Austin City Council unanimously approves amended city budget

Austin City Council approves amended city budget

Austin City Council approved the amended budget and property tax rate on an 11-0 vote.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council approved the amended budget and property tax rate on an 11-0 vote. This came after voters rejected Prop Q earlier this month.

The city finalized its priorities that could impact emergency services and housing for homeless people. 

The amended property tax rate is 52.4017 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation. The typical Austin homeowner will see an increase of $104.76 per year. 

Austin finalizes priorities in amended city budget

The City of Austin has finalized its priorities that could impact emergency services and housing for homeless people. The amended city budget and tax rate were approved after voters rejected Prop Q earlier this month.

"The City Council heard the voters and has worked to fund basic services through basic budgeting. The amended budget addresses public safety, homelessness services and emergency mental health response, among other things," said Mayor Kirk Watson. "I thank the community again for its involvement in the election process and its clear message. I appreciate our city's professional financial staff and the Council for its hard work. We live in a very successful city in large part because of the engagement of our people. I believe this budget, while different than how it started, will help us build on that success."  

By the numbers:

According to the city, the amended budget includes additional investments in the following areas: 

• Homeless Strategies and Operations: Additional funding for non-congregate shelters and Permanent Supportive Housing. This includes support for innovative housing models such as Esperanza Community and PSH units within City-funded PSH projects.
• Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services: $3 million of additional funding for overtime resources to eliminate ambulance brownouts.
• Expanded Mental Health Crisis Response: $2.1 million in additional funding to support the Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team to continue providing 24/7 emergency mental health response, ensuring timely support for individuals in crisis.

What they're saying:

"As we heard from the council on the items that were priority, we understood that the major priorities, including funding for homelessness, particularly emergency shelters as well as PSH, we understood that there was a need to address the EMS brownouts," said Kerri Lang, Austin Budget Director.

"With Prop Q failing, we've now had to readjust and reprioritize what we think is most critical for us to sustain," said David Gray, Homeless Strategies and Operations Director.

Austinites give feedback on new budget proposal

Austin city leaders hosted a community session with live Q&A on Monday night at the Texas AFL-CIO Headquarters downtown. Taxpayers got to confront city leaders about how their dollars are being spent.

"Big picture: we want to strengthen emergency response, EMS, and EMCOT, we want to improve our parks' maintenance, we want to take care of our city employees, and we want to improve wildfire mitigation without cutting so deeply into HSO and other essential programs," said Mike Siegel City of Austin, District 7.