County budget features a tiny tax cut
$2.8B plan touts property relief, leans on stimulus funds
After a contentious debate, Bexar County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $2.8 billion budget and a reduction in the county tax rate that will shave a few dollars off property tax bills.
The budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, relies on federal stimulus funds to bridge a gap of at least $8.3 million between revenue and spending.
The budget includes a tiny cut in the county’s property tax rate, a measure championed by Commissioner Trish Deberry, who said it would give taxpayers a modicum of relief “during a pandemic year.” The resulting savings will total $1.7 million — less than $4 per year for the typical homeowner.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the budget includes funds to launch a $617 million, 10year program to build 87 capital projects, including roads, trails, parks and flood control improvements.
He said a rush of last-minute funding requests — and differing views on the tax cut — made budget deliberations challenging.
“This has been the most difficult budget I’ve been through,” said Wolff, a former San Antonio mayor and state legislator who has been county judge since 2001.
Commissioners had planned to approve the budget with little discussion, after hashing out many of their differences in a work session Friday. But a request from district court judges, the sheriff and the district attorney’s office for an additional $1.8 million for a new children’s court sparked renewed debate over the wisdom of the tax cut.
Wolff, Deberry and Commissioner Tommy Calvert supported the cut. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez voted against it, and Commissioner Rebeca Clay-flores abstained.
Deberry, the only Republican on Commissioners Court, defended the tax cut, saying it did not come “at the expense of children or women.” She called it a first step in an effort to provide relief to Bexar County homeowners, whose appraisals rose an average
of 9 percent this year.
“This is not a county that is shrinking, by any stretch of the imagination,” Deberry said. “We are going to continue to collect a record amount of property taxes because we continue to grow.”
Clay-flores, explaining her abstention, said she refused to be part of “political games.”
“We believe in keeping finances in the general fund, so that we can have resources for things like children’s court and against domestic violence. I abstain from voting on this because I am not going to tell my constituents that I’m saving you four measly dollars,” said Clay-flores, who represents a broad swath of the south and southwest sides of the county.
County Manager David Smith had recommended that commissioners leave the tax rate unchanged. But he said there was room in the budget for a reduction from 30.1 cents to 29.99 cents per $100 of valuation.
The new rate, which takes effect Oct. 1, is barely one-tenth of a penny lower than the current rate. Without exemptions, it would reduce the annual tax bill on an average-priced, $345,000 home by $3.78.
“I think it continues our tradition of trying to keep much burden off the taxpayers as we can,” Wolff said, calling the budget a product of “some passionate arguments.”
The budget includes a 5 percent raise for county employees, with an additional $1,000 lump-sum raise for hourly workers.
The lump-sum increase, proposed by Clay-flores, is intended to give a boost to workers at the lower end of the pay scale.
Child welfare
Comm issioners agreed last week to partially fund a $2.9 million request to bolas ster court staffing in response to a surge in child welfare and domestic violence cases.
On Tuesday, two district court judges, Rosie Alvarado and Monique Diaz, and Mauro Valdez, supervising attorney for child protective services in the District Attorney’s Office, appeared before the commissioners again to ask for an additional $1.8 million for a third children’s court.
“Family violence, including intimate partner violence, domestic violence, child abuse and elder abuse increase with natural disasters, and COVID-19 has proven no different,” Diaz said.
Next month, commissioners will discuss ways to fund the new children’s court.
To close the $8.28 million gap created by the tax cut and last- minute budget requests, county staff recommended the commissioners use funds received under the American Rescue Plan Act. In all, the county has $389 million in ARPA funds to spend by the end of 2026.
But the county’s financial backbone during the pandemic has been property taxes. The local property tax base rose by $9 billion, to $191.6 billion, a nearly 5 percent increase, in the past year. Just over half of that increase, $4.8 billion, stemmed from new development.
Deberry, a board member of the Bexar Appraisal District, said she’s seeking relief for homeowners who have struggled to pay their tax bills because of the pandemic.
“People have been suffering countywide. And we have got to get the taxes going in a different direction,” Deberry said.