Bexar County Commissioners Court, which is under new leadership for the first time in more than two decades, signed off on a nearly $3 billion budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year Tuesday.
Commissioners successfully navigated one of the biggest points of contention from previous years, how to adequately fund law enforcement, by uniting on a plan to add 50 new sheriff’s deputies over the course of the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
“This has been my first budget, and I have expressed some issues with the budget process,” Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said after Tuesday’s vote. “I think budget office has heard from me, and I think they’ve done their best to respond, but we can do better.”
One of the biggest points of contention this year stemmed from county budget staff’s plan to standardize spending between the four precincts — a move that caused Commissioner Tommy Calvert (Pct. 4) to withhold his support from the overall proposal.
Calvert invited community members to a work session Monday to protest the staff’s spending decisions, and to help him make the case for funding additional projects.
“In terms of the sheriff’s deputies, this is one of my most proud moments,” Calvert said Tuesday. “But I will have to abstain on this budget because of the stains on this budget.”
Commissioners voted 4-0 to in favor of the budget, with Calvert abstaining.
They also voted to keep the tax rate the same as the current year, $.299999 cents per $100 of valuation. That decision was approved unanimously, but Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3), the court’s lone Republican, voted against the rate for the maintenance and operations component.
“We’re going to add $20 million to the general fund reserves. … My argument is that we should give that money back to taxpayers and we should reduce the tax rate,” said Moody, who introduced an amendment to that effect that failed Monday. “That’s why I voted no [on the maintenance and operations rate].”
The 2024 budget will raise about 10.8% more revenue than the current year, or roughly $57 million, according to staff presentation. Roughly $20 million of that will be raised from taxes on new property. Valuations on existing properties increased by $16.9 billion, according to the county.
The overall 2024 budget includes $751 million for operating costs, $865 million for capital projects and $164 million for debt service.
It also plans $45 million for contingencies, $512 million for capital improvement projects carried forward from previous budgets, $132 million in venue fund reserves,
$52 million in debt service reserves and $257 million in carry-forward funding.
Roughly $174 million of the $389 million Bexar County received from the American Rescue Plan Act is included in the 2024 budget, most of which has already been earmarked for specific projects. Commissioners must still determine how to spend about $9.7 million.
Dissent from the court
Headed into Tuesday’s vote, commissioners had sought to open up this year’s budget deliberations and help new leaders understand the process by adding more work sessions. Sakai took over as the county’s chief executive in January, while Moody joined the dais in November.
The biggest criticism of the budget process, however, wound up coming from the court’s longest-serving member.
Calvert, who has served on the court since 2015, said Tuesday that the county was costing itself money by not adequately funding previously approved projects. For example, he pointed to an Advance Manufacturing Training Center at Brooks that he said needs more money to begin construction.
“The amount that we have in reserve is about twice the amount that the bond rating agencies like Moody’s require this county to keep on hand in order to have a AAA bond rating,” Calvert said. “Why not put that money into a job creator at Brooks?”
Calvert’s pleas were shrugged off by colleagues who supported staff’s plan to devote $10.5 million to projects in each precinct, and who had already worked out their spending priorities ahead of Monday’s work session.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores (Pct. 1), who was singled out for criticism by some of Calvert’s allies, chimed in from the dais to disagree with his assessment of the budget process.
“How the budget season always works is that we start with what we had last year, and then we grow from that,” Clay-Flores said. “Things are not cut unless they’re discussed with us and we as a court decide to do it.”
Sakai said he agreed with Calvert that the budget process could be improved in future years, but added that this year’s budget made many efforts to incorporate community feedback.
“We have majority approval, and regardless of how we think this happened today, majority rules,” Sakai said from the dais after Tuesday’s budget vote.
“Even though we still have differences, and we may have strong feelings, we must come together,” he added. “That is what I asked of all of you, including my colleagues.”
Calvert has signaled no plans to move on from the fight, noting Tuesday that he’s already assembling a citizens committee to look more closely at the 2024 budget starting early next month.
“People called all day yesterday saying they wanted to serve on it after watching this court,” Calvert said. “This budget will be scrutinized, and the days of the county doing things in the dark and people not knowing what we’re doing are over.”
Bexar County staff salaries
Among the biggest challenges headed into the budget process was an overwhelming number of requests from county department leaders who’ve said they’re struggling to recruit and retain staff due to a lack of competitive salaries.
The 2024 budget does not include a cost of living increase for county employees.
The county sought to address issues with noncompetitive pay through a compensation study commissioned by Baker Tilly last year and implemented in May.
Those changes yielded widely varying salary increases for county employees. They also caused employees with varying experience levels to make the same salaries in some cases, something the 2024 budget seeks to address.
Benefits-eligible employees will receive a .05 percent pay increase for every year in their current position, meaning 2,323 employees will receive an average increase of 2.3% percent. That salary increase will not impact the 1,157 benefits-eligible employees who have been in their position for less than a year.
Non-exempt employees, who moved to a new salary scale under the Baker Tilly study, will stay at their new pay step for the first year. They’ll move up a step next year, and each year after.
Sakai acknowledged frustration with the salary study on Monday, but asked county employees to “be patient” while further adjustments are made. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez (Pct. 2) said Tuesday he hoped the budget office could implement a cost of living adjustment sooner than the next budget period.
Last month commissioners voted to make all four of the commissioners’ salaries equal, by bringing them from between $131,000 and $148,000 to $150,000. They then gave themselves an additional .5% pay increase.
Law enforcement
Commissioners cheered Tuesday’s budget as commitment to public safety, on the heels of many contentious law enforcement funding discussions over the past year.
Disagreements between the Bexar County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and County Manager David Smith at one point became so heated that state lawmakers considered a legislative approach to tie the county’s hands on additional officers.
The 2024 budget includes funding for 50 patrol officers, which will be added over the course of the next fiscal year. It comes as commissioners also signed off on significant salary adjustments for deputies last month.
In a recent budget work session Sheriff Javier Salazar laid plans to create four new patrol districts, which he believes will improve response time.
“We have shown clearly that we support our law enforcement from top to bottom, and we will continue to do so,” Sakai said Tuesday.
But tension between the sheriff’s office and the county budget office remains.
Clay-Flores said Tuesday that she was concerned the county was funding additional officers, but not enough additional vehicles to go with them. County budget staff said they’ll work on securing enough vehicles after the sheriff provides them with a duty roster of how many officers are required to cover each shift.
“From where I sit, a 24/7 post, like a patrol district, requires five people,” Smith said in an interview Tuesday. “The sheriff thinks it should be six or more. So we need to have those talks.”
