Downtown Austin on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
In August, Austin City Council member Marc Duchen found himself alone on the dais as the only “no” vote on a $6.3 billion budget.
The vote wasn’t close, but it was consequential. The budget relied on a record 20% property tax increase — the largest in Austin’s history — pending voter approval of Proposition Q this November. City leaders hailed the plan as a bold investment in housing, homelessness programs and public safety amid a projected deficit.
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Gavino Fernandez expresses his opposition for Proposition Q during a press conference held by a coalition of Austinites at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless on Thursday November 16, 2023.
Jay Janner/Jay Janner/American-Statesman
District 10 city council member Marc Duchen, middle, attends a press conference held by a coalition of Austinites to express their opposition for Proposition Q at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
A flag flies at half-staff after news of the death of former mayor and U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner was announced Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at Houston City Hall in Houston.
Jon Shapley/Staff photographer
Campaign signs for and against Prop Q are posted on East Riverside Drive in Austin on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin city council member Marc Duchen, District 10, speaks during a press conference held by a coalition of Austinites to express their opposition for Proposition Q at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
Supporters of Proposition Q attend a news conference to announce the “Care Not Cuts” campaign at Parque Zaragosa on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. A coalition of unions, first responders, social workers, and community leaders announced a coalition of over 20 organizations in support of the upcoming City of Austin’s tax rate election Proposition Q.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin firefighter specialist Tyson Plagens rolls up a hose after battling a fire at an abandoned house on Katydid Lane in Southeast Austin on a hot afternoon Wednesday May 14, 2025.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
A homeless woman lines up for food and clothes from mobile outreach workers with Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center at a camp on Bluff Springs Road Thursday January 9, 2025, when the temperature was in the upper 30s.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
Austin police officers do crowd control after a group of protesters began marching in the streets after the No Kings protest in downtown Austin, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Work continues on the I-35 Capital Express Central near East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
The Austin City Council meets at City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Mariah Williams, left to right, Carlton Walker, Mark Warren and Larry Harlow, who are homeless, carry their blankets and care kits given to them by mobile outreach workers with Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, at a convenience store parking lot on East Riverside Drive Thursday January 9, 2025, when the temperature was in the upper 30s.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
Congress Avenue in downtown Austin on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. The City of Austin is moving forward with construction on the first phase of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative, a project to redesign the street.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin firefighter Dominique Gonzales picks up a hose after battling a fire at an abandoned house on Katydid Lane in Southeast Austin on a hot afternoon Wednesday May 14, 2025.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
Jen Robichaux and her daughter, Petra Robichaux, 8, attend a press conference held by a coalition of Austinites to express their opposition for Proposition Q at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
Austin Police mounted officers do crowd control at the No Kings protest in downtown Austin, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Susana Almanza, middle, and fellow Austinites express their opposition for Proposition Q during a press conference at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
Rain falls on the north side of town as a cyclists rides along the I-45 feeder road on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 in Houston.
Brett Coomer/Staff photographer
Supporters listen to James Monks, President of the Austin EMS Association, speak at a news conference to announce the “Care Not Cuts” campaign to support Proposition Q at Parque Zaragosa on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. A coalition of unions, first responders, social workers, and community leaders announced a coalition of over 20 organizations in support of the upcoming City of Austin’s tax rate election Proposition Q.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Duchen saw it differently.
“I think the culture is, ‘We don’t need to worry too much about money and spending,’” he said. “It’s so much easier to spend money. It’s so much easier to go out and ask people for more.”
That conviction led him to look 165 miles to the east, where another big, blue Texas city is taking a vastly different approach to its own financial crisis.
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In Houston, Mayor John Whitmire has been on a no-new-taxes crusade – a move that carries its own risks.
Two cities, two systems
By many measures, Austin and Houston could not be more different.
Austin is smaller, wealthier and more homogenous; Houston is twice the size, far more diverse and working-class. It also operates under a strong-mayor system, giving Whitmire sweeping authority over the budget and city operations.
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Austin, by contrast, has a council–city manager form of government, meaning City Manager T.C. Broadnax — rather than Mayor Kirk Watson — has significant control over Austin’s financial approach. While Watson can champion policy goals, it’s Broadnax who translates them into fiscal reality.
“Austin and Houston are very different cities,” Broadnax said in a statement sent in response to questions about the different fiscal approaches.
