Austinites give feedback to city leaders on new proposed budget

AUSTIN, Texas – 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. 

The amended version follows the rejection of Prop Q on the November ballot. The City of Austin now has to figure out how to be more frugal with its spending.

Austin city budget discussion

What they’re saying:

The City of Austin’s Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, District 3 Councilmember José Velásequez, and District 7 Council member Mike Siegel co-hosted the community session to get feedback from Austinites. 

“This budget timeline has taken what is traditionally a six-week timeline from once the manager proposes his budget and condensed it into what will look like one week,” said Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes. “Good thing is that we’re not starting completely from scratch.” 

Savannah Lee is the Executive Director of Equity Action. 

“We are currently under a $218 million police contract that goes up every year,” said Savannah Lee. “So if we’re looking at deficits further down the line, more and more millions over time will make that 40% around slice of the pie bigger and bigger. So is this also the time that we can dig into that police contract and look at negotiating it?”

Election 2025: Proposition Q fails in Austin

Austin voters gave a resounding “no” to a big tax increase on Tuesday night. About two-thirds of votes cast were against Prop Q. Now, the city goes back to the drawing board to rework the budget.

There were questions about the possibility of renegotiating the police contract and using that money for other city services. However, Council member Mike Siegel said that is not an option. 

“The city is not able to reduce police salaries this budget cycle,” said Council member Mike Siegel. “The police salaries are in a contract that’s very much protected under Texas law.” 

The police contract locks in steady salaries for officers. 

“We can look at things like equipment and overtime,” said Siegel. “We can’t cut too much because of another state law, what we call the Anti-Defund Law, that says we cannot reduce APD spending beyond the prior year.”

People also wanted to know if the city could halt spending on major construction plans. 

Robin Rather is with Save Our Springs. 

“Could you possibly see your way to cancel or halt Cap and Stitch? That’s half a billion dollars,” said Robin Rather. “The convention center, that’s $5 billion, Project Connect, that’s $185 million a year.” 

Council explained that the Hotel Occupancy Tax funds the convention center. The Cap & Stitch is funded by city debt through a certificate of obligation. Project Connect was something made possible by voters, not necessarily the Council. 

“There’s an argument to be made that these projects are not for the people here, they’re for someone else,” said Siegel. “Even though there’s a little caveat, they generate tax revenue that we can use to pay for general fund programs.” 

What’s next:

City council members are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 25, for a budget briefing and work session.

“Depending on what we adopt on the budget, we’ll have to continue pressing forward because we know that even significant adjustments will be made in year two,” said Fuentes.

The vote on a revised budget could take place as early as Thursday. However, Council may choose to take Friday and Monday to continue these discussions before it makes a decision.