{"id":236957,"date":"2025-09-18T18:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T18:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:19:11","slug":"san-antonios-4b-plus-budget-leans-on-new-fees-not-new-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236957\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio’s $4B-plus budget leans on new fees, not new taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year San Antonio tightened its belt<\/a> to balance the city budget, this year it searched \u201cbetween the cushions of the sofa<\/a>\u201d for extra revenue.<\/p>\n

Facing a budget deficit for the second year in a row, city leaders again avoided a tax rate increase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But rather than making the tough cuts some members have been calling for to solve a ballooning problem<\/a>, city leaders raised fees elsewhere<\/a> \u2014 including more expensive parking tickets and an increased parks fee on residents\u2019 utility bills.<\/p>\n

They also back-tracked on a plan to reinvest CPS Energy revenue<\/a> in utility projects \u2014 a move that was intended to help mitigate a rate increase that would be passed on to the utility\u2019s ratepayers next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [budget] team brought us \u2026 an opportunity to raise taxes, and we said, \u2018No.\u2019 Now we have increased fees,\u201d Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) said at a budget work session Wednesday. \u201cWe have to deal with the reality that we are going to need to ask for an increase somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year City Council considered<\/a> using CPS Energy revenue to make up for a budget deficit instead of reinvesting it, but then-Mayor Ron Nirenberg was among the biggest opponents of the idea, arguing that higher energy bills \u201cfall hardest on those who are lower income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s budget was approved 11-0, with two proposed amendments to add more than the budgeted 40 additional police officers failing 4-7.<\/p>\n

Council approved the fee increases<\/a> unanimously on a separate vote.<\/p>\n

A council divided<\/p>\n

Anticipating a budget deficit, this year city staff looked high and low for potential savings<\/a>, including asking department leaders to lay out how they would approach across-the-board cuts. <\/p>\n

When the scaled-down budget came back before the council this week, however, many of the proposed cuts were restored by council members who couldn\u2019t agree on their top priorities.<\/p>\n

Some felt supporting nonprofits has never been more critical than now, when the support the federal government gives them is threatened<\/a> and big cuts are coming<\/a> for the social safety net. <\/p>\n

Others argued that it was unacceptable not to increase the police force at the rate they\u2019d previously planned \u2014 and that a consultant the city hired advised<\/a> was necessary. <\/p>\n

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), for example, said he was disappointed to see increased fees on residents take the place of meaningful cuts, but also fought to get more officers into the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found $27.1 million in budget inefficiencies, \u2026 but the fact that we\u2019re raising fees in certain areas this year in lieu of finding other places to cut and to downsize bothers me,\u201d Whyte said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Almost all of the council supported bigger raises for city staff, and also added an across-the-board $750 base salary increase to the already proposed 2% cost of living increase during the budget amendment process.<\/p>\n

To fund the council\u2019s last-minute additions, city staff increased the Parks Environmental Fee on residents\u2019 CPS Energy bill by 50 cents per month, maxed out the food establishment fee and increased a vacant building registration fee.<\/p>\n

Those changes will add $9.1 million in revenue over two years<\/a>, in addition to roughly $4 million from other fee increases<\/a> council approved Thursday. <\/p>\n

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who was overseeing her first budget, said the city\u2019s needs will only increase when federal cuts come down the pipeline. <\/p>\n

Nodding to the ongoing push to squeeze more money out of a potential revenue-sharing agreement<\/a> through the Spurs\u2019 arena deal, she said council should be thinking harder about how to expand revenue coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot think about the budget gap and not think about\u2026 how do you get additional money into the general fund?\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat\u2019s why [we\u2019ve got to be thoughtful about] things like naming rights, \u2026 a fair share from parking, concessions, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year San Antonio tightened its belt to balance the city budget, this year it searched \u201cbetween the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[27145,5229,7452,7202,7203,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-236957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-2025-2026-san-antonio-city-budget","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-gina-ortiz-jones","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-top-story","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-typedaily","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-wc-500-750"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115226684450487076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}