Still, one could argue the cities are mirror images: fast-growing, left-leaning metropolises grappling with affordability and infrastructure strain.
Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax listens as Mayor Kirk Watson speaks at a city council meeting Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Both are led by longtime Democratic politicians who know each other well: Whitmire and Watson served for years together in the Texas Senate before retiring to govern their respective hometowns, where they’ve struggled to balance progressive ideals with financial and political realities.
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Both cities are perpetually in the crosshairs of the Republican-dominated Legislature, which has in recent years taken extraordinary measures to both rein in local property taxes and curb the influence of the state’s Democratic-leaning cities.
One of the most consequential moves came in 2019 in the form of a cap on local property tax revenues – a measure that now defines local budget debates across Texas. The policy says that cities can’t raise property tax revenue more than 3.5% a year without going directly to voters, turning each tax election into a political minefield.
For Austin, the cap is in large part what made Prop Q necessary. For Houston, it’s one reason Whitmire has resisted revenue hikes, knowing he’d need voter consent to exceed the cap anyway.
“Over the last several years, Austin has focused on managing rising costs as we deal with the impacts of the state-imposed 3.5% revenue cap,” Broadnax said in his statement.
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Houston’s Gamble: Efficiency Over Revenue
Houston Mayor John Whitmire speaks during a tour a new resource facility to address the needs of Houston’s unhoused population on Houston on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
When Whitmire became Houston’s mayor in January 2024, he inherited a city with the lowest property tax rates among major Texas metros — and one of the strictest local revenue caps. Those limits, combined with hefty union pay raises, left Houston with a $330 million budget shortfall a year into his term.
Whitmire has insisted he can steer Houston toward solvency without new revenue, launching a citywide efficiency study to cut costs and eliminate waste. The review by mega-firm Ernst & Young identified $122 million in potential savings and led to hiring freezes, early retirements, and departmental consolidations.
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To help pay for major fire and police pay raises — including $650 million in back pay and nearly $1 billion in long-term increases — he slashed budgets for parks, libraries, and housing.
The decision earned Whitmire praise for fiscal discipline, but also criticism for deep service cuts.
Council Member Sallie Alcorn, chair of Houston’s budget committee, cried foul at a council meeting earlier this month ahead of the vote to set the city’s tax rate. She was on the losing end of a vote to keep the tax rate flat.
Houston had the option to increase its tax rate by 2 cents without an election, which would have generated $50 million in revenue for city services.
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“It’s a swing and a miss to not bring in the revenue we need to cover our budget,” Alcorn said. “What I know with certainty is that dipping further into our fund balance by $53 million weakens the city’s financial position, and it deepens future deficits.”
Whitmire remains adamant. “We’ll do it without raising taxes,” he said at the meeting. “I understand the pain our residents have over affordability. Taxes harm affordability.”
That message resonates with voters weary of rising costs. But analysts warn that, without new revenue, Houston could face a $227 million deficit by 2027 and a $463 million deficit by 2030 — a gap too deep to close through efficiency alone. The city’s efficiency study is projected to save just $65 million over the next two to four years.
Houston, like Austin, will “almost certainly” need to ask voters for more revenue, whether through property taxes or new fees, said Rita Jefferson, a local analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.–based think tank.
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Austin’s Gamble: Taxing to Preserve
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services medic Capt. Darren Noak, left, and M. Megally check on a man on East 6th Street on Wednesday July 12, 2023, during an excessive heat warning when the temperature reached up to 107 degrees. Then man was transported by ambulance to a hospital for heat-related issues.
Jay Janner / American-Statesman
Texas law requires cities to have balanced budgets.
In late July, Broadnax’s office presented a $6.3 billion spending plan to the Austin City Council – the largest in city history. It was balanced on a 3.5% property tax increase but also millions of dollars in cuts and reserve money to balance a projected shortfall of $33.4 million.
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While the plan included some controversial cuts like reducing overtime pay for police and firefighters, it also gave raises to other city employees – and increased the food and travel budgets of city council offices, which each received 4.5% more money overall than the prior year.
Still, a majority of the council wasn’t pleased. Weeks later, it voted 10-1 to increase the city property tax rate by more than 20% – well beyond the 3.5% cap, thus triggering a tax rate election.
Proposition Q will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot with early voting ongoing.
Austin leaders are betting that voters will approve the hike to sustain and expand city services many residents see as central to Austin’s identity. Council members like Ryan Alter have described the possible failure of Prop Q as an existential threat to the city’s quality of life.
