A vehicle kicks up water as it travels south on U.S. 281 in the rain in the Stone Oak area on Oct. 1, 2026, during a National Weather Service flash flood warning.
Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News
Last week’s forecast of heavy rain puts many San Antonians on edge because of how quickly water can pool on roadways, overwhelm storm drains and turn into fast-moving floodwaters.
City staff and City Council members have identified $2.1 billion worth of drainage and flood control projects that could be funded by a bond program, which is the main way that cities pay for major infrastructure projects.
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But there’s only so much general-obligation bond debt the city can issue, and millions of dollars worth of projects to address other pressing needs are in play, such as reconstructing crumbling streets, building sidewalks, improving parks, and renovating libraries and community centers.
That’s why staffers want the mayor and council to consider increasing the stormwater fee for the first time since 2019 — to raise funds for drainage projects, instead of relying on scant bond dollars.
City staff have suggested a 16.2% increase over five years, starting in fiscal year 2028, which begins Oct. 1, 2027. That would generate about $175 million in new revenue, according to Michael Shannon, director of the Capital Delivery Department.
The stormwater fee is assessed to residential and commercial customers of the San Antonio Water System, and ranges from 75 cents a month to $10.45, depending on the property type and size.
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The average resident’s fee is about $5 a month, or $60 a year, Shannon said. If council embraces staff’s proposed multi-year increase, residential customers would pay about $3 more in the first year and about $10 more by the fifth year.
Council members Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Ric Galvan and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez told staff during a Wednesday briefing on a May 2027 bond program that they’d support a fee increase.
“We should be making sure that no one is at risk of drowning in our city, no one’s property is going to be destroyed by more frequent catastrophic rain storms that we know are impacted by our climate,” said Galvan, who represents District 6 on the far West Side.
The district has some of the city’s most-dangerous low-water crossings and needs $165 million worth of drainage project, Galvan said.
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City Manager Erik Walsh recommends council put a $442 million bond package on the May ballot, because that’s the amount of bond debt the city can issue without raising the property tax rate.
City Council voted 7-4 last month to raise the city’s property tax rate by 3.9% this year to fund its $4.4 billion budget. That was the first property tax hike in more than three decades.
If council votes to raise the stormwater fee to pay for drainage projects, it would free more bond dollars for streets, bridges, sidewalks, parks, city facilities and affordable housing.
A number of council members expressed interest in sending an even larger package to voters because of the city’s infrastructure needs — potentially amounting to $1 billion, which would require a tax hike.
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Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has said her priority is completing the 17 projects that are listed on the Texas Water Development Board’s State Flood Plan, which ranks the state’s most pressing flood prevention projects. She was sworn in as mayor just days after 13 people died amid heavy rainfall in the early hours of June 12. Most were killed when Beitel Creek floodwaters swept their vehicles off a Loop 410 frontage road on the Northeast Side.
The 17 state-identified projects cost about $840 million.
Jones did not weigh in on the proposed stormwater fee increase on Wednesday. She said she would “hold off providing comment” until city staff provided an estimate of how many of the 304 potential bond projects identified by city officials, council members, nonprofit leaders and developers could be paid for out of special property tax zones or a state hotel taxing zone.
Jones opposes increasing the size of the next bond program beyond $442 million.
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She and District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran want San Antonio’s state legislative delegation to try to secure state dollars for flood projects during the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
State lawmakers did not award the city any money when the Legislature convened a special session to address the July 4, 2025, flood that killed 136 people across multiple Texas Counties, including 44 people at an RV park near Ingram and 28 people at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near Hunt.