SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio’s city budget could cross the $4 billion threshold for the first time next year, even as the city tries to fill in a yawning budget deficit.
City staff presented a draft spending plan for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 to council members Thursday morning. The entire $4.04 billion budget is a 2.2% increase over the $3.96 billion budget the previous council approved for the current fiscal year, ending on Sept. 30.
The city has been bracing for a budget deficit within the general fund — its main checking account — which covers services such as police, fire, parks, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, Animal Care Services and regular street maintenance.
However, the fund relies heavily on property and sales tax revenues, which are essentially flat and slow-growing, respectively, while expenses continue to grow.
Staff had previously estimated the city faced a nearly $21 million deficit in FY 2026, which would explode to approximately $152 million per year later.
Revised revenue projections have helped the picture a bit. Staff have included nearly $111 million in spending reductions over three years, in addition to raising fines and fees over the next two years.
They also expect the city to hang onto a larger portion of CPS Energy revenue from selling electricity on the open market.
The city said it does not plan to raise the property tax rate.
Though the budget includes cutting 68 civilian positions, city staff said they will be able to shift 35 employees still in some of those roles to other jobs within the city.
The spending plan only includes a 2% cost of living adjustment for civilian employees, but several council members said they want to see at least a 3% raise.
“When we consider the (5% civilian healthcare) premium increases, if you have a family, it essentially nullifies that 2% cost of living adjustment,” said District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo.
The budget includes new police officers as the city enters the third year of a five-year plan to put another 360 patrol officers on the street. With the 25 patrol positions included in the budget proposal, the city would reach 190 of those positions.
Some council members want even more, calling for 65 — or even 100 — new patrol officers next year.
“If public safety is the No. 1 priority, you start with adding the 65 officers like the plan was, and then you build the rest of the budget around it,” District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte said.
The $631 million proposed budget for police is by far the largest of any department in the city’s general fund.
Adding 25 officers will cost $1.4 million. Another 40 officers would cost $2.1 million more in the first year, staff said.
“I want to look at reducing our investment here,” Interim District 2 Councilman Leo Castillo-Anguiano said about police spending. “Because every time we hire new officers, we lock ourselves into future investments required by the CBA (police union contract).”
Staff told council members that, as they developed the budget, they tried to protect essential and mandated services, minimize impacts to vulnerable populations and avoid long-term risks that could arise from budget changes.
Now come the questions of what further tradeoffs the city can afford to make.
“Changes that the council would like to make as a group, we’ve got to figure out how to pay for it,” City Manager Erik Walsh told reporters after the Thursday meeting.
FAST FACTS
Any comparisons to FY 2025 are based on the original, adopted budget:
- $1.69B General Fund — the city’s checking account, covering most basic services, increases 1.6% overall
- Big airport spending — airport expansion and other airport projects make up $649M of $1.1B capital budget, which is up almost 33%
- No property tax hike — city property tax rate stays flat at 54.159 cents per $100 of valuation
- Higher fees & permits— alarm permits and renewal fees, parking tickets and food inspection fees are among those expected to go up
- $111M in spending reductions over 3 years — cuts or moving expenses out of the general fund to the amount of $27.6M in current year, $33.1M in FY 2026 and $50.3M in FY 2027
- Less money for affordable housing — $30.4M in various funding to continue implementing the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, instead of $36.5M in FY 2025
- Low-barrier homeless shelter stays open — a leased hotel operated by a local nonprofit will remain open an extra year but will use $4.8M in city funds instead of federal relief dollars
- 1,300 homeless camp cleanups — the city said it will increase how often it cleans up high-risk, recurring sites while cleaning any camp within 14 days of a 311 call
- New department for new construction — a new Capital Delivery Department will be spun off from Public Works, which will focus entirely on large-scale projects like streets, drainage and parks, in hopes of getting projects done faster
- Street maintenance funding stays flat — $122.4M compared to $122M in FY 2025
- Less money for sidewalks — $17M for sidewalk instead of $21.5M in FY 2025, resulting in 7.9 fewer miles of new sidewalk and 4.7 fewer repaired miles
- Shade structures at 11 parks — Year three of a five-year plan to put up shade structures at 61 playgrounds at 60 parks
- Jobs cut but no layoffs — the city plans to cut 68 positions, but staff said employees in the 35 still-filled roles will be moved to other open spots
- 53 new police officers - 28 to staff a new substation and 25 toward reaching proactive patrolling goals
- 12 new firefighters — for enhanced squads to address medical calls at two of the city’s busiest fire stations
- 2% raise for civilian employees — a downgrade from the original 3% projection
- 4% raise for SAPD officers — hits April 1 and is guaranteed by union contract
- 8% raise for firefighters — hits Oct. 1 and is guaranteed by union contract
- ACS spay/neuter surgeries up 6.5% — nearly 41,500 surgeries projected, in part, through two new clinics that opened this year
- Critical ACS call response to hit 97% — the city has been trying to improve how many calls it responds to for issues like aggressive dogs, neglect, or animal cruelty since FY 2023, when it was responding to less than half
- Less money for delegate agencies — $19.9M from General Fund (not including workforce development) instead of $20.4M in FY 2025
This is the first city budget cycle for more than half of the 11-member city council, whose final members were sworn in on June 18 following a runoff election.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, Councilman Edward Mungia (D4), Councilman Ric Galvan (D6), Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) and Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9) are all newly elected.
Castillo-Anguiano is also serving as a temporary replacement for District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who is on parental leave.
The full proposed budget can be read HERE, and the presentation to council members is below:
More recent City Hall coverage on KSAT: