As property value declined this year, Bexar County is among the many taxing entities projecting less revenue than the year before.<\/p>\n
But unlike the City of San Antonio and other municipalities, which are calling for big tax hikes to bridge the gap<\/a>, county leaders say they expect to keep their tax rate the same \u2014 and avoid major cuts to services.<\/p>\n County leaders say they\u2019re able to do that because they put away money during the years when property values were going up, and used borrowed money for more projects when interest rates were low. <\/p>\n Now that property tax revenue has slowed,\u00a0they\u2019ve stopped issuing new bonds<\/a>\u00a0while working to pay down old debt, and they have enough cash reserves to carry them through.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at a long-range financial forecast, and right now we\u2019re pretty healthy, so we don\u2019t have a recommendation to increase taxes,\u201d said Bexar County Budget and Finance Director Tanya Gaitan. \u201cIt\u2019s really because of the decisions the county commissioners made.\u201d<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean Bexar County is out of the woods this budget season, however.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic the county budget grew by $1 billion dollars \u2014 from about $1.8 billion in the 2020 fiscal year<\/a>\u00a0to nearly $3 billion<\/a>\u00a0by fiscal year 2023 \u2014 as Bexar County took in roughly $389 million in federal pandemic relief dollars at the same time property tax revenue was rising.<\/p>\n Now property values have cooled at the same time federal pandemic relief dollars are dwindling, leaving leaders at an inflection point as they proceed with this year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n Commissioners have been passing progressively smaller budgets in an attempt to scale back, but their spending is still outpacing their revenue.<\/p>\n Two years ago they applied the last of their uncommitted American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to shore up a deficit<\/a>, but property tax revenue has only worsened since then, with County Manager David Smith telling commissioners<\/a> in April that they\u2019re headed for the worst year since the 2008 financial crash.<\/p>\n Budget writers are exploring changes like a hiring freeze and adjustments to employee health benefits to rein in spending for the short-term.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year we\u2019re not looking to cut, we\u2019re just looking to slow down, because we had some pretty big growth the last couple of years,\u201d Gaitan said. <\/p>\n But a shortfall once predicted would reach about $28 million by the 2028-2029 fiscal year has been adjusted<\/a> to about $145 million, and some elected officials say they\u2019ll soon have to reconcile whether several years of slowed growth is an anomaly or the new normal. <\/p>\n \u201cThe simple answer [to why Bexar County can avoid a tax increase] is that we have reserve funds that the other [taxing] entities probably don\u2019t have, which allow us the flexibility to be able to cover any deficit this year, maybe even next year,\u201d said Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3).<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026But ultimately we\u2019re just going to have to make some tough decisions, and I still don\u2019t think that the court\u2019s prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Balancing the budget on the backs of nonprofits\u2019<\/p>\n Even if the county avoids big cuts to its own budget, the network of providers supporting some of the most at-risk community members could still feel a major squeeze.<\/p>\n Previous Bexar County leaders used much of their ARPA money to fund public health initiatives, aimed at mitigating the physical and emotional tolls of the pandemic. <\/p>\n Some of those programs were always intended to be a Band-Aid on an immediate problem, while others were clearly intended to be long-term investments.<\/p>\n In both cases, the funding is ending without clear plans to move the projects over into the county\u2019s now already strained budget.<\/p>\n Bexar County used ARPA money to\u00a0launch an entire Public Health Department<\/a>\u00a0aimed at addressing health disparities in the county\u2019s unincorporated parts, and started an emergency response team that can be deployed to people experiencing a mental health crisis, called the\u00a0SMART initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n While commissioner court both as a major success, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said that whether to keep them going will be among the court\u2019s biggest challenges this fall. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are now going through a review and analysis of all the ARPA positions, and one of the difficult discussions that will be had in this time period is what positions will remain,\u201d Sakai said in a July 1 interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPublic Health is actually a brand new department that [then-Judge Nelson Wolff] and the previous court created, and we\u2019re having the discussion in regards to what delivery of services we want our Public Health Department to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of the county budget, many ARPA-funded programs helped residents through some tough times in recent years, but also seem unlikely to be added to the regular budget when their contracts expire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n