{"id":397461,"date":"2026-08-04T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397461\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:58:07","slug":"austin-city-council-set-to-debate-budget-amendments-ahead-of-upcoming-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397461\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin City Council set to debate budget amendments ahead of upcoming votes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin City Council members are set to tackle final questions and possible changes to the city\u2019s next budget as leaders work to close a <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/austins-projected-26-million-deficit-is-equal-to-losing-240-police-fire-ems-positions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">$26 million shortfall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Council is expected to meet at 10 a.m. to go over a presentation and discuss the city manager\u2019s proposed $6.6 billion spending plan. One of the biggest debates centers on how much money should go toward public safety as <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/battle-at-city-hall-austin-weighs-police-budget-boost-against-social-service-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">social service programs face major cuts.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Under the proposed budget, Austin police funding would increase by about $25 million. At the same time, the city is considering cutting more than $5.3 million from social-service programs.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the meeting, online reaction has included a range of opinions, with some supporting the city making difficult decisions and cutting more, while others have raised concerns about the programs that could be eliminated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/newsletter-daily\/austins-projected-26-million-deficit-is-equal-to-losing-240-police-fire-ems-positions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Austin&#8217;s projected $26 million deficit is equal to losing 240 police, fire, EMS positions<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Council members are expected to work through any final questions about the proposed budget and file final proposed amendments. On Thursday, council is expected to review the proposals and their possible costs. Final budget votes are scheduled for Aug. 12 through Aug. 14.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Kirk Watson has asked council members to file their proposed budget amendments and policy items by 6 p.m. tonight, saying the goal is intended to give city staff enough time to calculate what each proposal would cost before council begins its final votes next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin City Council members are set to tackle final questions and possible changes to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-397461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}