As San Antonio officials consider raising property taxes and slashing spending to close a major budget deficit, Bexar County is dealing with a shortfall over the next two years that’s even worse.
For years, rapidly rising property values and a torrid residential real-estate market fueled Bexar County’s annual budgets. But those boom days are over.
Bexar County is staring down a budget deficit of $145 million through 2028. That’s a smaller dollar figure than the San Antonio’s projected $158 million hole over the two years, but the city’s general-fund budget — which pays for basic services — is more than one-and-a-half times the size of the county’s. So the county’s deficit is larger, as a proportion of its budget…