{"id":20740,"date":"2025-06-28T03:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20740\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T03:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:08:07","slug":"what-does-san-antonio-need-least-city-needs-budget-cuts-no-matter-what-we-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20740\/","title":{"rendered":"What does San Antonio need least? City needs budget cuts \u2018no matter what we do\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 What to cut?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a thorny question the newly elected mayor and San Antonio City Council are grappling with as they face a ballooning budget deficit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a question they largely avoided in their first budget discussion on Friday.<\/p>\n

The $1.67 billion General Fund is the city\u2019s checking account, covering services such as police, fire, parks, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, Animal Care Services, and regular street maintenance. However, two of its biggest sources of revenue, property and sales tax, are growing much more slowly than the cost of providing those services.<\/p>\n

The city estimates that the 2026 fiscal year budget will have a $20.8 million<\/b> deficit, which would explode to $151.8 million<\/b> a year later.<\/p>\n

City staff said that tapping its budget reserves, relying more heavily on money from CPS Energy, raising fees, or even maxing out the property tax rate wouldn\u2019t fully get the city out of the hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have to reduce expense, no matter what we do,\u201d City Manager Erik Walsh told the council members.<\/p>\n

City staff presented council members with possible scenarios for balancing the city budget at a June 27, 2025 meeting. None of the council members supported Scenario 3, which called for raising the property tax rate. (City of San Antonio)Priorities<\/b><\/p>\n

None of the council members supported raising the property tax rate, which, according to the rough scenarios laid out by staff, would mean the city would need to find approximately $109 million worth of cuts or savings.<\/p>\n

However, while council members were quick to mention all the budget areas they wanted to prioritize for funding \u2014 whether it was infrastructure, public safety, Animal Care Services, or Metro Health \u2014 there were few specific suggestions of what could be put on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked staff to examine how delaying certain projects would impact the budget and whether some might be able to be funded through a bond instead \u2014 a suggestion echoed by Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3).<\/p>\n

Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), who has long promoted<\/a> throttling back the city\u2019s spending on police, alluded to that possibility in his comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other department that grows at that rate, and we\u2019ll keep doing what we\u2019re doing, but acting like if we cut our Metro Health Department, libraries, homeless outreach, non-profits, or some other services that our most vulnerable residents rely on \u2014 if we cut those that we\u2019re suddenly going to save our budget is very misguided and it\u2019s not rooted in fact,” he said.<\/p>\n

McKee-Rodriguez and Councilman Edward Mungia (D4) both suggested that homeless camp cleanups were an ineffective use of city money. Most of the funding for that, though, comes from another part of the budget meant for solid waste management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to working with this body, as well as with the staff, to understand how we are going to identify those trade-offs in line with what we all agreed to be important: funding the core missions \u2014 as we rightly define them … minimizing long-term risks, and then making sure that we\u2019re minimizing any risk to our most vulnerable communities,\u201d Jones said at the end of the three-hour budget session.<\/p>\n

Although Jones and the 10 council members will have the final say on what is included or cut from the budget, it will be city staffers who create the first draft, which will be presented on Aug.14.<\/p>\n

Police<\/b><\/p>\n

One thing that has already been put on the back burner is a plan to hire hundreds of new police officers.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s budget projections on Friday only included current service levels.<\/p>\n

An outside staffing analysis conducted in 2023 found that 360 new San Antonio police officers <\/a>would be needed over a three- to five-year period to give patrol officers more time for proactive policing.<\/p>\n

Walsh, who used a slightly different figure of 365 officers on Friday, noted that 165 of those positions have already been added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was to be able to change the amount of time that officers have for proactive (policing) to from 40% when we started to 60% after the 365,\u201c Walsh said. \u201dI don\u2019t want you to think that we\u2019re 200 officers short.”<\/p>\n

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), and Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) all wanted the budget to include at least 65 additional police officers.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear how much that would cost.<\/p>\n

Budget survey<\/b><\/p>\n

The city also hired the ETC Institute to conduct a budget survey of nearly 1,200 residents of San Antonio.<\/p>\n

After rating the importance of and need for individual services, the two scores were combined to create a priority investment rating.<\/p>\n

The ETC Institute surveyed 1,199 San Antonians about the city’s budget needs ahead of the FY 2026 budget discussions. (City of San Antonio)The ETC Institute surveyed 1,199 San Antonians about the city’s budget needs ahead of the FY 2026 budget discussions. (City of San Antonio)<\/p>\n

Homeless services and homeless camp cleanups were the highest priorities, according to the survey results, followed by streets, affordable housing and Animal Care Services.<\/p>\n

The ETC Institute surveyed 1,199 San Antonians about the city’s budget needs ahead of the FY 2026 budget discussions. Each service’s Priority Investment Rating was calculated as a mix of how respondents rated its need and importance. (City of San Antonio)<\/p>\n

CLARIFICATION<\/b> \u2014 In a broadcast of the version of this story, KSAT stated Jones referred back to the budget guiding principles when asked about what could be cut. Upon further review, she appeared instead to be referring to the size of any budget changes. <\/p>\n

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