Councilman wants delay in council vote on $100 million Edwards Aquifer Protection plan

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – For 20 years, the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program and linear creek expansion have been paid for by a 1/8-cent sales tax approved by voters each time it was put on the ballot.

Now the mayor and other council members want to divert those sales tax revenues to a workforce development program, and later, to VIA Metropolitan Transit Authority. Those proposals will be on the ballot in November, which raised the ire of local environmental groups who were hoping to put the 1/8-cent sales tax for Edwards Aquifer protection before voters again.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg now is pushing forward a plan to use $100 million dollars for aquifer protection over a 10-year period.  The San Antonio City Council is scheduled to vote on that plan Thursday, which Councilman Clayton Perry opposes.

“That’s money coming out of the general fund for streets, police, fire, parks–all of that,” Perry told KTSA’s Trey Ware.

While most of the money would be borrowed, Perry says the city would have to pay interest on that.

“To top it all off–we have no idea how the linear creek ways are going to get funded,” said Perry. “You know, that was all part of this program.”