District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte has called for greater transparency in the City of San Antonio’s budget process by introducing a Council Consideration Request to establish a Taxpayer Impact Statement to be compiled by City Manager Erik Walsh. The proposal comes as the city of San Antonio is weeks away from its annual budget making procedures.
According to Whyte, the decision to introduce the CCR stems from the frustration of constituents surrounding the transparency and access to the budget making process.
“So one of the things I found in my first term in office is the people want more transparency in government. And what frustrates a lot of folks is they don’t understand or they don’t have the information concerning what they’re being taxed for, where the money is going, how it’s being used, etc.,” Whyte said. “We’ve consistently heard those concerns at community meetings over the last two years, and that drove us to look at what we can do to more simply show the members of the community exactly what they’re being charged for.”
According to Whyte, the proposed Taxpayer Impact Statement would be just two pages long where constituents can see information surrounding the changes of tax rates in relation to the proposed budget compiled by the City of San Antonio.
The CCR filed by Whyte outlines the specifics of what could be included in the statement if the proposal is passed by the city council. The statement would be split into two sections: A tax rate adjustment section, which outlines how the proposed budget would impact the taxes constituents pay, and a section outlining how the proposed budget would impact fees, utility bills and property taxes.
The proposed statement will likely be modeled after the Taxpayer Impact Statement implemented by the City of Austin, which follows a similar format to the one proposed by Whyte.
Four other councilmembers — Terri Castillo (D5), Melissa Cabello Harvda (D6), Mariana Alderete Gavito (D7) and Manny Pelez (D8) — co-signed the CCR proposed by Whyte. Should the proposal go to the City of San Antonio Governance Committee and move on to be voted on by the City Council, the resolution would need the vote of six council members to pass. Whyte anticipates that this resolution would pass should it be introduced.
“I do think this is something that’s going to pass, because which city council person is going to be against more transparency in the budget process?” Whyte said. “I can’t imagine anybody anybody would be. Certainly, I haven’t talked to any of my council colleagues who’s against this. And so I think this is something that will pass, and we’re headed for a new ordinance here.”
This is a developing story. Visit paisano-online.com for future updates.
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