Vol. 71, Issue 6
O c to b e r 7 - O c to b e r 1 4 , 2 0 2 5
Est. 1981
THE PAISANO
Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio Community
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38,000 go unpaid amidst government shutdown San Antonio City Manager, UT San Antonio President claim minimal short-term impact
By Jasmine Williams Managing Editor
A
fter Congress failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, the U.S. government shut down. The shutdown went into effect with the start of Fiscal Year 2026 at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1. San Antonio city leadership and UT San Antonio leadership are unaware of what effect a long-term shutdown may have on the community. However, they suspect that the short-term impact will be negligible. “The short-term impact is nothing to us,” City Manager Erik Walsh said in a press conference addressing the impacts of the shutdown. “We will anticipate that in the short term, as Washington, D.C. continues to deal with
“The short-term impact is nothing to us.” this issue, operations and programs will continue. “If we go past two to three months, we’ll start to see some impacts. I can’t guess what may or may not happen over the next three months in Washington DC. We’ll continue to monitor that and then keep the mayor and the council updated on any potential impacts as they develop.” While the federal government is shut down, federal workers will not be paid. Essential employees will still be required to show up to work, and nonessential employees may be furloughed or temporarily discharged; however, they are entitled to back pay for work completed during the shutdown. As of August 2025, there are over 38,000 federal employees in San Antonio. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones highlighted how local federal employees will be affected. “I think it’s also very important many of our federal workers are themselves veterans,” Jones said. “As we look at some of the DOGE cuts already that have happened in our community that are
impacting the services to our veterans, this is another impact to our civil servants, which disproportionately, I think, affects our veterans. “We’re looking at all of that and making sure that we are best supporting the federal workforce in and out of uniform here in our community.” On Sept. 30, UT San Antonio President Taylor Eighmy sent out an email to the student body regarding the university’s preparations for a government shutdown. The email read, “We are in communication with our federal delegation, our Governmental Relations team, UT System leaders, and campus leadership teams to best prepare for this shutdown. If it occurs, we will continue to provide information to you as quickly as we can.” Addressing the impact of a government shutdown, the email stated, “For most students, including those receiving federal financial aid, short-term shutdowns typically have caused little disruption. Research and grant activities, however, may be impacted if federal agencies pause new awards, delay reimbursements or issue stop-work orders. T h e longer a shutdown lasts, the greater the potential impact. For patient care
services, we expect reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to continue as an essential function; however, we are monitoring closely.” A webpage containing frequently asked questions centered on government shutdowns and UT San Antonio was linked as a resource available to students for more information. According to the webpage, as of Oct. 1, “the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is not updating the PubMed database and is not fulfilling interlibrary loan requests via Docline. PubMed searches will not be up-to-date or complete.” NLM services were cut off immediately and will remain unavailable until Dec. 31. The webpage continued, “In addition, borrowing of digital materials and print loans from other government libraries will be affected. This includes institutions such as the CDC, Walter Reed, Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston, and other U.S. Armed Forces medical libraries, which have designated themselves as inactive.” As the government shutdown continues, additional impacts on the City of San Antonio and UT San Antonio are anticipated. Continue reading pasisano-online.com for future updates.
Mayor discusses FY 26 investments, next steps for SA Jones addresses infrastructure progress, job opportunities coming to Alamo City By Marisela Cruz News Editor Concluding her first 100 days in office and approving the FY 26 budget for San Antonio, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones comments on next steps. A city survey was sent out to record what residents want the city budget to invest in before the city council decided where to allocate the funds. Affordable housing was the top choice, with 38.8% of residents choosing it as a top priority. Jones highlighted investments in infrastructure and job opportunities as important goals to achieve to support community needs. Explaining how costs are rising, Jones details that the city council is trying to mitigate the affordability issue. “The council is committed to making sure we’re doing
everything we can to help address housing affordability challenges in our community. I think we all recognize we wanted to go much further. And we’re not only thinking about the budget, but also the great interest in another affordable housing bond,” said Jones. The next fiscal year bond is expected to be much smaller than the previous year’s. Jones explains that it looks like it will come out to be around $500 million. “$500 million doesn’t go as far as it used to just even a year ago, right? So I think it’s going to be important moving forward that we’re balancing our interest in expanding affordable housing in our community, while also making sure that we’re investing in things like infrastructure and downtown revitalization efforts,” Jones explains. When commenting on what infrastructure projects are
Diego Cisneros/The Paisano
Mayor Jones answers residents questions after town hall meeting at the Southside Lions Senior Center on Sept. 4.
being funded by the FY 26 capital delivery department, Jones explains that there are still projects in need of completion that already exist. “Recognizing that we need to go faster on some of the major projects. We still have some outstanding projects from previous bonds, 2017, 2022 and so I think that we need to manage those a little bit differently,” said Jones. Of the 182 projects funded by the 2017 bond, 89% of the projects are completed. Compared to the 188 projects from the 2022 bond, only 13% are completed, with 16.54% off schedule. “Delayed projects, not only are they frustrating, whether they are delayed, it’s the small businesses that are impacted by those delays. Managing the delivery of those major projects, and communicating with all the stakeholders, is really important,” explained Jones. Regarding the recent awareness of San Antonio being ranked as the third most impoverished metro area in the U.S., Jones explains her message to the city council members and their duties for serving the city. “I laid out in the memo that I shared when I assigned people to their council committees, I said, ‘Everybody’s job, regardless of what your actual job is. Everybody’s job is to think of their work in terms of two goals, which is one, reducing poverty, and two, making our community as economically competitive as possible,’” explained Jones. Jones emphasizes short-term opportunities and longterm opportunities to reduce poverty in San Antonio. How that starts is with investing in accessible education and an aggressive approach to bringing good jobs to San Antonio, as Jones explained during an interview with the Paisano. “I will certainly do my part to highlight San Antonio and try to recruit businesses to come here, especially those that are going to be good paying jobs. This is a concern of mine as we go into 2027,” said Jones. At Jones’ previous town hall meeting on Sept. 4, she brought up the Taiwanese electrical manufacturing association to generate more jobs for the San Antonio area. Jones reiterates her recruitment efforts when explaining job opportunities brought to the city. “So just a couple of weeks ago, I recruited a Taiwanese delegation to come to San Antonio: The Taiwanese Electrical and Manufacturing Association. They were focused on identifying partners, specifically on electrical vehicles and UAVs. So I was able to recruit them to come here.” No other partnerships regarding job opportunities have been mentioned by Jones so far. Jones’ next town hall meeting with Councilman Marc Whyte will be Oct. 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the Northside Service Center.