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The City of San Antonio unveiled its proposed $3.7 billion revenue and spending plan for the next year to council members on Thursday.
The proposed 2024 budget is about $300 million more than 2023, about a 9% increase. But while there is growth, the city is scaling back on some of its revenue generation from property taxes. There’s a plan to increase the number of officers for Animal Care Services, police, and fire department. It also plans to intervene on homelessness.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the proposed budget shows the city is being responsible stewards of taxpayer money.
“We have a growing community. We're one of the fastest growing cities in the country. We have a significant need to improve infrastructure and repair existing facilities, and that’s what we’re doing now,” Nirenberg said. “Most of the significant work on the capital side is being done through votes of the public directly on things like our bond program.”
San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh has divided the city’s priorities into four initiatives: a property tax relief plan, keeping San Antonio safe, increasing quality of life, and providing customer service.
Property tax relief
Over the last two years, the city and city council have adjusted property tax exemption caps for homesteads, people over age 65 and people with disabilities. Homesteads, for example, can see 20% exemption on value, the highest allowed by state law.
The combined property tax relief plan will cause the city to forgo about $134 million in property tax revenue and lower the average taxable value of San Antonio homes from $214,000 to $205,000, based on the city’s projections.
The property tax rate, which has been a trend over recent budget years with slight decreases, will also decrease in 2024, However, the overall increase in home values and new construction prevents the city from losing property tax revenue.
The city’s proposed general fund is expected to be about $1.6 billion; a 5% increase from this year. That funds city services like libraries, parks, and public safety. The funding comes from sales tax, property taxes, and CPS Energy revenues.
Police
On police, the city is planning to add 105 uniformed police positions. Walsh said that was the biggest increase in one year.
“One hundred of those officers are directed to patrol, and that’s in line with our goal over the next three to five years to add 360 officers to achieve a 60% proactive time for patrol officers and 40% on call,” he told the council.
The overall police budget is $570 million, which is about 8% higher than 2023. Increases on the police budget have been points of contention in recent years. District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez has been critical of the department’s growth and urged the city to adjust its resources into the problems that fuel crime.
“It’s irresponsible to place the success or failure of our system of public safety on SAPD, and to act like anyone asking for a more coordinated effort is somehow less interested in the safety of our community is unbecoming,” he said. “It takes much more than that, and that’s the point of supporting social services, access to resources for victims and survivors and intervention and prevention programs.”
District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda, who chairs the city council’s public safety committee, drew an issue with the fire department not seeing a similar increase.
“I’m a little disappointed with the representation of the fire department. I didn’t see a whole lot there,” she said. “I’m asking for a needs assessment specifically for equipment — making sure they have the equipment they need to keep us safe.”
Fire
The city’s fire department’s budget is proposed to be $372.3 million.
Among the additions to the department include 32 uniformed positions: a new EMS unit with 12 paramedics, 16 new firefighters throughout the department, and four firefighters specifically for the airport.
Animal Care Services
One of the city departments seeing the largest increase is Animal Care Services, which would see its budget with 26% more funding than 2023. The proposed budget is $26.9 million.
Walsh said the increase was to help respond to service calls.
“We get 50,000 critical ACS calls a year, and those are really cruelty, neglect and aggressive dogs — right now we have staff to be able to respond to 44% of those calls."
Walsh says adding eight new ACS officers as proposed in the budget would help increase the number of responses to 64%. The budget increase would add eight new positions to respond to critical calls, 5 new compliance and enforcement positions, and two positions to respond to dangerous dogs.
Solid waste
Under Solid Waste Management, the city proposed increasing the environmental service fee by $1.26 to a total of $3.00 per month.
Medium and large brown carts for trash pickup would increase by $1.00 and $3.49 respectively. That would equal a monthly charge of $19.76 for medium carts and $30.25 for large carts.
The city said the increases are needed to maintain customer service.
Over the next five weeks, the city will host multiple budget work sessions with the city council and community input sessions in each of the council districts. The city will also host a combined budget town hall for Districts 8 and 9 on the city’s North Side.
The first budget session is Monday, Aug. 14, at the Mission Branch Library at 6:30 p.m.
