Council budget requests include weatherization expansion, despite Austin Energy reservations

City Council has many possible budget amendments to consider this week. Although city staff has made clear that the city’s growth has not been sufficiently robust to support many expensive changes to the city’s budget, Council will still move forward with what they see as important additions when they meet on Wednesday. The Austin Monitor reported last week on a variety of proposed amendments from 10 of the 11 Council members. Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who was unavailable due to illness last week, offered cuts in an attempt to keep taxes from rising.

Council Member Ryan Alter proposed a variety of amendments, many of which were outlined in last week’s reports.

In addition, he proposes expanding eligibility for participation in the Austin Energy’s free weatherization program for low-income households. Currently, AE offers free weatherization for families earning up to 80 percent of the median family income for the area. Alter proposes to increase the program by allowing customers who make up to 100 percent of the median family income. Austin Energy says the estimated cost of that amendment would be about $1.5 million “in addition to increases already slated to occur.” According to the utility, Austin Energy’s proposed weatherization budget for the upcoming year is $8.5 million, an increase of $3 million over the current year.

As of June 2024, the median family income for a family of four in the Austin-Round Rock area is $126,000, which is a 3 percent increase from the previous year.

Austin Energy, which funds the low-income weatherization program through a surcharge on customers’ bills, “does not recommend moving to 100 percent MFI eligibility,” according to the utility’s response to a budget question from Alter. According to the utility, in addition to increasing the cost to customers, the change would require adding two full-time employees not currently in the proposed budget. “For every $1 million increase in (energy efficiency services) programs this requires a 2.5 percent increase” in the charge to customers, AE said.

Alter’s office told the Austin Monitor, “Council Member Alter believes the benefits outweigh the costs – expanding the program to 100 percent MFI will increase participation, lower energy consumption for many more households, and decrease total energy usage.” Supporting Alter’s proposed amendment are Council members Vanessa Fuentes, Zo Qadri, Chito Vela and José Velásquez.

District 9’s Qadri is proposing to add $300,000 to the city budget for a Mental Health Diversion pilot. This pilot is a collaboration between Travis County, Central Health, Integral Care and the Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC). According to Qadri’s statement on the City Council Message Board, “The Pilot leverages existing programs and facilities to expand community services to immediately address unmet deflection and diversion needs and provide members of the community experiencing behavioral health crises with access services. The pilot leverages Integral Care’s Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) program on Airport Blvd. and repurposes Integral Care’s 15th Street crisis residential program, located in a city-owned facility, for a Therapeutic Diversion Program (TDP).”

Qadri is also sponsoring funding for community health system navigation services for members of linguistically isolated Asian Americans. According to Qadri’s posting on the message board, “these services should promote self-management of health and wellness through the clinical community links that enable culturally and contextually relevant care. The services aim to improve health care and basic needs access for marginalized, Asian, and Asian American ethnic communities.”

The District 9 Council member is also seeking to add about $276,000 to the budget for CASTMED, Counter Assault Strike Team Paramedics. According to his post, CASTMED started in 2018 “as a joint task force that partners tactically trained medics with Austin police officers. They respond to calls faster than any other EMS program because they don’t have to wait for the scene to be declared safe by police. CASTMED paramedics are volunteers who sign up for overtime in addition to their weekly shifts. The program only operates part-time on Friday and Saturday nights downtown and during special events.”

In addition to other proposals, Council Member Alison Alter is sponsoring an amendment to add $200,000 to the budget that will allow the Communication and Public Information Office (CPIO) to “continue providing outreach and education to support the City’s anti-hate response efforts.” She notes that the We All Belong Campaign was “launched in 2023 with a goal of empowering the community to take action to keep Austin a safe and welcoming place. Another goal of the program is to provide streamlined access to tools to report hate crimes and incidents.” Her co-sponsors include Qadri and Fuentes.

This is just a smattering of proposals not previously reported. There are numerous others, most of which Council will address at the meeting on Wednesday. That meeting, which begins at 10 a.m., will include comments from speakers. No meeting is scheduled for Thursday, but if they wish to do so Mayor Kirk Watson can call an overnight recess and Council can return to finish the work on Thursday. Another budget meeting is scheduled for Friday, if necessary.

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