Terrell Hills City Council settled on a schedule for preparing the city’s fiscal year 2017 budget on June 13. The fiscal year follows the calendar year.
The council will use its upcoming Aug. 8 meeting to propose an increase in the local property tax rate and set dates and times for two public hearings and a special meeting to adopt the rate. The hearings are tentatively set for 5 p.m. Sept. 12 and Sept. 15. The special meeting’s tentatively set for 5 p.m. Sept. 19.
The council will have a pre-planning budget workshop at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 17. A legal public notice about the public hearings, special meeting and tax rate will run on or before Aug. 25.
A budget workshop will take place at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 19, and the first draft budget will be posted on the city’s website on Nov. 9. Another budget workshop will follow on Nov. 16 if needed.
The council will hold a final public hearing on Dec. 12 on the budget before taking action on the document.
Cities, School Districts Prepping 2017 Budgets
It’s that time of year again, when many local governments and school districts are readying their operating budgets for the next fiscal year. The cities of Alamo Heights and San Antonio are due to pass their respective budgets this September for fiscal year 2017.
Alamo Heights City Council and staff will have public budget workshops on July 11 and 19 at City Hall. “Assuming we get everything finalized (at those meetings), we will schedule the public hearings for our regularly scheduled August council meetings,” City Manager Mark Browne told 78209 Magazine in mid-June. The council then will adopt the final property tax rate and budget at its Sept. 26 meeting.
The Alamo Heights Independent School District is slated to adopt its 2016-2017 academic year in August. By mid-June, the school district did not yet have budget assumptions, including what it will collect in property taxes.
Superintendent Dr. Kevin Brown said the district’s total student enrollment will likely stay around 4,837, which is where it wound up at the end of the 2015-16 school year. It is AHISD’s largest enrollment since 1972. “We believe we’ll maintain that,” Brown said. He added AHISD would probably adopt a new budget with a deficit of “a few hundred thousand dollars.”
The school district has started off with a slight deficit each of the last few academic years, but has ended those years in the black. “We’re in overall good financial shape,” Brown added.
“The problem for many other Texas school districts,” he continued, “is the challenge of maintaining adequate levels of service years after the state cut $5.4 billion in public education money. It’s money that has not yet been restored.”
The Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling in May that upheld the state’s public school funding system as constitutional.
“That can affect things like teachers’ pay,” Brown said. He added that AHISD is projecting a 2 percent pay raise for employees in the upcoming school year. “(Employees) haven’t been able to keep up with inflation,” he said.
The city of San Antonio has begun its FY17 budget preparations with “S.A. Speak Up,” a series of community-wide events where residents can give informal input about the budget.
The North East Independent School District board in mid-June approved a raise for employees. New teachers will see a new starting salary of $51,100, beginning with this next academic year. Eligible teachers and librarians will get a $1,111 annual general pay hike. Professionals and administrative staff will get a 2 percent increase, and classified employees will get a 3 percent raise.
By Edmond Ortiz
