Where do Your Property Taxes Go? Enviromental Policy--SA

A Recap of City of San Antonio revenues and spending. So $1,074.42 of your property taxes goes to the City of San Antonio.

The City of San Antonio receives revenues from several sources: Property taxes (25%), Charges and fees (20%), Revenues from Utilities (17%), Grants (usually federal) (15%), Sales Tax (14%), Hotel/Motel Tax (4%), Other Taxes (Short Term Rental Tax, Bingo Tax, etc) (2%), Fines (Library Fines, Traffic Tickets) (1%), Miscellaneous (1%), Intergovernment (0.6%), Permits/Licenses (0.4%)

The 2010 Budget for the City divides general fund expenditures in the following ways: Police (36%), Fire/EMS (26%), other services (Aviation, Community Initiatives, Historic Preservation, Solid Waste Management, Military Affairs, etc) (11%), Convention, Tourism and Culture (9%), Streets and Infrastructure (7%), Environmental (5%), Parks & Recreation (6%), Agencies (4%), Library (3%), Health (1%), Municipal Courts (1%), Neighborhood Services (1%), Economic Development (0.5%), Animal Care (0.5%). I will take you through each of these items in separate posts. If you feel that you have a better way to spend the money you can post your suggestions on the online Budget suggestion box for the 2011 budget.
(For links to all items in the CSA budget, see past posts.)

The Office of Environmental Policy which receives 5% of the city's budget is involved in several initiatives to make San Antonio a greener city:

• Casa Verde SA  is a partnership with CPS Energy to assist low income households with weatherizing their homes.  
• The Mission Verde sustainability plan, which sets several goals for the city to be part of the future green economy and to reduce carbon use by industry, transportation and city facilities.
• The Green Contractor Rebate program which provides incentives for builders to renovate homes through the Build San Antonio Green retrofit program.
• The Mission Verde Center, a multipurpose education, training and research center for renewable and energy efficient technologies.
• The Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan  that provides financial incentives and assistance to residential and commercial customers to install energy saving practices and fixtures to reduce the customer's energy use permanently. 
• Solar America Cities to promote and facilitate the use of solar energy in San Antonio.
• The Hike and Bike program

The city is also planning to change their fleet of cars over to electric vehicles, plug in and hybrid.