New City of San Antonio FY2024 Adopted Budget

Published on September 14, 2023

New City of San Antonio budget focuses on keeping San Antonio safe, property tax relief, enhancing quality of life and improving customer service

SAN ANTONIO (September 14, 2023) – Today, the City of San Antonio’s Mayor and City Council approved a $3.7 billion budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 that was presented by City Manager Erik Walsh. The budget provides day-to-day services that residents have come to enjoy and rely on, from parks, libraries, police, fire to garbage collection. Thanks to direct feedback from the residents of San Antonio, the budget also focuses on long-term investments that will provide property tax relief, help keep San Antonio safe, enhance quality of life and improve customer service. 

“This budget takes a comprehensive approach to community safety,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “It includes funding to help San Antonians achieve housing security, job security, and provides 117 new police positions, 41 firefighter positions and a significant increase in Animal Care Services. I want to thank City Manager Erik Walsh and his team for their stellar work and my colleagues for helping shape a truly holistic, thoughtful budget.”

The budget is balanced over a two-year period, in accordance with the City’s established financial policies. It also maintains a minimum 15 percent General Fund ending balance and keeps public safety spending below 66 percent of the General Fund.

The City’s strong financial management was key to Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service reaffirming its ‘AAA’ general obligation bond ratings. Fitch Ratings also reaffirmed the City’s ‘AA+’ bond rating and revised its outlook to positive from stable. 

“The City of San Antonio’s budget highlights our commitment to addressing the issues our residents said were most important to them,” said City Manager Erik Walsh. “We’re strategically investing resources in long-term solutions to keep San Antonio safe, enhance our residents’ quality of life and improve customer service, while delivering property tax relief. I want to thank the City team for dedication to the community. I also want to thank our residents for speaking up and being part of the policy-making process through their comments and participation at town hall meetings.” 

The Adopted Budget At A Glance

• $3.7 billion
• • $1.6 billion General Fund
  • $1.33 billion Restricted Fund
  • $798 million Capital Budget
• $134 million in property tax relief

Property Tax Relief

Providing direct relief to the residents of San Antonio was identified as a priority in this year’s budget. In June, the Mayor and City Council unanimously approved to double the City’s homestead exemption to 20 percent. Today’s Council action also slightly decreases the City’s property tax rate.

The budget also maintains existing exemptions, including the over-65 and disabled person exemptions of $85,000 each and the senior property tax freeze. In total, the budget delivers $134.5 million in property tax relief to the residents of San Antonio in 2024.

Keep San Antonio Safe

One of the top priorities of the City’s residents and the City Council was keeping neighborhoods, businesses and public spaces safe. The budget adds 117 police officers, 41 Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) positions and 29 animal care services positions. 

To boost community safety, the 100 new police officers will enhance proactive patrols and five new officers will be assigned to the training academy to graduate more cadets. Thirty-two new firefighters and paramedics and one new EMS unit for Fire Station 40 will be added. EMS coverage to the Southside of San Antonio will also be bolstered to help shorten patient transport time after the closing of the Texas Vista Hospital.

To further the City’s progress to improve mental health crisis response, the City will expand the successful San Antonio Community Outreach and Resilience Effort (SA-CORE) program to include 24-hour coverage, seven days a week beginning in the summer of 2024. The expansion adds five clinicians, nine paramedics and 12 police officers. The SA-CORE team is made up of a team of a clinician, paramedic and police officer respond to 911 mental health calls. Together, this team compassionately responds to these calls for service by securing the scene, while a clinician and paramedic address physical and mental health concerns. The team transports and/or connects the patient with services and follows up regularly with the patient.

Animal Care Services (ACS) receives its largest increase by adding 15 positions to focus on the safety of our community and the well-being of the pet population. With the additional resources, the department will be able to cut response times to its roughly 3,500 annual bite cases nearly in half. ACS will increase compliance by owners of dogs that have been deemed dangerous by conducting additional inspections, and it will respond to more critical calls, including those that involve aggressive dogs, neglect, and cruelty. This budget begins year one of a three-year strategy to respond to all critical animal related calls.

Enhance Quality of Life

The adopted budget invests $137 million in building and repairing streets and sidewalks and constructing voter-approved bond projects. $15.3 million will enhance street markings, crosswalks and traffic signals. It also cleans up non-service alleyways that are not used for trash pickup or utilities. It also introduces a five-year program to install shades at 61 playgrounds across the city.

The comprehensive approach to homelessness will make investments to shelter 400 individuals, clean up 700 encampments and helps keep people in their homes.

The City will focus on preserving affordable homes, expanding homeownership access and supporting renters through a $41 million investment. In addition, the City will establish a pilot program to assist older adults with property maintenance resulting from a code compliance violation.

Nearly 14new ACS positions will increase rescue opportunities and adoptions and promote responsible pet ownership. Funding is also added to achieve 44,000 no or low cost spay and neuter surgeries in 2024. The City will also stand up two new spay and neuter clinics in areas of the community that lack access to veterinary services.

Improve Customer Service

Four positions are added for the City’s Good Neighbor Program and Dangerous Assessment Response Teams (DART). The overall goal of the programs is to bring properties into compliance and connect individuals with services when needed. The Good Neighbor Program addresses single residential properties with 12 or more calls (911 and 311) in the past 90 days through a multi-departmental, coordinated approach. The Dangerous Assessment Response Team targets and abates commercial and residential nuisance properties that have a documented history of habitual criminal or code violations of at least two years.  

The City will also make new enhanced library cards, which includes a photo of the library patron, available at 29 branch libraries. 

To learn more about the budget visit SanAntonio.gov/budget.