SAN ANTONIO — On Thursday, San Antonio city council began discussing the budget for the 2025 fiscal year, with each councilmember outlining their priorities for funding.
Councilmember Marc Whyte, who represents district 10, wants a complete overhaul of the system. For the 2027 fiscal year, he wants city council to start from scratch, calling his proposal 'zero-based budgeting.'
"Right now we're getting a bunch of numbers thrown at us and we're looking at the various departments in the city and what they spent last year and basically just adding to their budget," Whyte said. "But we're not looking back at what they've been spending money on, and is it working? We need to go back to zero where we see if what we've already been spending money on is actually producing results."
Whyte filed a council consideration request (CCR), which proposes that following 2027, city council would budget using the zero-based budgeting method every five years.
"It is going to be more time consuming and city staff is going to have to do the work to justify each expense in each department," he said. "And that is going to be tough for them. But that's what we need to do to find inefficiencies, wasted dollars so that we can better put to use the citizens tax dollars."
Whyte argues the method would also create transparency and allow the city to reflect.
"It's about eliminating duplication," he said. "It's about eliminating waste and then taking that money that we find there and putting it to use where the citizens want it and need it the most."
The proposal has gotten support from councilmembers Melissa Cabello Havrda of district 6, Marina Alderete Gavito of district 7, Manny Pelaez of district 8, and John Courage of district 9.
Courage brought up zero-based budgeting in Thursday's discussion.
"I looked at the budget presentation yesterday and we are facing budget deficits in three years when the ARPA money runs out," he said. "And if we're not back to basics and tightening our belt and developing a dependable way of creating our budget, starting at zero and looking at every program and every department, then we are going to continue to face a financial challenge that it's going to become a burden on the people in our our community."
This year marks Mayor Ron Nirenberg's last year being part of a complete budget session, calling it 'bittersweet' in the meeting.
When asked about Whyte's proposal, he wrote in a statement:
"The City of San Antonio’s budget is examined extensively at multiple levels – from staff to the City Council to public input sessions. Annually, each department looks for areas to trim. That’s part of our normal budget process. Zero-based budgeting is an academic exercise that costs time and resources and produces little or no result. It would not bring added value in a stable, transparent process such as the city’s.”
The CCR is awaiting a date to be heard by the Governance committee.