Last year San Antonio tightened its belt to balance the city budget, this year it searched “ between the cushions of the sofa ” for extra revenue.

Facing a budget deficit for the second year in a row, city leaders again avoided a tax rate increase .

But rather than making the tough cuts some members have been calling for to solve a ballooning problem , city leaders raised fees elsewhere — including more expensive parking tickets and an increased parks fee on residents’ utility bills.

They also back-tracked on a plan to reinvest CPS Energy revenue in utility projects — a move that was intended to help mitigate a rate increase that would be passed on to the utility’s ratepayers next year.

“The [budget] team brought us … an opportunity to raise taxes, and we said, ‘No.’ Now we

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