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<\/p>\nThe proposal by five council members calls for using $4.7 million in new revenue from revised property tax certifications.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 With just over a week before Austin City Council votes on the city’s proposed $6.6 billion budget, several council members are pushing to restore millions of dollars in funding for social service programs that had been slated for cuts.<\/p>\n
City leaders learned they have an additional $4.7 million available after receiving the final property tax roll, giving council members more flexibility as they finalize the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.<\/p>\n
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During a budget workshop Monday, community members once again urged the city to preserve funding for nonprofit organizations facing reductions, including Mexic-Arte Museum, Con Mi MADRE and Meals on Wheels. Supporters said those organizations provide critical services ranging from youth development to food assistance and housing support.<\/p>\n
Mayor Kirk Watson proposed using a one-time appropriation to continue funding organizations that serve children and families while the city conducts a closer review of its social service contracts.<\/p>\n
“It’s not a blanket reauthorization. It is also not a blanket reduction or cuts,” Watson said. “It is a more, in my view, more methodical, thoughtful approach.”<\/p>\n
Watson said the city should evaluate each contract using audits and performance standards before deciding whether future funding should continue.<\/p>\n
Council Member Ryan Alter offered a different proposal, suggesting the additional $4.7 million be used to help close a funding gap for local housing vouchers. Alter argued that doing so would free up money in other housing-related funds that could then be redirected to social service programs.<\/p>\n
Austin City Council is scheduled to hold one more budget meeting Thursday before taking a final vote on the proposed budget next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposal by five council members calls for using $4.7 million in new revenue from revised property tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-398062","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\/398062","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=398062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}