San Antonio's end-of-year check on its financial status indicates the city is $13.6 million ahead.
The added revenue from property taxes, sales tax, CPS Energy, and licenses, permits and user fees brought in the extra money that city leaders hadn't planned on.
That revenue brings the city's reserve balance to $21.2 million to help balance fiscal year 2015.
The city adopted the 2014 budget in September. At that time, the city faced a budget gap and predicted another one for 2015 to the tune of $30 million.
The less spending on personnel line items, commodities, and contractual services, plus increased revenues will help the city balance the books next year. District 4 Councilman Rey Saldaña said finding efficiencies and planning ahead are helping San Antonio improve its situation every year.
"We are a city that has our financial house in shape and that's a testament to our city manager, it's a testament to the council members, who not only are serving now, but served in the past, that really wanted to make sure that we as a city that was going through a recession -- a city that was going through tough financial times -- that we were reserving away the amount of money needed to keep our fire and police pay, keep our civilians pay, keep everybody's trash picked up and streets cleaned," Saldaña said.
One big chunk of savings comes from the $1 million the city set aside for the downtown grocery store incentives that ultimately got knocked off the table during that debate.
The surplus was presented to the city council Thursday and is preliminary. An audit will confirm the numbers.
