SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio City Council will discuss a possible property tax increase Thursday as part of a plan to close a $158 million budget deficit over the next two years.
City staff is scheduled to present a draft version of the annual city budget at a 9 a.m. meeting. Agenda documents posted online ahead of the meeting show part of that proposal will include the city’s first property tax increase in more than 30 years.
The council meeting will be livestreamed in this article and on KSAT.com. Delays are possible; if no livestream is available, check back at a later time.
Raising the city’s current tax rate by 2.129 cents per $100 of valuation would add about $43 to the 2026 tax bill of a home with $200,000 of taxable value.
The city last raised its property tax rate in 1992 and has either cut or kept it flat every year since. The proposed increase to 56.288 cents would be the highest since the 2014 tax year.
However, seniors and disabled homeowners with a tax freeze would be unaffected.
It’s not as big a jump in the tax rate as the city had previously discussed, but is still likely to draw criticism from some council members.
Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), who represents the North Side, issued a statement Wednesday night, pointing to possible utility rate increases, higher costs of living, and another city bond program next year.
“This is my line in the sand: I will not support increasing the property tax rate,” she said.
Others, though, see an increase as a necessity.
“Nobody wants to raise taxes,” Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) said in a June 18 budget meeting. “I understand that everybody’s stretched, me included. But we have to prioritize and we have to budget and we have to get our residents in and ask them, ‘Where are we spending money?’”
Cuts are expected to be part of the proposed budget, as well as increased fees and other forms of revenue.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has also thrown out ideas of her own, including diverting dollars dedicated to the voter-approved Ready to Work program and sending a letter to business and philanthropic leaders to chip in to help pay for certain items.
The council will not vote on a tax rate or final budget until Sept. 17.
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