The city could consider new user fees, expanded partnerships, naming rights and even the creation of a regional park authority as part of a broad effort to close a growing funding gap in the parks system, according to a consultant report released last month. Commissioned by the Parks and Recreation Department, the report outlines short- and long-term strategies for addressing the financial pressures facing the department.
Consultants PFM Group Consulting and the Trust for Public Land found that the parks department relies more heavily on general fund support than many comparable cities and lacks the revenue diversity seen in peer systems. In 2024, the department received approximately $100.5 million from the city’s general fund and generated $15.9 million through internal revenues, leaving an estimated annual funding gap of $84.6 million.
Without additional funding sources, that gap is projected to grow to $168.7 million by 2030, driven by rising operational and maintenance costs.
The report offers a range of short- and long-term funding options including establishing a $1 per month parks maintenance fee on utility bills, expanding the use of drainage utility funds to reflect the ecological value of parks, revising cost recovery policies for programs and rentals and formalizing the city’s ability to accept naming rights and corporate sponsorships.
Longer-term recommendations include pursuing future bond financing, exploring the creation of a local government corporation to oversee park operations, or pursuing state legislation that would allow the creation of a regional park district spanning Travis County and other jurisdictions.
Those findings, included in a recent city memo, come as PARD continues its work under a City Council directive to identify sustainable funding models for the city’s park system. The memo summarized the consultant report and noted that further analysis will be presented to Council by February 2026.
The memo also highlights the complexity of Austin’s parks portfolio, which includes ecological preserves, historical assets, cultural sites and recreation centers, each of which may require distinct funding strategies as federal programs face new constraints and local resources remain limited.
The department has created a public-facing website to share updates and background materials related to the project. A community engagement questionnaire distributed this spring showed 91 percent of respondents supported increased funding for parks, pools and related facilities.
At Wednesday’s meeting of City Council’s Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee, discussion focused on the current progress in establishing a regional park system, with PARD staff reporting it would likely take multiple state legislative sessions to get the required laws changed.
Council Member Ryan Alter said he will look into making it possible for the city to add more parks-specific fees onto passes for Austin City Limits Festival, which takes place at Zilker Metropolitan Park and is the largest event to use city parks facilities.
Council Member Paige Ellis said the city would need to build a strong case with the public for the need for a $1 monthly service fee that could raise $5.4 million annually for parks use. On the question of other fees for facilities use, she said the city would need to make sure that those changes wouldn’t create barriers for lower-income residents.
“I don’t want this to become a situation where only the folks with extra dollars to spend get to utilize our city park spaces,” she said. “I would love for the parks department to have a bigger slice of the general fund, but when two-thirds of it is going to public safety and we’re still having conversations about the need to increase funding for public safety, we’re just in a tight spot. And we have to make sure that we are properly maintaining the land that we own and making sure that everybody who comes to visit our parks has clean and accessible spaces.”
At Monday’s Austin Parks and Recreation Board meeting, members raised concerns about the long-term outlook for external funding that supports the city’s parks system.
Parks board members noted the increasing unpredictability of traditional grant programs and suggested convening stakeholders including nonprofits and advocacy groups for a broader conversation about funding risks and potential coordination.
“The (parks) industry itself is in a state of, let’s just say concern, perhaps chaos… everything from cutbacks and clawbacks of funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, to diminishment of community grants through the National Park Service,” said boardmember Ted Eubanks.
“Maybe this is time to pull all of these groups together in one room at one time for a meeting to discuss where are we with this, what can you count on, what’s not gonna be there, what is gonna be there, what are the other, other alternatives?”
In his comments to the board, PARD director Jesús Aguirre endorsed the push for collaborating with other parks-related groups to plan for managing outside funding hits that haven’t materialized locally yet.
“I certainly welcome the opportunity to engage in those discussions and to share sort of where we are, but so far we’ve been fortunate enough that those things haven’t yet been clawed back,” he said. “For example, we just received notice of a federal fund to fund some of our senior transportation programs, which we were worried that it wasn’t gonna come through, but it did come through.”
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