The City of San Antonio reached a collective bargaining agreement with the San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) last week, carving out over $100 million over the next three years from a tight budget.

On Thursday, September 10 — a week before the San Antonio City Council’s budget deadline — the SAPOA and the city struck a deal that will raise officers’ wages by 16.5 percent by 2029 but also assign them a greater share of health care costs, according to a summary of the deal prepared by the city manager.

The cumulative incremental cost of the contract totals $102.3 million over three years, starting with $15.4 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2027, the document shows.

It’s the largest collective bargaining agreement of its kind in Texas, and it takes place as the city addresses a significant deficit. 

If the council does not raise the property tax rate, the city general fund will develop a deficit of $157.7 million by FY 2028, according to the draft budget. The deficit is projected to widen to $264 million by FY 2031.

However, because the city and SAPOA had reached a tentative agreement on July 16, the $15.4 million increase in compensation and incentive pay was already included in the proposed budget presented to the city council on August 13.

The city will raise police officers’ pay by 16.5 percent over the next three years, starting with a 4 percent bump in FY 2027. Police officer compensation varies based on rank; in San Antonio, salaries range from $56,000 for cadets to $178,596 for the assistant chief. Entry-level police officers had a base pay of $62,916, according to both the SAPOA and a slideshow prepared by city staff that was presented to the council last week.

Even though the SAPOA ceded ground on health care costs, the organization is satisfied with the pay bump, SAPOA President Johnny Perez told The Texan.

“It puts us up in that top three rank in the state of Texas, which was what we were looking for,” he said. “As much as we’d like to be number one in the state, that was going to be hard.”

When negotiations began earlier this year, the SAPOA claimed that San Antonio officers “earn significantly less than their counterparts in comparable Texas cities.”

The San Antonio City Council approved the agreement by a 10 to 1 vote, with only Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (Dist. 2) voting no. Of SAPOA’s voting members, 61 percent approved the deal.

SAPOA’s contract is authorized by Chapter 174 of the Texas Local Government Code. Under the law, if a city or county opts in, firefighters and police officers can organize and bargain collectively with their public employer.

San Antonio is the largest city in Texas with a Chapter 174 agreement with its police force. Houston, the only Texas city more populous than San Antonio, maintains a meet-and-confer agreement with the Houston Police Officers’ Union. Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin also have meet-and-confer agreements.

Under Chapter 174, the local government and its police or firefighters’ association must execute a contract if either party requests one. Meet-and-confer arrangements, on the other hand, do not require the parties to reach an agreement.

Neither legal framework allows the firefighters or police officers to strike.

The Texan contacted the mayor’s office for comment, but Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones could not be reached.

The San Antonio City Council plans to adopt its FY 2027 budget today.