SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio City Council voted 7-4 Thursday to raise the city’s property tax rate for the first time since 1992 as officials moved to close a projected $158 million budget deficit over two years.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and Council Members Marina Alderete Gavito, Misty Spears and Marc Whyte voted against the tax rate. The seven votes in favor met the minimum needed to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget without sending city staff back to make deeper cuts.
The approved tax rate includes a 3.9% increase. The city’s broader plan includes a second increase that would bring the total rate increase to about 8.5%.
For an average homestead with a taxable value of $231,356, the first increase will add about $49 to the 2026 property tax bill compared with keeping the rate unchanged.
Senior and disabled homeowners with a tax freeze, who account for about 47% of the city’s homesteads, will not see an increase.
The city will use a combination of spending cuts, fund transfers, higher fees and property tax revenue to close the projected deficit.
The council’s final budget amendments added $4.5 million in General Fund spending over two years, largely to reduce cuts to a scholarship program, a gastronomy program, five health positions and employee tuition reimbursement.
The city will raise fees and fines in several areas to help cover the additional spending. The changes include higher fines for certain parking violations, an increase in the adult nonresident river barge ticket from $15 to $20 and a $30 fee for a new nonresident library card.
The amendments also redirect mayoral and council office funds to restore funding for the Diez y Seis Commission, use Medicaid waiver reserves for women’s health programs and increase council members’ capital improvement funds through additional debt capacity.
Council members considered deeper cuts before Thursday’s vote but failed to gain enough support.
Whyte unsuccessfully sought to delay the budget vote so the council could identify specific reductions from an across-the-board spending cut. Jones and Spears joined him in supporting the delay.
“So many people are hurting. So many folks have said it today. The cost of living is so high, and yet our solution is to throw an increased tax upon them. It’s wrong. It’s just — it’s wrong to do it,” Whyte said.
Jones also had proposed shifting eligible expenses from the General Fund to other sources, including the Ready to Work program, the Hotel Occupancy Tax fund and special tax increment reinvestment zones.
“We had an opportunity to help ourselves,” Jones said, arguing that the city could have reduced pressure on the General Fund through those transfers.
Supporters of the tax increase argued that deeper cuts would affect essential city services.
“Ultimately what we’ve seen here is that despite the size of our local budget, any further cuts beyond proposed what has been proposed by city staff would directly impact our residents,” Council Member Ric Galvan said.
Galvan cited potential cuts to library hours and programs, parks, youth and adult programs, pavement markings, senior centers, code enforcement, animal care and police and fire services.
Whyte and Spears also unsuccessfully proposed adding 10 San Antonio Police Department positions. The council rejected each proposal 2-9.
The two later discussed permanently funding two additional SAPD positions through their own council office budgets, but the council did not vote on the proposal.
The FY 2027 budget will eliminate dozens of city positions, but city staff said they can use vacant positions elsewhere to avoid layoffs.
State law requires San Antonio to maintain a balanced budget. Without a tax rate sufficient to support the approved spending plan, City Manager Erik Walsh and city staff would have needed to make additional cuts.
City staff previously identified up to $75 million in additional cuts over two years as an alternative to raising taxes.
