Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, entire city council sued over tax rate election language

Austin City Council sued over ballot language

Austin City Council approved a $6.3 billion budget for 2025-26 last week, but the move has been met with swift pushback.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council approved a $6.3 billion budget for 2025-26 last week, but the move has been met with swift pushback.

With a $33 million deficit, Austin City Council is now pursuing a tax rate election in November with a possible 5-cent increase per $100 on property taxes, which adds up to a little more than $25 per month for the average Austin homeowner.

Pushback against $6.3B budget

The other side:

Former Austin Mayoral candidate Jeff Bowen has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Kirk Watson and the entire City Council due to the ballot language.

Former Travis County judge and Austin attorney Bill Aleshire is representing Bowen.

"The purpose of this tax increase is to give this City Council and all City Councils in the future more money to spend on anything they see fit," Aleshire said.

Aleshire says the ballot language grossly misleads voters by not describing specifically how councilors will use the more than $110 million in additional funds should it pass.

"The ballot language must be definite and certain," Aleshire said. "Housing affordability, for whom? If you’re raising taxes, that’s not making houses more affordable."

Aleshire hopes Austin’s leadership will adopt new ballot language to give voters a clear picture of what’s to come.

"I hope there’s a full-fledged campaign out there to make sure the public understands," Aleshire said.

Dig deeper:

The budget’s final vote was an overwhelming 10-1 in favor, with the lone "no" coming from District 10s Marc Duchen.

"I'm opposed to the tax rate election that the council is currently considering," Duchen said. "Looks like it'll be at least five pennies, which is going to be at least another $200 on top of the base property tax increase."