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Like the City of San Antonio, Bexar County too is grappling with a budget deficit largely due to a big drop in revenue from property taxes due to declines in existing property values.
There has also been less new property to tax with declines in new commercial and residential construction compared to previous boom years.
Both the city and county also funded some vital services and jobs to carry them out with federal COVID relief dollars that will be gone by the end of the year. In the county's case, 389 million federal dollars helped the county recover from the pandemic.
Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday are expected to formally start the budget process for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, 2026, with a presentation from the county budget office with the losses of property tax revenue and COVID funding weighing large. Commissioners are tasked at finding ways to close a $145-million-dollar spending gap through 2028.
County Judge Peter Sakai said he expected county commissioners to be "collegial" and "respectful" during the budget debate but said consensus among them on how to fill the deficit may not come easy.
He said speaking for himself, he would not vote for a property tax hike. And he had a couple of predictions about the budget that will eventually emerge.
"I predict that we will not have a property tax increase and that the cuts will be minimal and will have no impact on basic services," Sakai said.
County staff and commissioners do appear ready to stick with the existing 30 cents per $100 valuation property tax rate to fund the county's next spending plan. Sakai said protecting public safety and supporting the county's first responders, including the sheriff's department, was a top priority.
Sakai said he and the commissioners started making spending adjustments years ago in anticipation of such a budget deficit. He said since he took office four years ago, the overall county budget has declined from more than $3 billion to around $2.8 billion. And commissioners have capped the number of new capital improvement projects and bought down capital project debt to pay less interests.
He said some of the toughest decisions ahead for commissioners will be related to the federal COVID dollars drying up, funding which paid for some needed county services and for the personnel to oversee those services, such as mental health.
Sakai could not rule out cutting some of those jobs once the federal funding runs out, but the county could also choose to continue funding for some positions.
"If we see that there's a return on investment, I will argue that we have to preserve certain positions," he said. "And, when we see there isn't the justification, I am prepared to make the necessary cuts in order to protect the taxpayers."
Sakai, when asked how many those jobs might be lost, could not offer specifics before Tuesday's budget briefing.
Sakai said overall the next county budget is on "solid" and "foundational" footing.
More than half-a-million people rely on county services in unincorporated areas of the county and residents in cities within in the county also rely on some county services too, such as motor vehicle registrations or property tax payments.
