2026 Election: City of Austin propositions on November ballot
2026 Election: Austin propositions on the ballot
If you live in Austin, you're going to see ten different city propositions on your November ballot.
AUSTIN, Texas - If you live in Austin, you're going to see 10 different city propositions on your November ballot.
The most significant ones include two bond proposals and an external audit charter amendment.
What we know:
Props A and B are bonds: $260 million for parks and $35 million for libraries.
"People are going to care about the bonds because it affects them directly. Every time the city passes a bond, it means that your taxes go up. It means that your taxes go up not just for a short time, but until the bond is paid off. That is on top of all the other bonds that the city has passed over time," said Brain Smith, political science professor at St. Edward's University.
Rally held over "Prop I"
"Prop I" would require an external audit of the city's spending on a regular basis and before a tax rate increase election. This would update the city charter.
Those opposed to "Prop I" held a rally, concerned about privatization of city services.
"Prop I takes the same basic playbook we've seen with DOGE and brings it here. Scam the public with a promise to save money and then let the consequences land on the people who rely on these public services. Austin is already doing an efficiency assessment, so Prop I isn't giving us some new tool we don't already have," said Savannah Lee, executive director of Equity Action.
The other side:
In response, those who put the proposition on the ballot say this would reduce excessive city spending. They also say the internal audit could be changed by council, instead of going to voters like a charter amendment does.
"The grifter establishment that has been in control of Austin government is deathly afraid of what a mandatory, thorough, independent performance and waste audit would reveal to taxpayers. They fear the truth, we seek it," said Bill Aleshire, who authored the charter amendment.
Other propositions on the ballot
Dig deeper:
Props C, D, E, F, and J are about cleaning up charter language regarding the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, allowing council to decide its meeting schedule, meeting rules, campaign contribution updates, and grammatical corrections.
"By and large, these other ones don't really affect your pocketbook directly. A lot of them are about clarifying some of the language in the city charter," Smith said.
Prop G is about citizen-led charter amendments being voted on in even-numbered years, instead of the soonest November election.
What they're saying:
"One of the things that the city is saying is, if you have these in odd-numbered years, it's going to be a small group of people voting on something that could be very consequential to the entire city. Anytime you get more people voting, that tends to be better for democracy," Smith said.
Prop H would have the city council appoint the city attorney, instead of the city manager.
"One of the things about the city attorney is that's much more of a defensive position than an offensive position, meaning they're going to represent the city every single time the city's going to be sued. The city's not like the attorney general, which is very partisan," Smith said.
What you can do:
To see your sample ballot, click here.
The Source: The information in this article comes from reporting by Fox 7's Angela Shen.