San Antonio’s arts and cultural organizations that rely on city funding are hoping for good news on September 17. That is when the City Council adopts a 2026-2027 budget, which may still call for spending cuts for what some local officials consider non-priorities.

As of now, the proposed total $4.4 billion budget includes $41 million in reduced expenditures as city leaders face an estimated $158 million budget shortfall, declining revenues, economic uncertainty, and the potential for a property tax rate hike.

Current council members say they do not want to cut funding for basic, essential services, such as public safety, street repairs, or the upkeep of parks. Nor do they want to be the first council members in more than 30 years to raise the property tax rate. As a result, the city is looking at measures such as cutting library positions and closing some senior nutrition programs to help close the budget deficit.

But Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has also suggested cuts to funding that the city typically provides to local arts and culture organizations and agencies. In July, Jones sent a letter to local business, foundation, and philanthropic leaders, encouraging them to consider three-year funding commitments for 15 organizations that she identified for budget reductions.

Some of those targeted groups include Avenida Guadalupe Association, Diez y Seis de Septiembre Commission, DreamVoice — the organizer of yearly DreamWeek programming — San Antonio Book Festival, San Antonio Botanical Garden, and the San Antonio Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, which organizes the city’s annual MLK march.

In all, the proposed 2026-2027 budget offers $7.85 million for 40-plus local arts and cultural agencies as well as artist grants and events, a number on par with the funding levels in the 2025-2026 budget. The aforementioned arts and cultural organizations eyed for proposed cuts received more than $2 million from the city’s 2025-26 budget, combined.

The proposed 2026-2027 budget also calls for nearly $241,000 in reductions in the city’s World Heritage office, including the elimination of the city’s gastronomy program, and a decrease in the number of outdoor exhibits at the World Heritage Center on the South Side.

Jones’ open appeal to the business and donor communities was met with little fanfare from civic leaders, and those cuts are reflected in the budget proposal. That has not stopped officials and advocates of local arts and cultural organizations and other nonprofits from rallying public support for those causes ahead of the final council budget vote.

The Nonprofit Council, a San Antonio nonprofit that has 250-plus local organizations in its membership rolls, held a September 2 press conference at City Hall, where attendees voiced their objections to the proposed budget cuts. Cory McRae, the Nonprofit Council’s advocacy chair, said budget cuts could negatively impact thousands of San Antonians served by member organizations, some of which entirely count on the city budget for their funding.

“This is more than about a budget line. It’s about what’s happening when organizations serving families, young people, seniors and people in crisis have fewer resources to do the work,” McRae said.

The San Antonio Book Festival, for its part, launched a petition drive and submitted a guest opinion piece to the San Antonio Express-News, urging city leaders to reconsider the budget cuts aimed at nonprofits such as the annual literary event.

SABF officials said their festival not only has a $3 million economic impact on the city, it also promotes local, regional, and independent authors and their publications, and shines a spotlight on the importance of literacy with the distribution of free books to thousands of local students.

“This is not frivolous spending. It is public investment in the intellectual, economic and cultural future of our city,” the commentary stated.

Outside of Jones’ plan, another budget proposal is prompting reactions of a different kind. City leaders are contemplating requiring organizers of Fiesta events to cover half of expenses tied to police security and other city support services.

The Conservation Society of San Antonio, which organizes Night In Old San Antonio, plans to lay off some event staff and revamp programming to account for a possible reduction in available money for event costs.

Officials with the conservation society are putting a positive spin on things, inviting community members to offer ideas on enhancing NIOSA, regardless of how the festival may look next year.

“We’re hitting the reset button to completely rethink San Antonio’s premier Fiesta event ‘A Night In Old San Antonio’,” the conservation society said in a Facebook post. “Right now, we feel we can dream bigger. So, we’re redesigning the experience from the ground up, and we can’t do it without your voice.”