After its second day of budget deliberations and numerous additions for quality-of-life programs, City Council still needed to find or trim an additional $1.2 million to $1.3 million in order to balance the budget for Fiscal Year 2015-16. A city spokesman said late Wednesday that staff would not be sure of the exact number until […]
city budget
The city’s plan for expenditures based on income.
Posted inEnergy
Council changes energy demand charge policy
Following weeks of buildup, City Council has amended a contentious Austin Energy policy in an attempt to help small businesses avoid potentially costly demand charges. Rather than adhere to an Electric Utility Commission recommendation that Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo proposed, Council opted during a Wednesday budget adoption meeting to go with a compromise put […]
Posted inBudget
Zimmerman plan to “rebalance” transportation spending splits Council
City Council Member Don Zimmerman would like to see a change in Austin’s transportation infrastructure spending. His proposal, which would mandate at least $2 million per district for mobility Capital Improvement Projects, won varying levels of support from Council Members Ora Houston, Ellen Troxclair, Sheri Gallo and Ann Kitchen on Wednesday. However, it remains unclear […]
Posted inBudget
Council finishes budget adoption Day One
City Council dove into the Fiscal Year 2015-16 city budget reading process on Tuesday, making some progress toward its goal of adopting the budget by the end of Thursday. Though there is still a long way to go before Council reaches a final draft, it made some headway on a working budget that consists of city […]
Posted inParks
Parks Department dives into future of Austin pools
Next week signals the close of many Austin municipal and neighborhood pools. Diving boards active throughout the summer months will be hushed as the kids who once tumbled from them head back to school. During these final days, volunteers with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department will be conducting informal surveys of pool users, asking […]
Posted inBudget
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 […]
Posted inTransit
Lone Star Rail not in city budget but still on track
Although there is no funding for the Lone Star Regional Rail Project in the proposed city budget, the Georgetown-to-San-Antonio passenger rail plan can still get up to speed in due time. Lone Star Rail District Rail Director Joe Black told the Austin Monitor on Monday that his organization is not overly concerned about the omission. […]
Posted inBudget
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. […]
Posted inBudget
Council talks budget affordability and city services
There are some things that the proposed Fiscal Year 2015-16 city budget does and some things that it does not do. Aside from raising the property tax rate, along with utility rates and fees for many homeowners, one of the major things the budget does is implement a 6 percent homestead exemption. One of the […]
Posted inBudget
Proposed city budget includes tax, fee hikes
City management is proposing a budget for fiscal year 2015-16 that includes 85 additional police officers, 12 new paramedics, 19 new 911 call takers and 27 new employees for the beleaguered Development Services Department. Under a proposal presented this morning to City Council, the owner of a median-priced home will see taxes, fees and utility […]
Posted inCity Council
Council cuts 2.3 city positions
City Council approved cuts to long-vacant city positions Thursday, but the result didn’t come close to the budget savings first envisioned. The effort to eliminate positions that had been vacant for more than a year was led by Council Member Ellen Troxclair. She cited the savings this move would bring in her unsuccessful push for […]
Posted inCity Council
Closed captioning costs city $10,000 per month
Austin’s switch to a 10-1 government is costing the city money in unexpected areas. At a budget work session Wednesday, the city’s Support Services Department forecasted a $131,000 expenditure increase to fund ATXN, the city’s government access channel, as a result of the City Council committee restructuring. That number is part of the department’s overall $6.6 million […]