kind of mentioned, the Tacoma used to be produced in San Antonio.

It was moved to Baja California in 2021.

And now over a four year period, they're going to move it back to.

Baja California in the US Baja.

So now why was that.

Was it tariffs.

They haven't said tariffs.

They've mentioned the USMC agreement.

Fiscal year 2025.

They saw nearly 20% drop in profit.

There was about 9 billion in operating income that went to tariffs that year as well.

So hasn't said it was tariffs.

They've more more so talked about the US agreement.

But President Trump did say that it was his tariffs has coming back.

Now the 3.6 billion that's in Toyota's investment.

What kind of economic impact are we going to see in San Antonio.

Yeah I talked to Sarah Carrabba's rush.

She's the CEO and president of Greater San Antonio.

She estimated that for every job that Toyota creates, there's going to be four additional jobs created.

And so she's seeing an impact of about 30,000 direct and indirect jobs created from this expansion, which she equated to about $8.45 billion in just job impact alone from this expansion.

And this is the expansion of Toyota itself as a company.

But there are a number of suppliers out there as well.

We expect that.

Or is that something still to be seen?

Definitely.

I think that's what that number encapsulates as well, is all the suppliers on the campus as well.

And are we going to see more housing out there?

You expect and we've seen more health care building out there.

Is that is that one of the things we can expect as part of those extra jobs?

Yeah, I think that's what Caribbean is kind of referring to, that there's going to be a boom of housing and a restaurants, groceries, everything to support this as more jobs are coming to that area.

You have also written about nuclear micro reactors, which people might wonder, what's a micro reactor coming to Texas?

Yeah.

Well, I think when people think about nuclear power, you think of these giant plants, which traditionally that's what it has been.

Those are really expensive to build, and they can take up to like ten years to build.

South Texas nuclear plant.

Yeah, that's that's our form of nuclear.

We have we've been invested in that for over three decades.

CBS is kind of finishing a deal right now, its $80 million deal to increase their ownership by 2%.

But looking down in the long term, CBS wants to eventually acquire these nuclear reactors, which are smaller.

They're modular.

So if you have like two nuclear micro ones acting up, you can shut it down and the other one could keep working.

They're affordable, they're safer, but they aren't commercial yet.

So that's why we're talking about the future.

CBS had said late 2030s and hoping the price will go down, because it's also a very expensive technology still.

Joint Base San Antonio is talking about that at Fort Sam Houston.

Is that where is the timeline on that?

Do we know.

I haven't done too much coverage on that specific one, so I'm not sure about the timeline, but that is kind of the first project that we're seeing in San Antonio with a micro nuclear.

Reactor, but not the first in Texas, because that's one of the things that the data centers have talked about in terms of how they would get all this power that they need.

Yeah, I talked to a professor from UTSA who kind of saw micro nuclear reactors as a solution to data centers being so energy hungry.

If each one had their own generator, then that would kind of reduce the strain on the grid that we're all kind of fearing.

With data centers flocking to Texas.

What about the kind of pushback, or is there any yet to these micro nuclear reactors?

We've seen a lot of pushback to data centers because of the power needs and the water needs.

Has there been anything like that yet, or are they still too under the radar?

Yeah, I haven't heard too much pushback yet.

I think, like you just mentioned, data centers are on the front of everybody's mind, and there's so much vocal opposition to that.

But I think because nuclear reactors are kind of still on the horizon to being something that's in our face every day.

I haven't heard too much pushback about it so far.

And you've also written about the screw worm problem coming to Texas across the country from Mexico.

Where are we in that?

So the first case was found June 3rd and a three day old calf in the prior.

And it's been a little bit over a month since then.

And we have 32 cases.

All but one are in Texas.

What's the threat?

Yeah.

So a female through on fly will look for a wound or a warm Orpheus to lay its eggs.

Once those eggs hatch, the larvae burrow into the animal and feed on its life flesh.

So it can be very detrimental for animals, but it's also treatable.

So in that first calf that was found, they were able to give it topical treatment and injectable antibiotics.

And within six days it was back to normal, healthy.

You can still move your cattle, sell it so it doesn't have to be detrimental.

But again, it's not just cattle.

It's even understand some non-farm animals can get this.

Yeah.

So it's been found in cattle, sheep, goat and then two dogs, one dog in New Mexico, the other one in Texas.

So that's so far where we're seeing it.

There's also a big fear of this getting into the wild populations, where there isn't the same amount of surveillance or access to treatment that obviously livestock producers have.

And the one way they're trying to fight this is through sterile flies.

Is it?

Or sterile screw worms.

How does that work?

Yeah.

So screw worm was a big issue back in the 1960s.

It's come and gone in different periods of time.

We eradicated it in 1966 by deploying about 500 million sterile flies a week.

And so we're using that same effort to fight it now.

But the problem is we don't have the same capacity to produce the flies.

So when the first case was found, we had one facility that was jointly operated by the US Department of Agriculture and Panama's Ministry of Agriculture Development, and that facility could only put out 100 million flies a week.

I think at the end of last month, they opened a new facility in Mexico.

It was a fruit fly facility.

They converted it into a sterile fly facility, and by the end of July it should be producing, I think, 9 million.

But it's not.

It's going to take until the end of the year to get that up to 100 million.

There were still at 200 million flies.

And we need the 500 million flies a week to eradicate it.

And how will that be dispersed or rationed throughout the country or Texas?

So when somebody has a case, they report it to the USDA.

The U.S.

will go deploy flies to that area.

I'm writing an article that should be going live this weekend that talks more about this, but it's really interesting.

They're using AI also to optimize the the shortage, shortage of flies we have.

How can we make the most impact with them.

And so they're using AI to try out different methods of like what density, what duration of flies and also trying to project where could this fly be three weeks from now to try to get ahead of it?

And so do they disperse these flies in the on a ranch.

And then in that area of the ranch, how will that work?

Yeah.

So if the case is they'll release some where they're found, like if a ranch has a case, they'll go to that ranch and deploy them there.

But then I guess based off of where the AI says it could pop up in three weeks, still go out there and deploy flies as well.

Anyway, that we can predict what it's doing in Texas or maybe even into this area.

Yeah, I don't really know how to predict that, but.

AI does.

Yeah, I'm not AI, unfortunately.

It's gradually growing.

You know, like there is the fear that we have the shortage, but it's also like it's important to remember this isn't a horde of lotus.

It's not there popping up one at a time.

And the squirrel fly is a pretty solitary insect.

They only kind of get together when they need water and want to mate, so it's like a slow on ramp, but it's definitely going higher.

And they have to have a wound or something like that generally to get into the animal.

So people will say, oh my gosh, it's in dogs.

Just keep an eye out for that.

And ranchers are doing that right now anyway.

Yeah, that's kind of the main response is that there just needs to be an increased surveillance for ranchers, which can be hard because I think back in the 1960s when they eradicated it, originally ranching looked a lot different.

There were a lot more ranch hands on on the land, like maybe 7 to 8 people riding horseback every day.

And now ranching is a little bit more passive.

So ranchers are having to kind of beef up the way.

Looking at the animals.

Yeah.

Which is hard when they're spread across acres of land.

So that's kind of the challenge.

Thank you very much.

You can read more of her stories in the actual newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News.

We appreciate you joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

Download the podcast at KLRN.org I'm Randy Beemer and Old Paper Boy, and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.