San Antonio City Council today began the lengthy process of coming up with a budget for the coming fiscal year that begins October 1, and heard the opinions of thousands of citizens who answered surveys about what city services should see funding incrases, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Interestingly, the item that the fewest percentage of taxpayers think should receive additional funding is public safety, which includes police and fire. Only 44% of San Antonio taxpayers think the city’s police and fire deserve increased funding.
The top recipient of increased city funding should be streets, which 70% of San Antonians think deserves increasing. Other areas that deserve increased city spending include sidewalks and Animal Care Services.
Fewer than half of citizens surveyed want to see increases in parks, libraries, with public safety last on the list.
In fact, 18% of citizens who were surveyed say public safety could stand to have their budgets cut, the largest number of any city department.
Public safety makes up fully two thirds of the general fund city budget.The largest contributor to the city budget is revenues from CPS Energy, which makes up 29.5% of the budget. Second is property taxes at 28.6%, followed by sales taxes and other income sources.
City officials also stressed that ‘equity’ will remain the key goal in the FY 2019 budget, with infrastructure funding focused on City Council districts which have been underserved in the past.