Budget sails through final vote

Without much fanfare, the City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a $2.5 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year that officials called a “back to basics” spending plan focused on core municipal services.

The budget, which takes effect Oct. 1, is slightly smaller than the previous year’s plan because of slightly less spending on capital projects as the 2012 bond program winds down. The council adopted the same property tax rate as last year, when it dropped slightly from the previous year. The rate has not increased in more than two decades, though property values generally have risen considerably — which drives up annual tax bills.

Mayor Ivy Taylor said during the council meeting that striking a balance between needs that “sometimes feel like they’re competing” is a difficult job.

“But I think we’ve struck a really great balance … focusing on those key priorities,” she said. “I’m glad we’ve maintained the increase we had in street maintenance, that we’re investing in sidewalks and also adding public safety officers, as well as several innovations to better support our employees who do the work of providing services for our citizens every day.”

The approved budget includes $7.9 million for the Smart Cities initiative, which will bring a series of tech improvements to town — including free wireless internet in several parks, solar benches that allow users to charge electronic devices and connect to the internet, and community kiosks that will provide information on parks, events and other things, and smartphone apps that will help with things like filing code-violation complaints and way-finding in parks.

The spending plan brings on 32 new police officers and $1.9 million for continued rollout of body-worn cameras. The city will spend $64 million on street repairs and $15 million on new sidewalks, as well.

Councilman Joe Krier said that after he was originally appointed to the District 9 seat, he’d visited with his constituents to better understand what they wanted to see in the annual budget.

“One of the things they said to me repeatedly is ‘we want to see budgets that are what we view as basic-services budgets,’ and it was clear to me that basic-services budgets are budgets in which police and fire, streets and drainage, parks and libraries are the very top priorities,” Krier said. “And that is clearly the case in this budget, as it has been for the last several years.”

Several council members said they were pleased to increase the hourly wage for entry-level municipal employees from $13 to $13.75, keeping pace with Bexar County, which this week approved raising its rate to $13.75. The council also earmarked funds for council aides, who are contract workers and not city employees. They don’t receive the same benefits but will now get cellphone and car allowances, more for health care and city contributions to retirement accounts.

Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales praised the COPS/Metro Alliance for its push to increase San Antonio’s living wage.

“I fought to raise the minimum wage for city employees from $13 dollars per hour to a living wage (of) $13.75,” she said in a news release. “This is a big step towards increasing the quality of life for thousands of families in District 5 and San Antonio.”

Councilman Ron Nirenberg, too, applauded the increased minimum wage, among other budget priorities, such as spending on new technology.

“Smart Cities — this is hugely important for us. The mayor has acknowledged that smart cities are just regular cities if we are doing our job right. And that’s absolutely true, so I’m glad to see this is fully funded at $7.9 million,” he said. “I think that this is the first step, though, as we continue to implement technology to make our lives and constituent lives easier.”

But Nirenberg, who’s rumored to be contemplating a run against Taylor, said he harbors concerns that the council has punted on how to continue funding delegate agencies, which contract with the city to offer social services. Earlier this year, the council had discussed cutting funds for a community safety-net that included money for fighting domestic violence.

“The policy recommendation currently is to shift those funds, to reduce the funds,” he said. “We were able to find carry-forward this year, but we need to address that in years forward because that need is only going to grow larger, not smaller.” jbaugh@express-news.net Twitter: @jbaugh