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“If people want to have a city where you don’t see people sleeping on the street, or where someone’s having a mental health crisis on the corner, we’ve got to make those investments and without Prop Q, that doesn’t happen,” Alter said in an interview.
He also pointed out that Houston had to dip into its reserves to balance its budget, a move he said Austin ultimately decided was too risky. (Houston ultimately decided to withdraw $107 million from its savings.)
Still, there’s a looming question as to how critical Prop Q really is.
Brydan Summers, second from right, President of AFSCME 1624, joins Austin workers and first responders to announce the “Care Not Cuts” campaign to support Proposition Q at a news conference at Parque Zaragosa on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. A coalition of unions, first responders, social workers, and community leaders announced a coalition of over 20 organizations in support of the upcoming City of Austin’s tax rate election Proposition Q.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Kerri Lang, the city budget director, described the $110 million measure as funding only “enhanced” – rather than critical – services. Even Alter acknowledged it would pay for some new expenses, such as an extra $6 million toward park maintenance.
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The city’s big ask of voters also comes amid growing scrutiny of its spending habits and lack of transparency.
Over the past five years, the city has spent more than $400 million on homelessness programs, yet an audit last year found that some provider contracts lacked clear goals or accountability.
In 2022, the City Council quietly approved a roughly 40% pay raise for its members, boosting council salaries from about $83,000 to $116,000 and the mayor’s salary from $97,000 to $134,000 — a move that drew sharp criticism for its lack of transparency. By contrast, Houston City Council members make just under $63,000 per year, even though they serve far more constituents.
The American-Statesman recently reported on questionable discretionary spending by city leaders. Alter and Broadnax agreed to reimburse taxpayers for thousands of dollars in working lunches as a result. The city also has come under fire for a $1.1 million rebranding effort, centered on a new logo that many found lacking.
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Austin city council member Marc Duchen, District 10, speaks during a press conference held by a coalition of Austinites to express their opposition for Proposition Q at Juan in a Million in Austin Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The coalition says they are urging residents to vote no on the proposition and then work with city leaders to identify ways the city can support its important programs within the existing $6.3 billion budget.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
To Duchen, these decisions point to a deeper cultural problem.
“We can’t afford to do what we’ve been doing for the last 10 years,” he said. “If Prop Q fails, we’ll have an unprecedented opportunity to figure out if there are aspects of Houston’s study that we can take for ourselves.”
Prop Q stands in contrast to other tax increases Austin has sought in the recent past because it is not tied to a specific project, such as expanding light rail, but rather a long list of priorities across city departments.
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Michael H. Granof, a professor emeritus in accounting at the University of Texas, called the approach “very risky.”
Austinites have historically been “willing to vote for tax increases but usually those tax increases are for specific projects,” he said. This time around, city leaders have opted to present Prop Q to voters as a more general measure necessary to cover a variety of important priorities.
“We’ll know in another two weeks whether their gamble paid off,” he said.
Two Broke Cities, One Big Question
The downtown Houston skyline is photographed from Sabine Street Bridge Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Houston.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
In late summer as he grew increasingly concerned, Duchen reached out to Chris Newport and Steven David, top aides to Whitmire who had helped orchestrate Houston’s efficiency study. Within weeks, he and Austin city management were on a Zoom call with the Houston team, learning how the study worked — and what lessons might apply in Austin.
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“Even in those conversations, I haven’t really detected a downside to doing this,” Duchen said.
Watson said he agrees that efficiency must be part of Austin’s future.
“Regardless of the tax election outcome, the city should have a process to review efficiency, savings, and proper utilization of tax dollars,” he said.
As Prop Q heads to voters and Houston braces for deeper deficits, the two cities’ fates have become a kind of political mirror. One is trying to save money before asking for more; the other is asking for more to save what it has.
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Each approach comes with risk. Houston’s austerity could further hollow out essential services and push the city toward a fiscal cliff. Austin’s tax plan could deepen an affordability crisis in a city already struggling to keep working- and middle-class residents housed.
Some leaders in both places argue that the answer lies in balance: streamline first, then ask voters for targeted investments backed by measurable results.
“Houston showed you can save money without gutting services,” Duchen said. “That’s something Austin should study, even if we ultimately chart our own path.”
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The question, for both cities, is whether either approach can hold.