Vision SMTX Appendix Adopted 2024

Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.

APPENDIX C: KEY FINDINGS FROM FISCAL IMPACT ANALYSIS

Police The San Marcos Police Department has an annual budget of $22 million. Most of this budget (90 percent) is for personnel costs (wages and benefits) for the department’s employees. The City has 123 officers providing police services to the community and manages more than 35,000 calls for services each year. New development has the biggest impact on the need for patrol officers and investigation-related staff. Generally, as the community grows, the need for additional patrol officers grows as well, with annual calls for service typically used as the measure for the need for personnel. Given the service characteristics of the Police Department and the impact of growth on service needs, an officer needed per 1,000 persons served factor was developed to incorporate the impacts of increased demand for service from both new residents and new employees/businesses in the city. For the purposes of modeling the impacts of growth on service needs and cost to provide service, expenditure categories for the department are modeled at a 100% variability rate, except for operations, which is modeled at 25%. For every 1,000 new residents or nonresident employees the city generates demand for 1.1 officers. The annual cost per officer is estimated to be $191,716, as shown in Table 5.

Table 5. San Marcos Police Department Cost Allocation Method and Factors

Growth Factors

Cost per Officer

Nexus Factor Detail

Officer per 1,000 PS

Gross Factor Variability Net Factor

Description

Nexus Factor

2023 FY Budget

Expenditures Personnel (Wages & Benefits)

$19,941,614 Persons Served (PS) $1,027,061 Persons Served (PS) $910,998 Persons Served (PS) $171,086 Persons Served (PS)

97,766 97,766 97,766 97,766 97,766 97,766

1.1 $ 179,654 179,654 $

100% $ 179,654 25%$ 2,313 100%$ 8,207 100%$ 1,541 100% - $ 100% - $

Operations

1.1 $ 1.1 $ 1.1 $

9,253 $ 9,253 8,207 $ 8,207 1,541 $ 1,541

Supplies and Equipment Training and Personnel Cost

Capital

$0 Persons Served (PS) $0 Persons Served (PS)

1.1 1.1

$ $

- -

$ $

- -

Operating

Total

$22,050,759

$ 191,716

By County Hays

$ 191,716 $ 224,488 $ 238,143 $ 227,219

Caldwell

Comal

Guadalupe

Source: City of San Marcos; Economic & Planning Systems

San Marcos, as mentioned previously, is in four counties, which complicates police services for the city. Specially, the time spent booking persons arrested can vary greatly depending on the county the arrest occurred. San Marcos is the County Seat for Hays County, therefore travel to book arrested individuals in Hays County is minimal (beyond standard travel time). However, arrests made in Caldwell, Comal, or Guadalupe Counties take more time to process (due to travel time) for officers, which reduces their utilization and generates more demand for officer capacity. As a result, an increased cost per officer is applied to development not in Hays County. The cost for per new officer demanded in the other three counties

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SAN MARCOS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 2024