'Are you willing to pay for it?' Austin leaders look ahead to tight budget process
Editor’s Note: The above video is from episodes of Inside Austin’s Agenda on June 11 and May 28.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thursday marks the first meeting day off for Austin City Council members as they take their summer break, but looming is a budget conversation city staff say is going to be tighter than any of the current council members have seen in their tenures so far.
“We’re dealing with a council that, my understanding for the last probably eight plus years…was in a good position where they typically had surpluses and now we’re in a place that’s the exact opposite,” Austin City Council Member Marc Duchen said on an episode of Inside Austin’s Agenda.
City staff are expected to release their budget proposal in July. Council offices will host town halls related to the budget and gather public input and then council is slated to work through amendments and vote on the budget in August.
That budget goes into effect next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, 2025.
City staff have already warned city council members that Austin is facing a multitude of fiscal challenges including running out of pandemic relief funding (American Rescue Plan Act dollars), addressing federal cuts and seeing a decline in sales tax revenue which the city leans on more heavily now that the state has put a cap on property tax.
“Either we’re going to have to ask the public to help out some more which is tough and we recognize that or we’re going to have to really tighten our belts and say ‘these things that you expect of us, we can’t do,'” Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter said on an episode of Inside Austin’s Agenda.
Last year, the city adopted a $5.9 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. The typical Austin homeowner saw an increase of $15.67 per month, or $188.02 per year, in the city’s portion of their annual property tax bill as a result, the city said when that budget was adopted.
The proposed change to the tax rate for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 will also be released in July, when the city produces its draft budget.
“I think it’s going to be really helpful for us to have people think hard about what do you expect, what do you want out of your city and then what’s that going to cost and are you willing to pay for it?” Alter said.
