Austin tax election called for $100M+ budget boost From the cover
The setup
Budget blueprint Homeless strategy investments make up a large share of budget additions under the TRE. NOTE: AROUND $76 MILLION OF MORE THAN $109 MILLION IN ADDED GENERAL FUND REVENUE UNDER THE TRE WAS RESERVED FOR CITY OPERATIONS BY COUNCIL MEMBERS. THE CITY DIDN'T CONFIRM REMAINING ALLOCATIONS AS OF PRESS TIME.
Unconfirmed: 30.74% Homelessness response 30.32% Public safety 18.53% Public health 8.76% Parks and recreation 7.27% Other 4.37%
T otal: $109.48M
Austin voters will soon decide whether to support the largest tax increase in recent years for a more than $100 million city budget expansion. Funding the $6.3 billion budget passed by City Council requires raising tax revenue above a state cap. That requires a tax rate election, or TRE, this fall labeled on ballots as Proposition Q. Officials have framed the TRE as a move to maintain city operations in the face of state limits on local spending and federal public service cuts. “I strongly believe that if we’re not making the kinds of investments we need to make in our people and our services, we will fall behind and be managing decay in Austin in a very short period of time,” Mayor Kirk Watson said. After staff proposed a balanced base budget this summer, council members added tens of millions of dollars—largely for homelessness response, public health and safety, and parks—alongside a tax hike to fund it. Those items expand on
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN/COMMUNITY IMPACT
the budget, with a focus on a council priority of addressing homelessness by: • Continuing Austin’s encampment-to-shelter initiative and conducting more street outreach • Developing new shelter and supportive housing • Expanding programs to divert at-risk residents from becoming homeless. The TRE-backed budget was adopted 10-1, with council member Marc Duchen voting against. He’s said the larger tax hike for a “Band-Aid” budget will impose an affordability burden on residents, without correcting the city’s “longstanding spending problem.”
“Whatever voters decide to do ... we need to take a closer look at our expenditures, find smarter ways of managing public dollars,” he said. Resident support for the new budget largely came from advocates for public programs, nonprofits and city employees. “We can either accept a reduction in essential services that keep Austin safe, healthy and thriving, or we can make a small shared investment and maintain the quality of life we all value,” said Sean Oliver, program manager at the Life Anew restorative justice nonprofit.
The approach
Annual household* impact Utility charges and city fees
Property taxes
$6K $5K $4K $3K $2K $1K $0 $7K
The Love Austin political action committee is campaigning for the TRE, with support from elected officials, labor organizations, nonprofits and parks advocates. No organized opposition formed this summer. “If we do not rebalance the city’s budget through Prop Q, the time will come where we’ll have to decide what we will stop doing,” Brydan Summers, president of the government employee union AFSCME Local 1624, said at a Love Austin rally.
Only a handful of Texas cities have held TREs, including Austin. Its lone previous TRE was held in 2020 to fund the Project Connect transit system, passing with roughly 58% support. The typical Austin homeowner would pay hun- dreds of dollars more in property taxes next year if the TRE passes, resulting in a tax rate of $0.574017 per $100 of property value. That would raise the annual property tax bill for a median-valued home by about 7%. Regardless of the election outcome, other city fees and utility charges will also rise.
*BASED ON THE MEDIAN HOME VALUE AND TYPICAL UTILITY USE SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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