A Chat with Precinct 3 Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody

We sat down recently for a chat with Precinct 3 Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody to talk about the county budget.  He was particularly interested in talking about the debt and fiscal trajectory of the county. 

“I prodded County Manager David Smith and county staff to have a proposal on the debt.” 

The county budget process roughly mirrors that of the City of San Antonio.  Discussions kick off in late spring, staff works on it from there, and a draft is produced in August.  Townhalls are the held in each precinct, and a vote occurs in mid-September. 

“I was surprised last year that there’s no big, formal process,” he told us.  “We learned to speak up early and directly.  We met with David to reiterate our priorities.  If we don’t offer input directly to county staff, it may or may not be happening.”

When we asked what his priorities were, he cited “public safety, law enforcement and the courts.  We have to prioritize … essential services.  We just had our first export of inmates because we could not house them all.  Should we expect to have contracts with surrounding counties, or expand our jails?”

We found common ground on programs like “workforce development, which I don’t really consider a primary function of county government.”  As we point out all the time, CoSA’s Ready to Work is the poster child for the inevitably lacking results of such a government effort. 

Unfortunately, “there’s nothing really that stops the county from getting involved in that,” even though it represents just one example of an “overlap of services, redundancy.”  There’s a “lot of confusion over what’s city and what’s county.”

We asked a question no one else seems to ask: what if a majority of the court simply voted the budget down?  “That’s an interesting question.  I’m not sure.”  The goal is to “find out points of leverage with other commissioners for points of compromise.  That’s harder to do once the draft is released.” 

When we expressed frustration at the county (or city, for that matter) using a taxpayer-funded credit card, he said “I think it’s about communication.  This is never going to be the budget I would write.  I’ve tried to find the items where there is support” to cut.

In the event of such a rejection, “I assume we’d have to go back to the negotiating table to see what three members of the court could agree on.”  There are more than a few citizens who feel that kind of reckoning is due, and are waiting for more representatives to force the issue.

To his credit, he supports a zero-based budgeting approach that District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte has proposed, and that the editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News supports.

In the end, he circled back around to the trajectory of the county fisc, which he elaborated on in a recent commentary in the EN.  We have the greatest per capita debt of all counties in Texas and that has been greatest trigger of asking that the county rethink its approach to the budget. 

He wants to “go back and scrub the capital plan approved before some of us were in office.  Are there items in here that we no longer want as a court, or that could be delayed?”  This is reminiscent of the supposed ‘social contract’ we allegedly agreed to at birth that binds us to policies of the past.   

If public officials, bureaucrats and the like are going to demand higher pay (like the city wants to put in front of voters November), a most productive exercise would be the repeal outdated ordinances, stalled programs/projects, etc.

He concluded with the fact that “there is an ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) cliff that is rapidly approaching.” 

The American Rescue Plan is the federal spending bill that enable states and localities to keep businesses shut, people out of work, etc. during the waning days of the pandemic. 

“It has to be spent by 2026,” he added.  “How are we going to then support county programs dependent on that?  By asking taxpayers?”  It’s a reasonable question to ask.

He ended the interview with a collaborative invitation of sorts, saying “if there are specific things you think we should cut from the budget, I’d love to hear from you directly.”

Take him up on that.  In fact, send that suggestion to every other member of the court as well.  Our fiscal future depends on it.