By By Marty Kufus
Wilson County News


SAN ANTONIO — Remembering the disastrous flood of 1998, officials at the four-county San Antonio River Authority see their organization as the likely leader in a future "regional flood and drainage management initiative."

They envision SARA’s partners as San Antonio, Bexar County, and all downstream towns, counties, and public entities willing to shoulder their share of the funding of projects like new retention dams and flood-control channels.

There is a catch, though — and one SARA board member last week called it a possible "hard sell" south of Bexar County.

For the river authority to operate and maintain these new flood-control structures in several counties, it would have to bring back its property tax, according to discussion at a Feb. 20 planning workshop.

The board could adopt a tax rate in September, a planning document said.

SARA used its "operations and maintenance" (O and M) tax from 1961 through 1980. Since then, it has levied zero cents per $100 property valuation each year.

Levying at the full, authorized rate — 2 cents per $100 — would generate an estimated $10.8 million a year in SARA’s district: Bexar, Wilson, Karnes, and Goliad counties.

The revenue could be used in other SARA programs, such as pollution control and waste-water treatment, as well as flood control and drainage.

It also could pay for a flood-warning system for the entire basin, and for the re-mapping of flood plains in the four counties, according to discussion last week.

The O and M tax’s revenue cannot be spent on the acquisition of land or rights of way for, or the actual construction of, any "capital projects."

SARA’s partners would do that, possibly aided by state and/or federal agencies, according to discussion.

Since 1999, SARA officials have been negotiating a partnership with San Antonio’s and Bexar County’s governments for flood and drainage control, General Manager Greg Rothe told his board last week.

The authority’s staff has spent months preparing a five-year plan for "a significantly increased level of service to SARA’s constituents," he said.

The plan sees increased activities in parks and recreation (including Braunig and Calaveras lakes), waste-water treatment, water-resource development, and environmental services, he said.

Flood control and drainage, though, "is the biggest and the hottest" of the service areas, Rothe said.

"This is great," SARA board member Al Kollodziej Jr., of Poth, remarked cautiously. "But, we’re going to have to sell this [proposal] in three other counties" besides Bexar.

"We’re going to have to have some specifics [on benefit] when we go to Wilson County," he added.

The timing of this issue is not ideal for his constituents in Wilson County, Kollodziej said, because of the partisan nature of the southern-Bexar controversy involving San Antonio water interests and the rural Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District. (See related story, this issue.)

"There’s going to be a real, hard sell," fellow Wilson County representative JC Turner, of Floresville, said.

"For years, the river authority has been kind of a sleepy organization downstream" with most of its activities in Bexar County, he said.

Last week’s workshop also drew board Chairman H.B. Ruckman III and member Truett Hunt of Karnes County; members Leo Gleinser and Adair Sutherland of Goliad County; and, Louis Rowe, Thomas Weaver, Roberto Rodriguez, Sally Buchanan, and Jim Johnson of Bexar County.

The board members agreed they would need information — costs and benefits — specific to each of their counties in order to discuss the O and M tax with taxpayers.

Suzanne Scott, SARA’s manager of community and intergovernmental relations, said they would get that information soon.

"This [flood and drainage] is not just a Bexar County issue," she said. "This is a collective issue."

SARA’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.

In about 90 days (in May), Rothe said, the river authority’s role in a regional initiative will have to be spelled out in a formal agreement with San Antonio and Bexar County.

That will influence the preparation of the coming year’s budget at SARA.

A tax rate of 2 cents per $100 valuation would bring $20 tax a year on $100,000 worth of property.

According to a SARA planning document, that tax rate applied to 2001 property values would generate $10,459,162 in Bexar County; $215,821 in Wilson; $59,710 in Karnes; and, $102,217 in Goliad County.

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