For City Council members, it\u2019s the worst time of the year \u2013 budget season! Council will be hashing out the city\u2019s 2026-27 spending plan over the next month, deciding whether to bump up the Austin Police Department\u2019s budget and cut social services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Manager T.C. Broadnax got the ball rolling last Friday, unveiling a $6.6 billion budget<\/a> that increases property taxes by the maximum amount state law allows, without seeking the approval of voters \u2013 3.5%. Broadnax\u2019s proposed budget, which Council is highly likely to amend, also increases the fees charged by our city-owned utilities for things like electricity, water, and trash services. Altogether, the average property owner and ratepayer would have to cough up an extra $346 a year<\/a> under the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a preamble<\/a> to the 1,000-page document, Broadnax foregrounds the fiscal crisis the city has descended into over the last several years, as sales tax collections decline and the Republicans\u2019 2019 law<\/a> limiting property tax increases to 3.5% per year slowly strangles the power of Texas cities to keep up with inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe financial landscape continues to present challenges,\u201d Broadnax writes. \u201cBut this year my goal is to present you with a budget that does not strictly react to those challenges but instead shifts our culture as an organization to withstand these challenges \u2013 and those to come.\u201d He goes on to say, \u201cSales tax revenue will always fluctuate, and federal funding is far from certain. This is now our new reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Broadnax\u2019s budget closes an estimated $26 million deficit<\/a> while providing increased funding for the city\u2019s three public safety providers. APD receives close to $550 million, an increase of $24 million. Austin Fire gets almost $288 million, an increase of $18.9 million. Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services gets $157 million, an extra $6 million. The increases will, among other things, provide funding for APD\u2019s chronically challenged recruitment efforts, for overtime at Austin Fire, and for new emergency management software.\u00a0<\/p>\n The budget also proposes a 3% raise for the city\u2019s civilian employees. It estimates that the city will save $5.8 million from its One ATS reorganization of the city\u2019s IT services, the much-criticized effort<\/a> to consolidate all of the IT employees working in various city departments into one central entity. At the beginning of the year, the city planned to move all 1,000 workers; that number is now down to 191. The city continues to say that no IT workers will be laid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n The budget also proposes maintaining funding for the city\u2019s housing voucher program, which helps homeless people afford rent at permanent supportive housing properties. It provides $6 million in new funding for housing services and $3 million for the Marshalling Yard\u2019s temporary shelter in Southeast Austin.<\/p>\n However, the budget also cuts $8 million in social services, about $5 million of which comes from contracts with social service providers. That has angered advocates who plead every year for the city to move funding from APD to organizations that help to prevent violence and incarceration.\u00a0<\/p>\n Equity Action\u2019s Savannah Lee, who helps create an annual alternative to the city\u2019s spending priorities called the Community Investment Budget<\/a>, told us it is frustrating to see the city allocating money to APD\u2019s recruitment efforts when the generous police contract the city approved in 2024 was supposed to fix the problem<\/a>. Before the contract\u2019s approval, advocates predicted it would steal money<\/a> from future social services budgets. The predictions were clearly accurate, Lee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe city is talking about a $26 million deficit while proposing that we hand 25 million additional dollars to APD, giving them a $550 million total budget,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThat isn\u2019t public safety, and it\u2019s unthinkable.\u201d Equity Action will join other community organizers at Lustre Pearl on Thursday evening, July 16, to protest the cuts to social services.<\/p>\n Many Council members agree that social services should not be cut. CM Jos\u00e9 Vel\u00e1squez told\u00a0us his priority in the next four weeks of discussions will be to ensure that Austin protects its most vulnerable neighbors and families. \u201cOur office has led in requesting that the city manager deprioritize cuts to social services and only consider them as a last resort,\u201d Vel\u00e1squez said. \u201cContinued support and funding for public health programs are critical. Our city budget is a moral document and our decisions must reflect that.\u201d<\/p>\n CM Vanessa Fuentes does not want the cuts either. \u201cI\u2019ll be focused on protecting the lifelines Austin families depend on most,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen resources are limited, our priorities should reflect Austin\u2019s values of keeping families housed, paying city workers a living wage, and preserving our most essential social services.\u201d<\/p>\n