City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues,

We are in an affordability crisis. The last 3+ years have been the worst inflationary period since the 1980s. For the first time in 20 years, more people moved out of Austin than moved in.

I am proposing we adopt a budget that includes no increases in property tax bills. This will help everyone - homeowners, families, renters, businesses, and all Austinites. It does not require us to make severe cuts, just to get creative with our revenue sources and prioritize our highest needs. If we adopt my plan, there will still be more than $45 million in additional revenue for the General Fund. That is more than enough for us to cover our city's needs.

Please read my plan in detail and provide your feedback. I welcome all your ideas of what we can do to achieve this for Austinites. I would love nothing more than for this to be a collaborative process to achieve this goal. I am sure each of you has excellent feedback and ideas about how we can achieve this. I look forward to the conversation.

My budget plan can be found here: https://shorturl.at/ndLxH.

My proposed budget cuts can be found here: https://shorturl.at/w4Bz6.

Thank you for your consideration.


Warm Regards,

mk

Colleagues,

I listened to your conversation about my amendments today and appreciate the conversation and the feedback.

First, I watched online as CFO Ed Van Eenoo said the basic income program was not included in the budget. It was my understanding that we authorized the funding in April of this year and didn't see it removed from the budget documents. Since it was, I will withdraw that amendment.

CIP Funds - I propose to eliminate the transfer of general revenues to CIP funds and replace those funds with debt, such as voter-approved bonds.

Ms. Lang mentioned during the work session that "some of these projects are not debt eligible" and the budget office "would have to go back and look at which areas are debt eligible and which are not." I would ask that the budget office take another look at that and see if we can use voter-approved bonds or other debt instruments to pay for these capital projects. It is my understanding that it is common for the city to use debt instead of cash to pay for capital improvements.

Further, Texas Bond Review (https://www.brb.texas.gov/state-of-texa ... uidelines/) says that bond dollars can be used for the purposes for which they were approved and, if necessary, to fill short-term cash flow needs.

Kelly-12 & 13: Transfer to Housing Trust Fund and I Belong in Austin

According to the budget, we have $365 million in unexpended voter-approved bonds for Affordable Housing. These bond dollars could be used to replace the General Fund transfer to these two programs.

Kelly-11: Transfer to Library CIP

According to the budget, we have $95 million in unexpended voter-approved bonds for Austin's libraries. These bond dollars could be used to replace the General Fund transfer.

Kelly-10: Transfer to PARD CIP

We have $62 million in unexpended voter-approved bonds for Austin's Parks. These could be used for things like what Council Member Ellis mentioned. Again, the bond dollars could replace the General Fund transfer.

Kelly-9: Transfer to Health CIP

For the Health CIP transfer, the budget says that we have $5.5 million in unexpended voter-approved bonds for Health & Human Services. Those bond dollars could replace the General Fund transfer.

Kelly-7 & 8: Transfers to Building Services & Economic Development

There are no voter-approved bond dollars for these two transfers. However, staff could look at short-term debt instruments such as certificates of obligation to fill the capital needs for these programs while we develop the next bond package to see if voters would approve bonds for these purposes. If the only way we can pay for these things is through cash transfers, then I would suggest we defer these projects until we can get a new bond package in front of voters.

In a tight budget cycle and with our residents experiencing large increases in the cost of living over the last few years, I would think it is prudent to look at these ideas as well as the others I posted to reduce costs for Austinites.

I welcome your ideas about how we can not increase costs for the residents of Austin with this budget.

Warm Regards,

mk