San Antonio, Texas Corruption

LATINOS FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT

Seek the truth – stand by the truth – live the truth.

Our agenda is to establish a government base on the truth and our Christian principles

San Antonio, corruption and fiscal responsibility.

I don’t believe we the people of San Antonio are getting our money’s worth. The San Antonio City manager, the fire Dept. Chief and the Chief of police are over pay. Our city council needs to get inform about these jobs responsibilities and seek ways to save the city Taxpayers money. I can see that the council approved these pay package agreements base on what other cities are paying for their city managers, not about the city most important objective “financial stability” Our city’s debt obligation is $1,406,185,000. That is secured by property taxes. Today we are paying more property taxes by assessment value of your property not by increasing the tax rate on your property. This is a clever way to do it, that way you cannot complain about this tax increase. The truth on this matter is that the replacement cost of your property has not increase because construction labor have decrease and material cost have increase but not to a point that justified the change of your home value, most people will not complain because they are glad that their property worth more. We need to remember the housing bubble and the crash of 2008. See labor cost.  http://www.workersdefense.org/Build%20a%20Better%20Texas_FINAL.pdf

Our municipal debt is a Debt Trap, $1,406,185,000. Is not where we want to be financially. San Antonio has responsibilities for public safety, infrastructure, cultural institutions - schools, Economy development and public transport. To finance these essential services, San Antonio dependents on Property tax revenue, municipally owned energy utility and the Convention Center Hotel Finance Corp. Now we are doing fine do to the increase on our cost of utilities and taxes, but we must remember the decline of revenue in 2009 and we must be prepare for the future. Due to the increase of population our infrastructure expenses will grow and to maintain our quality of life we must think forward and implement a new strategy on city planning to deal with this population grow.

The economic impact invisibility must end. Policymakers and city administrators must recognize the economic value of a good city planning to deal with transportation, clean environment, mobility and the cost of living of the people of San Antonio and take that into account in their decision-making. Otherwise, we can forget about improving our “quality of life.”

Our future depends on fiscal responsibility and our ability to maintain our city operating cost low to enable to pay our debt as soon as possible and be able to pay for future essential city projects that will be of benefit to the people. Mayor Julian Castro and the city council, must review city employees wage and benefit and re-negotiate severance package.

Since 2005 when city manager Sheryl Sculley was hire, our long term liability went from 1,613,274 to 2,593,223.   14.3% of our city budget goes to pay for this deb payment and our cost of public safety (Police and Fire Dept.) is 66.5% (657,190,952) of the city budget; those two items eats most of our budget, while on education we contribute less that the half of the cost.

We should focus on education and our quality of life; “Quality of life” can be understood in three main ways. First, there is the wealth or purchasing power of citizens, and the quality and accessibility of goods provided in the community; including education, healthcare, parks, public roads, air, and water. A supplement to this first category is social and political goods, such as democracy, integrity and clarity in city hall, the rule of law, political and religious freedom, zero discrimination policy, and a sense of community social justice.

Our future depends on our ability to seek the truth and demand efficiency in our government.

http://www.ksat.com/news/city-manager-variety-of-incentive-pay-driving-up-cost-of-public-safety/25080036

http://sanantonio.gov/Portals/0/images/Commpa/HRB/news/jan/public.pdf

http://www.expressnews.com/news/politics/article/Police-fire-medical-plans-targeted-5238686.php

http://www.sanantonio.gov/budget

http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee-salaries/san-antonio/departments/city-manager/1830/

http://www.ubmfuturecities.com/author.asp?section_id=234&doc_id=526348

http://townhall254.gregabbott.com/topic/constitutional-abuses-publicpolice-corruption-statefederal-grant-fraud-etc/

http://www.woai.com/articles/woai-local-news-sponsored-by-five-star-cleaners-119078/police-fire-associations-blast-chamber-as-12302819

https://www.facebook.com/CAGW/posts/517999751580682

Where the money goes (Service Delivery Expenditures):  

  

Public Safety- Police and Fire Dept.               45.2%

Debt Service (2,593,223.000)-                        14.3%

Health and Human Services                            12.6%

Streets and Infrastructure                                 6.3%

Environmental                                                     5.7%

Economic Development                                    5.6%

Convention, Tourism  and Culture                  4.4%

Administrative city manager and stuff          3.7%

Parks & Recreation                                            3.9%

Neighborhood service                                        1.9

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