By Edmond Ortiz
Facing major shortfalls over the next couple of fiscal years, San Antonio city officials are adopting a new budget that zeroes in on issues such as homelessness and animal care while including cuts and other moves designed to address deficits
City Council voted on Sept. 18 to approve a total $4.04 billion Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which is a 2.2% rise from the $3.96 billion total budget that council adopted for Fiscal Year 2025. The new total budget features a $1.69 billion general fund budget to support daily operations; this is a 1.6% increase from the $1.67 billion GF budget that council passed last year.
City Manager Erik Walsh complimented city staff for crafting a budget that addresses key priorities such as roads, public safety and affordable housing while keeping in mind difficult long-range budget concerns.
“This strategy focuses on three core principles: protecting essential and mandated services, minimizing impacts on vulnerable populations, and avoiding long-term risks due to changes in the budget,” Walsh said in a statement.
Perspectives
Over the months that they spent developing a new budget, city staff reminded local elected leaders and the community about projected general fund deficits that initially stood at $21 million for FY 2026 and $152 million for FY 2027.
City staff had attributed the expected deficits to sales tax and property tax revenues falling short of projections, as well as slower consumer spending habits, and state and federal funding cuts.
As a result of budget discussions, the city plans nearly $111 million in decreased spending through the next two fiscal years, relying on a mix of reductions and efficiencies, savings on completed projects, unspent monies, and transferring some operating general fund expenditures to other city funds.
The specifics
With these things in mind, city officials prioritized shoring up public safety, infrastructure improvements, affordable housing efforts, animal care services, and caring for the unhoused – issues that local leaders said have long been vital to many of their constituents.
Key measures in the new budget include:
*Creating a new Homeless Services and Strategy Department, leveraging the city’s existing Human Services resources to coordinate and offer services that meet unsheltered individuals’ immediate and long-term needs;
*A $4.8 million allocation to extend low-barrier shelters for at-risk individuals;
*More frequent clearings of high-risk or recurring homeless encampment sites
*Creation of a new Capital Delivery Department, using existing Public Works staff, dedicated to implementing large-scale projects, such as streets, drainage, parks, and city facilities. Walsh also said the new CDD will lead planning for future bond programs, with a clear focus on delivering projects on time and within budget;
*The new budget contains $122.4 million in street maintenance, and $17 million for 21 new miles and 11 repaired miles of sidewalks citywide;
*$30.4 million to continue implementing the city’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP). According to city officials, of the 28,094 new and renovated homes targeted by 2031, 13,100 or 47% are slated to be completed, underway, or planned by the end of FY 2026;
*Addition of 12 new firefighter positions and 53 new police officer spots, and the reallocation of 65 vacant park and airport police positions to be filled by San Antonio Police Department officers;
*Maintaining Animal Care Services funding with an emphasis on community education about proper pet ownership, and on enforcement. In FY 2026, city officials are eyeing a 100% response rate to residents’ critical calls about abandoned pets, animals that may pose a public safety risk, or animal welfare worries.
City officials also said ACS will perform 41,459 pet sterilization surgeries – a 6.5% increase over FY 2025 – a number that was expected to grow thanks in large part to the opening of two spay/neuter clinics this year.
Additionally, the new budget provides a 2% across-the-board pay hike for civilian employees, and collectively bargained raises of 4% for police officers and 8% for firefighters.
A wider look
The city’s efforts to tackle homelessness comes amid an increase in unsheltered residents. San Antonio’s 2025 point-in-time count revealed that the number of individuals experiencing homelessness rose 7.5% from 2024, following a 6.9% rise from 2023 to 2024.
District 2 Interim Councilmember Leo Castillo-Anguiano on Sept. 24 submitted a City Council Request that, if approved, could extend resources to examine the present state of homeless services for effectiveness. The CCR also proposes two new programs to help better serve chronically unsheltered individuals.
What else you should know
San Antonio’s new budget will get support from an unchanged property tax rate of 54.1 cents per $100 valuation.
City budget director Justina Tate said the city projects a nearly 1% decline in base taxable property values in 2025-2026, adding that the city expects to collect $472.4 million in daily maintenance and operations property tax revenue in the new fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
This is $6.1 million less than the trial budget that city staff provided to council earlier this summer; the decrease is due to taxpayers’ property valuation protests and successful appeals.
Tate also said that San Antonio property taxpayers may collectively see $151.8 million in relief through the drop in base property values, and eligible tax exemptions and freezes.
However, the city intends to collect $4.5 million in increased fees such as alarm permits, vacant building registration, food establishment safety, and parking fines.
What they’re saying
The draft FY 26 budget initially cut funding for delegate agencies, or local nonprofits that provide various social services deemed vital by the city. But in the end, council backed shifting some reserve funds to bolster those delegate agencies such as the Rape Crisis Center and Big Mama’s Safe House.
District 1 Councilmember Sukh Kaur said it was important that the city helped to shore up budget funding for delegate agencies.
“I really think we have a big win for public safety in this budget, starting with our delegate agencies because our delegate agencies do the work of prevention,” she added.
