Austin voters reject Proposition Q; city leaders now have to rework budget

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin voters gave a resounding "no" to a big tax rate increase. Now the city goes back to the drawing board to rework the budget. 

A total of 164,504 Austinites cast their votes in the city's tax rate election. 

63 percent voted against Prop Q and 37 percent voted for it.

Proposition Q fails

The backstory:

"The voters have told us what they want us to do, and now we have to react in a disciplined and mature way," Mayor Kirk Watson said. 

If it had passed, the average homeowner would've paid about $300 more on their annual property tax bill. That would've generated $110 million. It would've gone towards homeless programs, public safety, public health, and climate response.

Watson says there should be an audit to better balance the cost of services.

"We're looking at how we better provide those services in an efficient and accountable way, so that we're doing it where they're getting the biggest bang for their buck when it comes to the collection of taxes," he said.

Prop Q opponents react

Local perspective:

Nate McGuire, an Austin resident who had created a website opposing the tax rate election, calls the result a win for taxpayers. 

"Austin voters sent a message loud and clear to the City Council and to the mayor. I think it wasn't really just about taxes. It was really a referendum on city hall's credibility. I think they've treated us kind of like an ATM, while a lot of basic services have been lagging and spending keeps going up," he said.

He says an audit is the right way to go, but it needs to come from outside the city. 

"The first thing that we need to do is an independent efficiency audit," he said.

While the website he created may eventually come down, he says, "the fight for accountability lives on."

Even though Prop Q failed, there is still a small increase in taxes, about $100 for the average homeowner, in the original budget.

Prop Q advocates react

Local perspective:

Advocates for Prop Q are worried about losing funding for programs. 

Aloki Shah, president of United Workers for Integral Care, says she was disappointed by the results.

She says the workers she represents do mental health response when people call 911 and also do programs with the Homeless Strategy Office. 

"People will be not getting what they need. People will be hungry, people will be desperate, and we're going see more crisis in Austin, and we're losing crisis services. It's really scary," she said. "We are just going to have to advocate our hearts out for the things that are important to our workers and our clients because our clients are the most vulnerable people in Austin, and they don't deserve to continue to have everything taken away from them."

The Love Austin campaign, which was in favor of the tax rate election, released the following statement:

"Proposition Q was an uphill battle from the beginning. With recent tax increases by AISD and Travis County, and with such uncertainty in the economy, voters were always going to be skeptical. We did the best we could with the limited resources we had to communicate the stakes, but couldn’t overcome the skepticism."

Austin City Council members react to Prop Q failure

What they're saying:

Vanessa Fuentes

Chito Vela III

Krista Laine

Mike Siegel

‘Zo’ Qadri

Marc Duchen

Ryan Alter

Jose Velasquez