On Wednesday afternoon, San Antonio City Council moved closer to a consensus on the city budget, but only if seven council members are willing to accept the political fallout of raising property taxes by 8.4% over the next two years.
After taking input from council during a lengthy budget meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Erik Walsh and his staff will present a new plan that would offset $6.1 million in proposed additional spending with new cuts and fee increases.
The proposed residential property tax hike also will need approval from seven council members to move forward, as required under state law.
If council can’t reach that number of approval votes, the property tax rate would remain the same, but Walsh and his team will be charged with making up to $75 million in operating cuts over the next two years to cover the budget.
“I’m hoping that we don’t find ourselves in that position,” Walsh told reporters during a media roundtable on Wednesday. “I think yesterday was productive, and I’m assuming today is going to be productive.”
As part of the plan, the $6.1 million funding boost would support a part-time nutrition center at the Darner Parks and Recreation Center, an afterschool program at Southwest ISD and tuition reimbursement for city employees.
The plan would also restore San Antonio Education Partnerships Scholarships, add 10 new SAFFE officers for each council district and create one position supporting Cultural Initiatives in the Office of History and Preservation.
Funding for the Gastronomy Program for World Heritage and the Diez y Seis commission also would continue.
All of this comes at a cost, though.
To keep or add these programs, the city must increase booting fees for unpaid parking violations, vacant-lot fines, parking fines, HAZMAT fees for retail gas stations and the price for non-resident library cards.
The city also will need to slash subsidies to some programs, such as the city’s Ambassador program, BioMedSA and Build San Antonio Green.
As of press time, San Antonio’s job-training program Ready to Work remains intact.
San Antonio mayor Gina Ortiz Jones on Tuesday proposed sunsetting Ready to Work and using the savings to cover programs she deemed necessary to support the city’s most vulnerable residents. However, city staff didn’t include that option in their latest proposed budget plan because it lacked support for the dais.
Even so, some programs that Jones fought for in her proposal are in the latest draft, specifically the SWISD afterschool program, tuition reimbursement, funding for the World Heritage Gastronomy Program and the Women’s Health program.
Council began meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday to try to finalize a deal before Thursday’s vote.
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