Understanding Austin's 'alphabet soup' of props on Election Day

AUSTIN, Texas - Ok you're in the voting booth and all of a sudden this "proposition alphabet soup" kicks in...A-K.

Let's take the first chunk of that...A-G is all about bond money.  $925 million split up seven ways.

According to the City's breakdown:

--Prop A is the big one.  $250 million to make a dent in Austin's affordable housing crisis.  Both rental and ownership.  

Broken down even further some of that would go toward land acquisition and a home repair program.

--Prop B is $128 million for libraries, museums and cultural arts facilities.  That's improvements to cultural centers like the George Washington Carver Museum, library branch renovations and replacing the Dougherty Arts Center.

--Prop C is $149 million for parks and rec.  Acquiring land, repairing and replacing city pools and more.

 --Prop D is $184 million for flood mitigation, open space and water quality protection.  That's money for storm drain and low-water crossing improvements.  Also buying land on Austin's southern watersheds that feeds the Edwards Aquifer, Barton Springs and the Colorado.

--Prop E is $16 million for health and human services.  Funding for a health center in Dove Springs that would serve women, children and infants.

--Prop F is $38 million for public safety.  Renovations for EMS and fire stations.

--Prop G is $160 million for transportation infrastructure.  Projects like replacing the Red Bud Trail Bridge over Lady Bird Lake, fixing failing streets, sidewalks and traffic signals.

So that's it for the financial items.  The City says if all 7 of them pass, they'll raise the property tax rate by 2 cents per $100 of valuation.  That's about $60 a year if you have a home with a taxable value of $300,000.

On to Props H and I: changes to the city charter regarding the Planning Commission as well as fixing typos.

Lastly, Props J and K that have gotten a lot of attention and divided council members.

Even though the City's much-hyped land development code re-write called CodeNext is dead and buried, Prop J is an ordinance that would give voters final approval over whatever the next version of CodeNext ends up being.  The Council Members fighting against it say it will undermine the whole point of 10-1 representation and it will result in a 3-year delay on action.

Lastly, Prop K.  It's a citizen-initiated ordinance that would bring in an outside auditor to conduct an efficiency study of the entire City of Austin.  Detractors say both J and K have questionable "dark money" funding sources.

The ballot language says the efficiency study could cost between 1 and $5 million.  Supporters say it will save Austin taxpayers money in the long-run by making sure the city is spending your money in the right ways.