Austin Independent School District board members heard better budgeting news Monday but still could not come to an agreement on employee raises. The wrong decision could mean “draconian” cuts in future years. Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley presented board members with the revised budget, which is a step away from August’s recommended budget, and asked […]
budget
Income and expenditure for a set period of time.
Posted inAISD
AISD educators ask for $24 million more
Employees from every area of the Austin Independent School District asked for higher wages Monday night. The most popular request came with a $24.5 million price tag. As in past meetings, Education Austin, an AISD teachers union, continued to advocate for an across-the-board 5 percent wage increase for all district employees. According to Nicole Conley, AISD’s chief financial officer, […]
Posted inCity Hall, Energy
Austin Energy payments to city keep growing
Even though City Council froze the transfer from Austin Energy to the city’s general fund at $105 million in 2012, the amount the utility pays for support services has continued to grow. For the current fiscal year, the utility will fund more than $20 million for support services as well as to departments that may or […]
Posted inCity Hall, Music & Entertainment
New temporary permit fees are actually temporary
This year, Austin briefly had higher temporary food permit fees. Those are gone after a City Council vote last week, but work is already underway to establish new fees, again. As part of this year’s budget, Council moved forward with a new fee schedule for temporary food permits and approved eight new positions to keep […]
Posted inResources
Commissioner calls water rate increase misleading
As if there weren’t enough questions swirling around the tenuous adoption of new water rates for the city, one member of the Water and Wastewater Commission has struck out against what she calls a “years-long pattern of obscuring utility rate impacts.” In August, Commissioner Mickey Fishbeck, who also chairs the Joint Committee on Austin Water […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Resources
City Council adopts $3.5 billion 2015 budget
City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2015 budget and tax rate Tuesday, despite Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s dissent. Council members voted in favor of an operating budget with an $854 million general fund after approving a set of amendments this week that totaled $3.4 million. They also increased combined enterprise and internal service fund spending by […]
Posted inResources
Council approves new water rates, for now
A last-ditch proposal to change the structure of Austin Water Utility rates didn’t gain enough traction to pass at City Council’s budget session Tuesday. But the proposal may have an impact soon. Council members voted 6-1 to approve what they had already agreed upon earlier in budget discussions, with Council Member Kathie Tovo voting in […]
Posted inLocal Politics
Leffingwell, Council clash over budget changes
City Council began its 2015 budget adoption reading Monday with Mayor Lee Leffingwell making two unsuccessful motions to reduce the property tax rate. In fact, throughout the day he objected to the majority of Council-initiated operating budget amendments. Deputy Budget Officer Diane Siler told the Austin Monitor that, at the end of Monday’s meeting, Council […]
Posted inLocal Politics
City budget talks turn to city schools
Though it was the last budget work session for City Council, there was plenty left to talk about on Wednesday. After the public hearing had been closed, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo presented Council with the most recent budget figures. Notably, since the adoption of the tax rate, the city has about $6.8 […]