TIRZ recapture · Tex. Tax Code ch. 311
The Pearl is not blighted. The increment is trapped anyway.
In FY2025 the City captured about $45.0M — 5% of a $819M levy — inside 9 TIRZes[15]. That is not a new tax. It is the city’s own growth, redirected out of the General Fund. Recapture means stopping that redirect on the unpledged slice. It does not mean breaking TIRZ bonds.
The increment, in one sentence
Taxes on the frozen base stay in the General Fund. Taxes on everything above the base go to the TIRZ — at whatever participation share the city set.
Captured appraised value = current taxable real property in the zone − the tax increment base (the year the zone was designated)[27]. Each taxing unit then pays captured × its tax rate × its participation % into the tax increment fund. If the city never set a share, the default is 100%. San Antonio’s city-initiated zones are at 100% now; Westside was raised from 90% to 100% in December 2024 to match the others[15].
Midtown #31 · Pearl / Broadway
The arithmetic on published numbers.
- Taxable value now
- $2.60B
- Tax increment base (2008)
- $533M
- Captured value
- $2.07B
- × current city rate $0.54159
- $11.2M
- × proposed rate $0.56288
- $11.6M
- Increment staff told the board
- ~$10.0M/yr
Arithmetic is teaching math on the published $2.6B and $533M. Staff’s “nearly $10 million” is the number we model. Gap is exemptions, M&O vs I&S, or a rounded taxable.[16][15]
What recapture is not
- It is not a raid on tax-increment bonds. Those are paid only from the TIRZ fund.
- It is not clawing signed 311.010(b) developer reimbursements. Existing contracts stay.
- It is not SAISD’s or the county’s increment. Only the city’s share is a Council vote.
- Killing the 2060 extension is not FY2027 cash. Midtown already runs through 2041.
- Leaving money unspent in the TIRZ account does not credit the General Fund until the zone terminates and surplus is disbursed.
Four doors. Only one is this year’s budget.
Cut the city’s participation percentage
Tex. Tax Code §§ 311.013, 311.011
City-initiated zones now take 100% of the city’s increment. The creating city sets that share in the designating ordinance. Changing it is a financing-plan amendment: TIRZ board, public hearing, Council ordinance. A leftover after debt service and signed reimbursement agreements can stay in the General Fund instead of the TIRZ fund. That is recapture. Raiding the TIRZ checking account is not.
Stop spending Pearl increment outside the map
Tex. Tax Code § 311.010(b)
Deputy City Attorney Ray Rodriguez told the Midtown board the statute allows spending outside the zone on affordable housing, public infrastructure, places of public assembly, or projects that “benefit the zone.” That is how the zoo gorilla exhibit, the Witte, and a $60 million arena-site buy several blocks off the map get dressed as Midtown projects. Refusing new extra-territorial agreements does not move cash into the General Fund by itself — the increment still hits the TIRZ fund unless participation is also cut. It does stop digging.
Refuse the 2060 extension
Tex. Tax Code § 311.017 · city TIF policy (1998): typical 20-year term
Midtown already runs 33 years (2008–2041). A 19-year add-on is the third continuation. Staff has pegged $580 million to $780 million that would otherwise return citywide after 2041. Killing the extension is the largest structural recapture in the building. It is not a two-year patch. Westside was already extended to 2060 in December 2024.
Let zones die when the bonds are paid
Tex. Tax Code §§ 311.017, 311.014(d)
A city may terminate a TIRZ by ordinance. Termination also happens when project costs, tax-increment bonds, and other obligations are paid in full. Remaining money in the fund goes back to the participating taxing units in proportion to what they paid in. You cannot terminate around bondholders. You can refuse to roll the zone so the next increment never leaves the General Fund.
§ 311.013(m) — the population footnote
Bexar crossed 2.1 million. The census may not have.
A separate subsection lets a city in a county of more than 2.1 million but less than 2.5 million — or 3.3 million or more — reduce its own TIRZ participation by ordinance, if what remains still covers project costs and bonds, and if participating counties are offered the same proportional cut[27]. Bexar’s July 2025 estimate is 2,160,088[30]. The 2020 census was 2,009,324. Texas’s Code Construction Act treats “population” as the last federal decennial census unless the statute says otherwise[29]. City Attorney has to say which number 311.013(m) uses. Until then the clean door is the 311.011 plan amendment — board, hearing, ordinance. Do not sell the special subsection as already in force.
Unpledged calculator
Haircut the surplus. Leave the bonds.
The city has not published a pledged-vs-unpledged split. Set a conservative haircut. Recapture cannot exceed the unpledged remainder. Citizen-zero in the machine uses $12.0M — about 27% of the $45.0M FY25 capture.
Houston Street ballpark bonds are pledged. Midtown has zoo/Witte agreements. Unknown coverage on the rest. Default 55% is a haircut, not a filing.
- Pledged / coverage — off limits$24.8M
- Recapture into the General Fund$12.0M
- Unpledged left in the TIRZ$8.2M
Two-year General Fund relief at this setting: $24.0M. The 2060 extension is a separate $580M–$780M question after 2041[16]. The $60 million arena-site ask is capital, outside the map, and not this year’s operating close.
Nine city-initiated zones
City page, Neighborhood & Housing Services[31]. Houston Street is the ballpark vehicle. Midtown is the Pearl. Mission Drive-In is the nearest sunset.
| # | Zone | Designated | Expires | Pledged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Houston Street Ballpark parcel swap and revenue bonds. Off-limits. | 2000 | open / bonded | high |
| 11 | Inner City Eastside. City-initiated. | 2000 | open | unknown |
| 16 | Brooks City-Base Former air force base redevelopment. | 2004 | open | unknown |
| 28 | Verano South side / Texas A&M–SA area. | 2007 | open | unknown |
| 30 | Westside Extended from 2032 to 2060. Participation raised 90% → 100%. | 2009 | 2060 | mixed |
| 31 | Midtown Pearl / Broadway. Board wants 2060 for arena land and the cultural corridor. | 2008 | 2041 | mixed |
| 32 | Mission Drive-In Nearest automatic sunset. Increment returns when obligations are paid. | 2008 | 2028 | mixed |
| 33 | Northeast Corridor City-initiated. | 2014 | open | unknown |
| 34 | Hemisfair 20-year term in the 2017 ordinance. | 2017 | 2037 | mixed |
The scored ask
Cut unpledged participation. Kill 2060. Leave Houston Street alone.
Jones named Midtown because it holds some of the highest values in the city and she finds it hard to believe the area is blighted[21]. Castillo has said TIRZes siphon general-fund dollars[15]. Neither has put a pledged-vs-unpledged schedule on the dais. That schedule is the ordinance. The homestead increase is the substitute.