After weeks of back-and-forth with city staff and three days of wrangling for dollars and cents on the dais, City Council approved a $3.7 billion budget Wednesday evening for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2016-2017. Austin homeowners will pay 44.18 cents per $100 of property value. That amount represents a decrease of 1.71 cents from last […]
Jack Craver
Posted inBudget
Council makes small increases to social services
City Council approved a flurry of changes to the city budget Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to boost funding for social services. Mayor Steve Adler moved to target some of the $2.1 million in funding that Council had approved Monday for quality of life initiatives aimed at African-American, Asian-American and Latino populations toward three specific […]
Posted inBudget
Council seeks elusive low-hanging fruit in budget
City Council spent hours Monday discussing and debating ways to balance the budget by finding small cuts in each city department. In the context of the city budget, some of the figures Council members are debating are minuscule. But even small cuts prompt debate on the dais, as well as pushback from department leaders. City […]
Posted inCity Council
City commissions move closer to gender balance
In Austin’s first election featuring geographic, single-member districts, voters sent seven women and four men (including the mayor) to the new 10-1 City Council, making the capital of Texas the first major U.S. city governed by a majority-female elected body. The new Council has also come closer to achieving gender parity on citizen commissions, the […]
Posted inBudget
Council bickers over proposed budget cuts
The only thing clear from City Council’s most recent discussion about the budget is that there remains plenty of disagreement among the 11 members over where to cut. Mayor Steve Adler kicked off Thursday’s budget work session with a list of programs he suggested adding to the budget that was proposed by city management earlier […]
Posted inDevelopment
Council OKs WildHorse Ranch PID
A major mixed-use development planned in eastern Travis County cleared an important hurdle Thursday, when City Council voted 8-2 not to object to the first-ever public improvement district created by the Travis County Commissioners Court. Key to approval of the resolution authorizing the WildHorse Ranch PID was a clause inserted by Mayor Steve Adler that […]
Posted inBudget
Council confronts tough budgeting decisions
City Council members were faced with the grim reality Wednesday that the city’s financial situation is going to force some tough spending choices in the coming years. A budget overview presented by the city finance department projected the city would face a $1 million shortfall during Fiscal Year 2017-2018. That might not sound bad, but […]
Posted inDevelopment
Council members raise concerns about WildHorse PID
Travis County’s first attempt at its very own public improvement district could be imperiled by a skeptical City Council, which by state law must give its blessing to such projects if they are located within Austin city limits. Discussing the WildHorse Ranch PID during a work session Tuesday, Council members echoed concerns voiced earlier this […]
Posted inEnergy
Council approves new electricity rates
City Council voted unanimously Monday to adopt a new set of electricity rates for residents and businesses served by Austin Energy, the city-owned utility. The vote was the culmination of an eight-month process, starting with a rate proposal submitted by the utility in January, followed by months of back and forth between AE and more […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy agrees to start planning coal plant retirement
Two key environmental groups announced their support Thursday for a settlement to the Austin Energy rate review, the public process the city goes through periodically before setting new electricity rates for the city-owned utility’s commercial and residential customers. Sierra Club and Public Citizen, which had acted as joint intervenors in the rate review, said they […]
Posted inZoning
Commission split on mixed-use zoning near Lamar
The Planning Commission urged a property owner and his neighbors to try to reach a compromise Tuesday after a hearing in which both sides of a contentious zoning case accused the other of duplicity. “They’re traumatized; I’m traumatized,” said John Scott Neal, the owner of a parcel of land that includes 1507, 1509, 1511, 1601 […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy gradually reforms Customer Assistance Program
For nearly two years, Paul Robbins, a longtime environmental and consumer activist, has been hounding Austin Energy about its operation of the Customer Assistance Program, which is intended to give energy discounts to low-income households. Robbins, who earns groans as well as grudging respect from AE, contends that the utility is spending hundreds of thousands, […]