Austin City Council finally passed its new austerity budget. Approved on an 11-0 vote last Thursday, the budget removes close to $100 million in spending on public safety, homelessness, and other services that would have been provided by the earlier budget funded by Prop Q, the request to increase property taxes, which voters rejected earlier this month.
The adoption of the new budget was heartbreaking for over 30 activist groups that have advocated for years for a “Community Investment Budget.” The groups want the city to take money traditionally spent on police and reallocate it to a different kind of public safety – programs providing health care, violence intervention, rental assistance, and food access. The first element of the advocates’ proposal hasn’t happened – Council approved an expensive new police contract last year. And now, with Prop Q’s defeat, the second part of their proposal – the funding of community initiatives – is greatly scaled back.
Equity Action has been the lead messenger for the community groups. It called the newly approved budget “unacceptable” in a Nov. 23 press release. “[City leaders] chose to protect a department whose practices routinely harm the most vulnerable Austinites, instead of investing in the programs that actually keep our communities safe, healthy, and whole,” the press release read. “And it will only continue: the police contract passed by this Council last year guarantees APD even more funding next fiscal year.”
Council’s remade budget eliminates support for many CIB priorities that would have been funded had Prop Q passed. Funding for homeless services was cut by over $10 million. Funding for programs that provide money to help families in crisis was cut. Community violence intervention funding was cut. Parks maintenance funding was cut. Funding for health initiatives like free vaccinations was cut. Funding for libraries was cut.
In the frenetic days before the vote, Council members worked to soften some of the cuts. They took small amounts from the planned budgets for the Human Resources, Financial Services, and Facilities Management departments, along with other money, to restore $3 million of the $6.3 million that staff had taken from EMS. Council also restored a little over $2 million for the Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team, which provides mental health responders on emergency calls. It restored $3 million for homelessness services at long-term housing projects.
Council also found smaller amounts for a select group of programs: $120,000 for the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center, to help children who are the victims of violence and abuse; $150,000 to create food pantries at economically disadvantaged public schools; $100,000 to provide home-delivered meals for older adults; $100,000 to provide emergency vet services.
Since August, when the Prop Q budget was approved, CM Marc Duchen has urged the city to hire an outside auditor to undertake a review of city spending. On Nov. 19, Mayor Kirk Watson and CM Ryan Alter proposed their own spending oversight initiatives. Watson directed the city manager to develop a system for evaluating the city’s grants and social services contracts. Alter directed the city auditor to look for ways to save money across all departments and to put the findings on an easily accessible website.
Council Member Ryan Alter after voting to approve the new budget Credit: atxn.tv
Prop Q opponents have also urged the hiring of an outside auditor. Save Austin Now announced on Nov. 21 that the group will begin collecting signatures to place a petition on an upcoming ballot to compel the city to perform an external audit. Critics of the idea pointed out that the city is already conducting one audit to find cost savings and, with Alter’s direction to the city auditor, will soon be conducting two. Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo told KXAN that, “As written, the petition appears to require duplicative work by staff and consultants that would result in an unnecessary additional expense.”
Meanwhile, advocates for the Community Investment Budget are demanding that city leaders reallocate money in the police budget. Representatives from the city workers union AFSCME, homeless advocates VOCAL-TX, and Equity Action emphasize that there are more than 300 vacant positions in APD that the city is spending money on.
City staff acknowledged the vacancies before Thursday’s budget vote but expressed doubt that there is much wasted spending connected with them. The advocates remain unconvinced. “It is complicated, and that’s part of the issue – the APD budget is deeply opaque,” Equity Action’s Savannah Lee told the Chronicle. “City Manager T.C. Broadnax used some particularly headspinning language on the dais when asked about it. But in our view, it’s unacceptable to fund an empty chair at APD while you’re looking at defunding chairs that are already full in those social services contracts.”
City leaders concluded Thursday’s vote with the kind of conciliatory remarks they’ve made since Prop Q’s defeat. Mayor Watson said, “We heard the voters, and we reacted to the voters.” CM Alter took a different tack, however, mourning the loss of the services for Austin residents that the Prop Q budget would have provided.
“I fought for Prop Q because it wasn’t just a policy debate,” Alter said. “It was a lifeline for many in our community – neighbors sleeping on the streets, seniors trying to decide between groceries and prescriptions, families relying on public health workers just for the basics. I don’t want us to forget that this budget does have consequences.”
This article appears in November 28 • 2025.
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