The San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh presented a proposed total city budget of $3.96 billion for 2025 to the city council on Thursday. The proposed budget included $10.5 million in budget reductions, a few higher fees for residents, but no higher taxes.
The budget reductions won’t result in staff cuts or any major department cuts.
The new budget is about $200 million larger than last year’s budget, an increase of 5.8%.
The city’s revenue is expected to grow by 3.7% over the next year, a rate that Walsh said was a return to lower pre-pandemic revenue growth levels and largely caused by lower sales tax revenues than expected. The result is continued deficits in the next several years that the city will have to keep working to balance.
Here’s what residents can expect from next year’s proposed budget.
Higher fees for residents
The proposed budget includes $0.50 monthly increases for medium and large garbage carts to $20.26 per month for medium carts and $30.75 per month for large carts.
It also includes an increase of the EMS transport fee from $1,000 to $1,250, which the city projects will generate $2.6 million in additional revenue next year.
Residents would also pay an additional $1 at city events at the Alamodome where SAPD overtime is required to attempt to mitigate some of those costs.
The fee for unpermitted burglar false alarms would be increased from between $75 and $125 to the state maximum of $250. In 2022, SAPD said 91% of all burglar alarms were false alarms, requiring city resources and personnel to be needlessly diverted. This fee applies to those false alarms where the alarm owner does not have an SAPD permit for that alarm.
The city expects that will generate an additional $1.9 million in revenue.
Public safety
The San Antonio Fire Department is getting a proposed budget of $401.1 million. That includes $1.4 million for 15 new firefighters for three squad units at the three busiest fire stations and $15.4 million to complete the replacement of three fire stations.
But a major unresolved sticking point in the budget is the city’s $18.3 million estimate for how much the wages in the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association’s new contract will cost.
That figure uses the city’s last wage offer to the fire union — which is about half of what the union is asking for — and those negotiations aren’t wrapped up yet.
If the city moved closer to the fire union’s request, the city would likely need to make up for that increase in spending with new cuts or fee increases elsewhere in the budget that weren’t shown to council on Thursday.
The union is asking for an 11% base pay increase in the first year of the new contract, followed by 8% in the second year and 6% in the third and final year of the contract.
The city’s last base pay offer from June was 7% in the first year, 4% in the second year, and 3.5% in the third year.
The city has committed to responding to the fire union’s most recent wage proposal when they meet again on Aug. 23, in what both sides said they hoped was the last bargaining session before they agreed on a contract.
At SAPD, the department’s budget is increasing by $30 million compared to last year to $603.9 million. That includes $6.3 million for 65 new patrol officers.
These officers are part of the city’s efforts to have 60% of patrol officers’ time focused on proactive work and 40% on call for patrol. That figure is currently flipped.
Homelessness and affordable housing
The proposed budget includes $44.2 million in direct investment for homelessness services. Those services include sheltering unsheltered residents and cleaning up encampments.
The city has surpassed its shelter and encampment cleanup goals for FY24 and is increasing those goals next year to sheltering 500 people and cleaning 1,300 encampments.
The budget also includes $35.5 million for affordable housing. Those funds will be used for housing stability and homelessness prevention, housing rehab and preservation, and public information campaigns like property tax education and renters’ rights education.
Animal Care Services
Animal Care Services’ proposed budget is $32.3 million, which includes $1.4 million for 14 new ACS field staff and $2.7 million for 21 new positions to open and operate new spay and neuter facilities.
The city is estimating the new spay and neuter staff and facilities will increase spay and neuter operations in the city by 24% to 41,470.
Other budget ttems
- $168.6 million for the Infrastructure Management Program, an $8.3 million increase from last year.
- $9.2 million for the Transportation Department.
- Continued 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. senior center hours.
- One new code enforcement officer for Short Term Rental Ordinance enforcement and $100,000 for the Senior Assistance Program.
- $163.9 million for the San Antonio International Airport.
Next steps in the budget process
Budget town halls are being held over the next two weeks in each of the council districts. The schedule for those meetings can be found online.
Council will hold budget work sessions through August and September, tax rate and budget public hearings will be held in September, and then the city council will vote to adopt next year’s budget on Sept. 19.
Whatever budget is approved will go into effect on Oct. 1.
Residents can dig into the budget line by line themselves on the city’s website.
