Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo on Wednesday signaled that she would like City Council to use a budget adoption process similar to the one used by the previous Council over the past two years. Council Members Delia Garza and Leslie Pool immediately signaled their interest in using the same type of process, with Garza saying, […]
Budget
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Council gauges interest on proposed budget items
City Council inched closer to adopting the city’s Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget at a work session on Tuesday when it took a “straw poll” – in the words of Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo – of the concept menu items that members have put forward. Though the votes were taken quickly and ultimately have no […]
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Travis County reduces proposed tax rate
Crucial new data has given Travis County’s budget writers a little extra leeway to lower the proposed property tax rate in the next fiscal year. A Planning and Budget Office staff presentation before the Commissioners Court on Tuesday revealed that the Travis Central Appraisal District beat expectations by estimating the net taxable land value in […]
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Council sets tax rate, talks budget
On Thursday, City Council tackled the city budget once again. Though a deadline to finalize the budget is fast approaching, Council members opted to keep all of their budget proposals on the table for the time being. Although Council covered a breadth of issues during its discussion, Mayor Steve Adler explained it was not the […]
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Minorities, low-income residents top budget amendment requests
With city budget season in full swing, dozens of Austinites took to the podium at City Hall during a public hearing Thursday to ask City Council to amend the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year to include more services that benefit minorities, children and low-income residents. Common requests included increasing investments in health and […]
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Council argument about pay raises begins
As Austin’s unemployment rate goes down, the city’s employee turnover rate goes up, Acting Assistant City Manager Mark Washington told City Council at Monday’s budget work session. Currently, Austin’s unemployment rate is about 3.3 percent, and the projected turnover rate for the coming year is 8.5 percent, Washington said. Because the city is competing with […]
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Council scrutinizes proposed police officer increase
City Council members spent over an hour Wednesday grilling Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo and other APD staff on the department’s proposed Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget, zeroing in on a plan to add 82 sworn police officers to the force at a cost of $6.6 million. Several Council members appeared hesitant about the costs […]
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Budget proposal catches Council off guard
With a city budget of $3.5 billion, there are a lot of line items that don’t get individual attention during Austin City Council’s budget talks. But on Monday, there was one Parks and Recreation Department allocation request that was curious enough to prompt questions from a number of Council members. The Parks and Recreation Department […]
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Zimmerman seeks cut to Chapter 380 funding
City Council Member Don Zimmerman has proposed that Council cut by 50 percent payments to companies that have Chapter 380 agreements with the city, as a way to “reduce the tax burden by over $6.8 million without cutting city services.” Zimmerman’s message as posted on the Council Message Board states, “This would just be for […]
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Code budget talk quickly turns to STRs
City Council managed to tear through budget presentations for seven city departments yesterday. Of those, the Code Department seemed to bear the lion’s share of scrutiny, with the promise of more to come. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this part of the budget doesn’t come back several times over the course of the […]
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Lower tax rate, higher tax bill in Travis County’s draft budget
Travis County’s property tax rate is expected to dip during the next budget cycle, but taxpayers shouldn’t necessarily expect lower bills. According to the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2016, the rate will drop by 6.62 percent. However, rising property values mean that the owner of a home with the average taxable value of $262,199 […]
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Updated: Council resolution would cut wage hike for most employees
City Council members Don Zimmerman and Ellen Troxclair have crafted a resolution that would cut the proposed salary increase for the majority of city employees and save the city an estimated $6 million in next year’s budget, according to their calculations. Joining them in sponsoring the resolution are Council members Ora Houston and Sheri Gallo. […]