Ensuring Financial Responsibility and Government Efficiency at City Hall
As mayor, I will work with my City Council colleagues to enhance San Antonio’s financial health and operational efficiency by reducing unnecessary spending, eliminating inefficiencies, and prioritizing taxpayer relief. This will ensure an excellent return on investment to the taxpayers, a sustainable financial future for the city, and excellence in the delivery of city services.
Reducing the Property Tax Burden
Problem: Property taxes are a major burden for San Antonio families and business owners. Rising property values have led to higher tax bills, placing financial strain on our homeowners, renters, and businesses.
Solution: City officials must call a ‘Taxpayer Time-Out’ by adopting the no-new-revenue (NNR) tax rate. This means the city sets the tax rate so that it budgets and collects the same amount of money as it did the previous year, even if property values go up. This freezes taxes temporarily and gives the taxpayer instant relief. Some jurisdictions, like Tarrant County, have even gone so far as to adopt a tax rate below the NNR tax rate in an effort to significantly reduce property tax bills.
Conducting a Third-Party Efficiency Audit
Problem: City programs often become permanent features, despite no obvious need or effectiveness. This is in line with Ronald Reagan, who famously said:“Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”Such endlessness makes government more bureaucratic, impenetrable, costly and inefficient. Taxpayers are left to fend with red tape, burdensome regulations, and an inefficient city services delivery system.
Solution: City officials must guard against this tendency by immediately instituting a one-time third-party efficiency audit of its budget and operations. This type of audit is intended to establish where the city might perform better and cheaper as well as deliver improved services.
Addressing San Antonio’s Debt Burden
Problem: The Texas Bond Review Board’s searchable debt database reveals that the city’s local outstanding debt service (i.e. principal + interest) rose to $21.2 billion in FY 2024, which equates to a per capita debt burden of more than $14,000 per San Antonian. This means that the taxpayers have to pay in excess of $400 million every year in interest payments. Such exaggerated borrowing has obvious fiscal consequences – such as tax increases – which negatively impact family and small business budgets. Paying such a large amount of interest robs the taxpayers of the opportunity to spend that money on improving basic city services like public safety.
Solution: City officials must focus on easing the city’s debt burden by prioritizing spending, deferring unnecessary projects, and finding creative, taxpayer-friendly solutions to the city’s infrastructure needs.
Eliminating “Ghost FTEs” (Funded-but-Unfilled Positions)
Problem: Governmental entities are notorious for creating and funding positions, but never filling them. These funded-but-unfilled positions, also known as “Ghost FTEs,” contribute to the growth and expense of government and provide no return on investment to the taxpayer.
Solution: City officials must determine how widespread this problem is (i.e. how many FTE positions have been unfilled for 12+ months) and seek to eliminate them. Government clearly doesn’t need those positions, and any savings should be mandated to go back to taxpayers in the form of tax reduction, debt repayment, or some other form financial relief.
Creating a Sunset Commission
Problem: The City of San Antonio lacks a formal and permanent accountability mechanism to address inefficiencies, redundancies, and waste in its organizational units such as city departments, programs, and boards & commissions. There is no formal or comprehensive process for solving unchecked growth and potential drift in the missions of these organizational units or any other entities that depend on the city for funding, which often leads to wasteful spending, outdated practices or government overreach.
Solution: City officials must create a City of San Antonio Sunset Commission, much in the same vein as the Texas Sunset Commission, that provides regular and systematic assessment to ensure all city organizational units remain necessary, focused, fair, and – most importantly – cost-effective in serving the public’s needs. By conducting thorough periodic reviews, the city’s sunset commission’s aim will be to streamline government functions, propose necessary reforms, and eliminate redundancy, ensuring that taxpayer money is used responsibly, and that the city is operating at peak efficiency.
Conclusion
City officials have the opportunity to protect taxpayers by enhancing financial responsibility and government efficiency at City Hall. By eliminating waste, enhancing services, reducing debt, and shielding taxpayers from excessive burdens, our aim is to create a lean, accountable city government. These reforms will ensure wise use of taxpayer dollars, supporting a thriving, affordable city for families and businesses.st us.