{"id":404573,"date":"2026-08-12T14:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404573\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T14:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:36:21","slug":"austin-city-council-to-vote-on-6-6b-budget-max-property-tax-hike-without-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404573\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin City Council to vote on $6.6B budget, max property tax hike without election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin City Council members are set to make final decisions on a $6.6 billion city budget that could affect what residents pay in property taxes, utility rates and fees; and which city services see increases or cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Council members will meet at City Hall in downtown Austin as they begin final votes on the proposed $6.6 billion budget. The decisions include the city budget itself, property taxes, and utility rates and fees.<\/p>\n<p>The city is proposing the maximum 3.5% increase in property-tax revenue allowed without voter approval. Council members are also deciding how that money is allocated and what gets cut.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/east-austinites-question-proposed-police-budget-increase-ahead-of-city-council-vote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO | East Austinites question proposed police budget increase ahead of City Council vote<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know folks are here and they&#8217;re saying we should fund this and we should fund that, and I agree, but we are very limited in what we can fund in the funds that we have available, and that&#8217;s just the reality that we&#8217;re facing,\u201d said Jose \u201cChito\u201d Vela, Austin City Council member for District 4.<\/p>\n<p>Under the proposed budget, large portions go toward Austin Energy and water. Transportation and public works make up a much smaller portion.<\/p>\n<p>About 22% of the proposed budget, roughly $1.5 billion, is the city\u2019s general fund. Within that, police, fire and EMS account for the majority, with nearly $1 billion going to those public safety entities.<\/p>\n<p>A smaller section of the general fund is dedicated to social services, and the proposed budget includes millions of dollars in cuts to those contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Voting is expected between today and Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin City Council members are set to make final decisions on a $6.6 billion city&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-404573","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\/404573","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=404573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}