The San Antonio City Council is expected to approve its largest budget ever today; and that includes keeping the tax rate the same. At its final budget work session Wednesday, at least one council member proposed reducing the city’s tax rate as a form of property tax relief.
The City of San Antonio says it has not raised its property tax rate in 25 years. There’s not a proposed rate increase this year either. District 6 Councilmember Greg Brockhouse introduced a proposal Wednesday to cut and reallocate 14-million dollars from the city’s $2.7 billion budget. That’s eliminating several city departments and reducing the city’s property tax rate by a half cent.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in the budget to cut and live within means, as well as go back and still find ways to do property tax relief.”
Councilman @BrockhouseD6 presents long list of city departments and programs that should be eliminated in 2018. Asks for tax rate to be cut pic.twitter.com/i611fMqsVP
— Joey Palacios 😷 (@Joeycules) September 13, 2017
The half cent reduction would cut 5 million dollar from the budget. The property tax savings to tax payers according to the city would be $8.45 annually.
Councilman @JohnCourageD9 asks what the savings would be if city prop tax rate was cut. City manager says taxpayers would save $8 per year. pic.twitter.com/1b2uY7qxEy
— Joey Palacios 😷 (@Joeycules) September 13, 2017
Brockhouse says that’s a start.
“I think it’s forgetful of who gives us the cash in the first place. This is tax payer money. “
The proposal was met with pushback from some council members like Rey Saldana.
"I thought I was going to see something in here I'd agree with but I don't"
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg says that cut may not be worth it to cut some city services.
“People want relief; they don’t want service delivery to suffer to save eight dollars a year.”
The recent rise is property taxes can be attributed to the rise in property valuations. Nirenberg says the greatest property tax relief won’t come from tax rate cuts but from property tax reform.
