The San Antonio City Council unanimously adopted a $3.96 billion budget for 2025 that includes $1 billion in funding for the police and fire departments and budget increases across an array of other departments, despite the $36.6 million the city had to cut over two years to balance the budget.
The major priorities in the budget were public safety, streets and sidewalks, and homelessness and affordable housing.
The budget will go into effect on Oct. 1.
2025 will be the 32nd year in a row that the city has not raised the property tax rate.
The budget adoption was Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s last because he will term out of his seat in 2025. He said he was glad to go out on a unanimous vote.
“We hadn’t had a unanimous vote in a while but we had one today, so it’s great to see the council coming together around a budget that I think addresses the myriad needs in the city in a very strong way,” Nirenberg said.
Public safety
The SAPD’s $603.9 million budget is $30 million larger than its 2024 budget. Some of that new funding will be used to hire 65 new patrol officers as part of the city’s effort to shift patrol officers’ time to 60% proactive policing and 40% patrol. The department hired 100 new patrol officers in 2024.
The SAFD’s $409 million budget is $25 million greater than this year’s fire budget. That figure was finalized on Thursday when the city council voted to approve the $109.6 million collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the city and the San Antonio Professional Firefighters’ Association.
Union members voted to ratify the contract on Monday, which includes raises of 20% over three years for firefighters. It was the first time firefighters had voted on a contract since 2009.
The fire union president Joe Jones said his union and the city were on a path to a better relationship than they’ve had in the past, but that both sides needed to stick to that path — including in negotiations for the next contract after the new one expires in 2027 when the city still expects to be dealing with budget issues.
“We understand that that means that we’re competing for a finite amount of funds,” Jones said. “But they obviously understand that the competition in this market space is increasing, and it’s increasing substantially. And San Antonio firefighters have lost substantial ground due to historical indifferences.”
Another change in the SAFD budget is the increase of the EMS transport fee from $1,000 to $1,500. Data from the fire department shows that only 3% of the money the fee currently generates comes from individual residents. The rest comes from public and private insurance. The fire department projects the $500 fee increase will generate $5.17 million in additional revenue.
SAFD’s budget also includes more than $15 million to finish replacing three South Side fire stations.
Streets and sidewalks
The Public Works Department 2025 budget will be $594.8 million, a $16 million increase from 2024 — $128.5 million of that budget comes from the city’s general fund.
$122 million of the department’s budget will be used on streets, $21.5 million for sidewalks, and $3.5 million for drainage.
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the department each year, 22% of San Antonio’s streets are ranked poor or failed.
Streets and sidewalk improvements ranked at the top of residents’ priorities in a survey the city conducted earlier this year.
City council districts will receive $650,000 each next year to work on local infrastructure projects in a program called the Neighborhood Access and Mobility Program (NAMP).
Homelessness and affordable housing
The Department of Human Services has a $246 million budget, $3 million less than the department spent in 2024. The majority — $189.9 million — of that budget comes from grants.
$32 million of that budget is dedicated to homelessness efforts, including street outreach, a homeless connections hotline, and encampment clearings.
DHS plans to use those funds to clear 1,300 encampments and engage 1,100 unhoused people in the street outreach program among other initiatives.
The Neighborhood and Housing Services Department has a 2025 budget of $93.7 million.
$2.4 million of those dollars will be used to offer incentives and waive fees to encourage more housing development across the city.
NHSD will also allocate $4.7 million to rental and relocation assistance and $1.7 million in down payment assistance.
Nearly $17 million will be used to support major and minor home rehab projects.
Animal Care Services
The $32.3 million ACS budget is $4 million larger than its 2024 budget and includes funding for two new spay and neuter clinics on the east and west sides of the city.
With a $5.3 million spay and neuter surgery budget and $2.7 million to add 21 new positions to staff the new clinics, the department is projecting more than 41,000 completed sterilization surgeries in 2025. That would be 8,000 more than in 2024.
ACS will also add 14 positions to respond to critical calls from residents.
Budget amendments
The city council also voted on 11 budget amendments negotiated on Tuesday and Wednesday. The amendments use up more than $5 million in leftover funding from the city’s general fund and federal COVID-19 relief dollars on a handful of spending priorities spread over 2025 and 2026.
They include $600,000 — half in 2025 and half in 2026 — as seed funding for the Center for Health Equity in South Texas, which will address health inequities on the southwest and eastsides of San Antonio, an extra $1,000,000 for NAMP, and $300,000 in support over two years for the UT Health San Antonio Ricardo Salinas Pediatric Dentistry Clinic.
$29,701 leftover dollars were set aside to knock down the budget deficit the city anticipates needing to address in 2026.
Other budget items
- Transportation Department: $6.1 million, mostly dedicated to the Vision Zero effort to reduce traffic fatalities and the Complete Streets policy to improve city streets.
- San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department: $91.2 million to support domestic violence victims, improve mental healthcare, and prevent the spread of disease.
- Airport: $496.2 million aiming to increase passengers and complete the new San Antonio International Airport ground load facility.
- Government Affairs Department: $2 million to prepare to defend city priorities in the upcoming Texas legislative session.
- Parks & Recreation Department: $117.5 million to support park improvements and add shade structure to 12 playgrounds.
- Office of Sustainability: $21.7 million largely focused on heat island investment projects, including cool pavement overlay and low-income home weatherization support.
City Manager Erik Walsh said tough times are not over for the city’s budget process as revenue growth returns to “normal” levels and the city is anticipating a deficit next year that must be addressed.
“I think we’re gonna have to be realistic,” Walsh said. “We’re gonna have to control our spending overall. Obviously you heard the council and the mayor talk today, there are a lot of needs we have, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to balance the budget.”
