The city furloughed 270 municipal employees Wednesday and cut off payments on arts contracts from May to the end of the fiscal year as the coronavirus crisis batters San Antonio’s coffers.

The employees work in several departments funded by tax revenue through hotel room bookings, which have plummeted as the travel and tourism industry dried up in recent weeks.

That drop in activity also will hit the city’s arts programs. Centro de Artes programming has been suspended through Sept. 30, when the city’s fiscal year ends, and all city galleries will remain closed at least until then.

And, after April, arts agencies that contract with San Antonio such as the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Public Theatre of San Antonio will not receive funds for the rest of the year, either, Debbie Racca-Sittre, executive director of city’s arts and culture department, told those agencies Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m hoping that these kinds of things are limited and they’re temporary and short duration,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.

The mayor indicated staff would try to find other sources of revenue to help the arts.

“There was a famous adage. During wartime, peole would cut arts funding. And someone said, ‘what are you fighting for, then?’ Arts and culture are such a vital and critical part of this community,” Nirenberg said. “We want to protect them as well.”

City Manager Erik Walsh has already hit pause on $82 million in spending on city programs, including street improvement projects and economic development incentives.

City officials expect San Antonio’s $1.27 billion operating budget — which pays for services such as police and fire protection, streets and infrastructure and parks — to take a substantial hit as local economic fallout from the pandemic deepens.

City Council members will get another update on the financial picture at their meeting today.

Last year, city budget writers had much sunnier predictions for San Antonio’s hospitality industry.

They projected the city would collect $74.7 million through the hotel occupancy tax to fund arts programs, pay down debt on the Convention Center and pay for a contract with Visit San Antonio, the public-private group that markets the city to event planners.

Now, the city stands to lose up to $44 million in hotel occupancy tax revenue.

In the face of falling revenue and “significant economic uncertainty,” Walsh told Nirenberg, City Council members and city executives, he “made the difficult decision” to furlough workers in five city departments.

“We value these employees and they remain a part of our team during these very challenging times,” Walsh wrote in a Wednesday memo.

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Those departments are convention and sports facilities, arts and culture, finance, the Office of Risk Management and the Office of International Relations.

Walsh noted that all events planned at the Convention Center and Alamodome during the next several months have been canceled or postponed.

With that, hotels likely will stay empty, he said.

Furloughed employees will be paid through April 22. After that, furloughs will take effect and could last through July 31. Employees will continue to participate in the city’s health care plan through the furlough and the city will defer premiums during that time, Walsh said.

But San Antonio will keep some maintenance workers and security guards to staff the Convention Center and Alamodome, city spokesman Jeff Coyle said.

The city will “mass file” for unemployment benefits for the furloughed workers through the Texas Workforce Commission, Walsh said.

Most furloughed employees will receive pay “roughly equivalent” to what they earn now from state unemployment benefits and benefits through the Federal Cares Act, Walsh said.

“These are folks we care deeply about,” Nirenberg said. “Our first effort is to make sure that they’re whole.”

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFReports