This article has been updated.

The City of San Antonio is considering a $3.7 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year, up from $3.4 billion the previous year. 

The biggest spending increases will go to growing the police force and beefing up the city’s response to stray and aggressive animals, City Manager Erik Walsh told reporters Wednesday. Other major changes include increased fees for trash collection and funding for surveying and repairing sidewalks.

In recent years the city’s revenue has been bolstered by rapidly rising property valuations, inflation and several tranches of federal pandemic relief. This is the first year the city has needed to use a portion of its banked increases from previous years to fund city services.

The city’s 2024 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Although most City Council members saw a preliminary budget in May, the full council got its first look at the proposed budget Thursday. It will vote on it Sept. 14, after a series of public work sessions that drills into each department’s proposed spending.

“There’s obviously a big discussion about public safety in this community, and up here on the dais it is job number one,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg who praised the budget’s “measured and responsive addition of patrol officers.”

“I also think that the work that we’re doing in infrastructure, in animal care, in sidewalks, in economic mobility and resiliency funds — those are all elements of public safety as well,” he said. 

 The city will hold nine town hall meetings located throughout the city to solicit community input prior to the vote.

Public safety

The proposed budget includes $11.9 million to hire an additional 100 police officers and five instructors for the police academy.

It also lays out upgrades to the academy’s training facilities, something some council members said should be done through the city’s 2027 bond. The proposed improvements include $1.1 million for an outdoor fitness facility.

Walsh said the changes should allow the San Antonio Police Department to graduate as many as 235 new officers per year, compared to its current rate of 159 per year. That’s as the city plans to add roughly 360 new officers over the next several years.

The overall public safety budget will increase 7.8% from 2023.

“It’s a big investment,” Walsh said. The goal is to “provide more visibility” and “more proactive opportunities for officers to engage the community and not be running from call to call,” he said.

The city also plans to budget for an additional 32 fire personnel and expand its emergency medical services.

Animal Care Services

In the wake of a deadly dog mauling earlier this year, the city’s proposed budget includes a 26% funding increase for the Animal Care Services Department.

Walsh said the incident caused the city to reassess the department’s needs and add money for staff to respond to biting incidents, as well as calls about animal neglect and cruelty.

“We get 50,000 critical ACS calls a year. … Right now we have staff to be able to respond to 44% of those calls,” Walsh said. “It’s the only city service that you call and you’re not going to get a response the majority of the time.”

The proposed budget adds 14 new staff positions to assist with administrative support, pet adoptions and veterinary care for stray animals. 

Nearly all of the council members expressed an urgent desire to increase the department’s effectiveness. 

“We need to focus the additional ACS budget for boots on the ground and people responding to critical calls,” said Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7). 

Trash rate increases 

Residents’ solid waste costs are expected to increase in the coming fiscal year, through higher monthly bin charges for larger bins, and an increase to the solid waste environmental fee tacked onto CPS Energy bills.

The environmental fee is paid by both homeowners and renters. The city is proposing increasing it from $1.26 per month to $3 per month, to cover higher costs related to illegal dumping, hazardous waste disposal and cleaning up homeless encampments.

Under the city’s budget proposal, the monthly price for the smallest trash bin would stay the same, but the cost for a medium-sized bin would go up $1 per month, from $18.76 to $19.76. The price for a large bin would go up $3.49 per month, from $26.76 to $30.25.

Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) said he was concerned about raising the fees at the time the city was promising property tax relief in the budget. “This seems to counter the impact that we intended to have,” he said. 

Sidewalk improvements

The proposed budget includes $137.5 million for streets and sidewalks.

The city plans to spend $500,000 assessing all sidewalks and grading them according to their condition, as it currently does for streets. City officials will then launch an effort to repair sidewalks deemed to be in the worst condition over the next three years.

The proposed budget includes $12.5 million to build 29 miles of new sidewalks in the coming fiscal year, and $7 million to repair 16 miles of sidewalks.

Property taxes

Earlier this year city leaders agreed to double the city’s homestead exemption, allowing homeowners to reduce the taxable value of their home by 20%.

Walsh said the change, along with other targeted property tax relief measures, will lower the city’s average taxable home value from from $214,000 in 2023 to $205,000 in 2024.

In the coming year the city plans to offer a new program that would allow seniors to perform volunteer work for the city and earn up to $400 in additional property tax relief, Walsh said.