Despite an unexpected delay, the Austin City Council still plans to adopt a revised budget by the end of the week. The city must adjust its annual budget after voters earlier this month rejected a property tax rate increase known as Proposition Q.
Prop Q would have generated an additional $110 million. After its failure, the City Council was set to begin making changes to balance the budget at a meeting last week. But attorneys Bill Aleshire and Rick Fine filed a complaint against the city, alleging officials did not give residents proper notice.
The agenda for last Thursday's meeting included a start time, location and one agenda item describing a discussion on the 2025-26 budget. But Aleshire said a new state law requires the city to attach a copy of the proposed budget and a taxpayer impact statement. He said the city could also add a “clearly accessible” link to the proposed budget on its website.
“If they've gotten the message that they have a trust problem with the public, that's not the way to fix it,” Aleshire said.
He said the city needs to be transparent about how it is spending taxpayer dollars.
“The City Council is not just making a decision about the recommendations that the city manager brings forward,” he said. “This is the kind of thing where the public can dig into the budget, so there are more questions and more challenges to the way [the city] is spending money.”
Austin's city manager ultimately canceled the Thursday meeting and pushed it to Tuesday.
“Our goal with the budget is to restore trust in the city,” City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in an email to the mayor and City Council. “So we are willing to take additional steps to achieve that goal.”
Since the complaint was filed, a link to the proposed amended budget has been added to the city's website. The agenda for Tuesday also includes attachments to the proposed budget and a taxpayer impact statement.
Last week, the city’s budget office staff proposed cuts across various city departments, including social services, emergency medical services and parks and recreation. Ultimately, the council will have the final say in what programs get funded. Council members will use the next several days to try and balance the budget.
Public safety spending is likely to be a major focus area as the council begins discussions. James Monks, president of the Austin EMS Association, said local paramedics are struggling to maintain normal operations as they face staffing shortages and a strained overtime budget.
“Our priority right now is that we can at least maintain what we have in our service to the community,” Monks said. “And then maybe we can start working to expand the things and personnel that we need.”
Several council members have already thrown their support behind reallocating more than $4 million to EMS under the amended budget. The council's work session will begin Tuesday at 9 a.m.
