At town halls across the city this week residents have been updated on programs that may be slashed to reduce a $158 million deficit.<\/p>\n
The News 4 I-Team Waste Watch reveals the cuts range from historic fountains to services that could have a greater ripple effect.<\/p>\n
The city proposes closing the Hemisfair fountains at the base of the Tower of the Americas, which could save an estimated $235 thousand. Along with deeper cuts to social programs.<\/p>\n
The network of fountains have been a central feature of Hemisfair Park, but the flow of city dollars may soon be cut off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not going to say I don’t like fountains but again, there’s other things that money can be used for,\u201d said taxpayer Keith Robinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don’t want us to have any water in our yards, yeah they should get rid of it,\u201d said another taxpayer, Betty Warren.<\/p>\n
The deficit could also dry up $2.4 million in funding for the city’s office of Resilience and Sustainability, eliminating three employees who managed the e-bike rebate and EV charging station programs, which we featured on a previous Waste Watch last year.<\/p>\n
Sustainability and climate outreach events will also be reduced from 100 to just ten.<\/p>\n
Folks we talked to would rather see those programs cut first before any tax rate increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut the programs. People can’t afford it right now with the grocery prices, the taxes, the gas, it’s just too much,\u201d said taxpayer Brenda Torres.<\/p>\n
Some of the deepest proposed cuts are to the Department of Human Services. 48 non-profit programs could be slashed for families, young people and seniors, at a savings of more than $5 million.<\/p>\n
The long list of non-profits that could be impacted includes the Alamo Area Rape Crisis Center, Meals on Wheels and Catholic Charities. Most of the programs involve counseling and education programs.<\/p>\n
Some city council members are urging the programs be kept.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou defund the non-profits that serve our residents more in need, you then have those who don’t have access to financial resources, community education opportunities or programming, and you very quickly make a vulnerable population much more so,\u201d said District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s why you make a budget, that’s how you live on a budget is by trimming the fat,\u201d said taxpayer Steve Colman.<\/p>\n
Landry’s Restaurants which operates the Tower of the Americas says it is “actively engaged in discussions with the city to explore opportunities to keep these fountains operating” despite the budget cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At town halls across the city this week residents have been updated on programs that may be slashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-417999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}