(Seguin) — The city of Seguin on Wednesday unveiled its proposed budget for the new fiscal year. The budget was presented as part of a workshop meeting hosted by the Seguin City Council.
City Manager Steve Parker says there were several challenges in putting together next year’s budget. The city is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, but revenue hasn’t quite reached the same level as the expenditures necessary to provide services to the community. He says the city isn’t alone in this battle. Revenues are down for several taxing entities across the state.
“We’re one of the fastest growing cities in the state. We did experience some challenges. Every city experienced some challenges if you talk to them. We’ll talk a lot tonight about tax rate, proposed tax rates, and the no new revenue rate. The no new revenue rate is really based on the existing properties from last year. What would the existing tax rate need to be to make the same amount of revenue, because if values go up or goes down, then those numbers change. And so, we’re going to have a lot of explanation related to that. But I want to start out by saying this staff has done a tremendous job,” said Parker.
Parker praised his team for being creative with the budget while also remaining good stewards of taxpayer money. He says directors focused on taking care of the city’s employees so that they can continue to take care of the people of this city. He says they reduced their overall departmental budgets in an attempt to continue offering pay raises to all city employees.
“We talk about every year how our goal is to focus on our existing employees. And these directors stepped up this year and really took that to heart because we were having trouble funding some of our recommendations. And so they went back and actually made a recommendation on behalf of their staff. I was on vacation and they came back and said, we’d like to recommend a ten percent decrease in our existing operating budgets to help fund some cost-of-living increases for our employees. We think we’re one of the leanest communities around when you look at the staffing levels and we’ve got some comparison notes to show you that. We do have some positions we’re recommending in this year’s budget, but I think they’re very, very minimal and they’re really focused on being efficient and making sure that we’re growing smart,” said Parker.
Making that investment in city employees makes a big difference in the operation of the city. Parker says it’s part of the culture they’ve tried to build that puts employees and customer service first. He says it also helps keep the city competitive, which helps reduce staff turnover.
“The focus was really to try to fund and stay competitive when it comes to cost of living increases for our staff. Since 2022, the cost-of-living increases have been… just barely keeping up with the consumer price index,” said Parker. “This was the one priority of our directors. When shown some of the numbers and what we weren’t going to be able to afford, they went back and reduced their budgets by about $600,000 in the general fund to fund some of these increases here.”
Unlike in past years, Parker says only a handful of positions were added to the proposed budget. He says they tried to prioritize the new positions and make sure they were for things that improved the level of service the city is able to provide. One of those jobs will be part of a new community paramedic program that’s directly aimed at improving the quality of life for some residents with chronic illnesses who need additional support to make sure they stay healthy and out of the hospital’s emergency room.
“This is one of the next items that I think we’re…most proud. It is to create a community paramedic program in the city of Seguin. It would actually have a paramedic that would go out and really focus on our frequent flyer callers who use EMS as their emergency room attendant. So, we’re making a lot of transfers to the emergency room because people aren’t taking their medications, they’re not keeping up with their health. This would give us the ability to make sure that we’re going out focusing on them and diverting them from having to be transported in an ambulance and really taking time because when they get so bad then you end up taking them to San Antonio or New Braunfels and so forth. We can keep up with their medications, and we think it would be a great plan to do,” said Parker.
The general fund budget will be funded by a proposed tax rate of 52.94 cents per $100 of property valuation. Finance Director Susan Caddell says the proposed rate is higher than both the current rate and the No New Revenue Rate, but it’s significantly lower than the maximum rate the city could set without triggering an election.
“We are recommending a (tax) rate of 52.94 cents. That’s an increase above the current rate by 1.59 cents. That’s above the current rate, and (it’s) 0.94 cents above the no new revenue rate,” said Caddell.
The overall tax rate includes funds to cover the city’s existing debt. Caddell says they were able to keep that portion of the tax rate down by using some existing funds to reduce that debt.
“The debt service payments increased by $316,760. This represents less than a penny of the tax rate. And we’re able to do that because of the recommendations I’m making to use roadway impact fees of $2,496,000, stormwater utility fees of $888,000, and golf capital funds of $200,000 to buy down that tax rate,” said Caddell.
Parker says despite the challenges in putting this year’s budget together, he’s proud of the work of city staff. He says they want to make sure they provide the services necessary to keep this fast-growing community moving forward, while also taking care of the employees who, in turn, take care of the people of Seguin. He says it’s something they’ve been doing over the years, and the data shows that it’s paying off for the city.
“Last year, our turnover rate without retirements was 2.5 percent. It was 8.9 with those retirements. And then in 2026, we have increased a little bit, but we’re still at 7.41 percent. I think that’s due to the culture and the way that this council recognized our staff in so many ways. But I think it’s kudos to this team that we do put employees on the forefront. Not always going to be possible, we’ll admit that, but it meant a lot to these employees to be able to step up and do that,” said Parker.
No action was taken during the budget workshop. A second budget workshop will be held today, August 18 during the regular city council meeting. Public hearings on the budget and tax rate will be held on September 1 and September 15. The city’s new fiscal year begins on October 1.