A note to each of you regarding the Bexar County Budget for FY2016 which was passed by a vote of 4 to 1 today. The request for assistance to the Constables and our law enforcement to ensure we maintained services was heard and today the budget passed with Precinct 3, our Precinct for coverage by Constables, having their original budgets restored and their staffing intact losing no officers for FY2016! Thanks to each of you who wrote or called into Commissioner Wolff’s office and/or Judge Wolff’s office in particular and further if you took your concerns to the other commissioners on the court to let them know you wanted to maintain the services which we currently receive via the Constables office with no cuts to law enforcement.
Kevin Wolff listened to your concerns and as those of you who wrote in know, you received a response back from his office indicating that he voted against raising salaries for elected officials. Additionally, today he further voted no for approval of the budget as it stood citing the tax rates as a reason for not supporting the budget this coming fiscal year. He has been a proponent of lowering our property tax rates, specifically in lieu of the raises to our property valuations this past year, some of which have been as high as a 50% increase. He is however, only one vote at the table, and with 4 other votes to produce a quorum/majority, his vote did not carry a decrease to our ad valorem tax rates. The court voted today to approve the budget by a 4 to 1 vote, and further to approve the ad valorem tax rate at .3145 (.017 for flood control and .2975 for the general fund) for FY2015-2016.
Kevin’s efforts to support property tax reform should be noted. He has worked on behalf of the property owners in our area. Further, he instructed Budget staff not to do anything that would have an adverse effect on the Constable or Justice of the Peace offices of Precinct 3, which along with Constable Mark Vojvodich’s presentation to the court and his personal efforts to inform our community that our services were at risk of being decreased because of proposed budget cuts, allowed the vote to pass today to fund Precinct 3 without loss of any officers and allows them to continue to fill the 2 unfilled positions for which they are interviewing at this time. As a side note, the other precincts saw restoration of their services which were in jeopardy of being cut as well. Additionally, as you may have heard on the news this evening, the court approved the funding to fully cover all remaining law enforcement with body cameras that may not currently have them, in an effort to continue transparency and improve accurate recording of events as they occur.
Thanks to each of you who took the time to respond to the call to support our law enforcement. It was worth your effort!