As part of our ongoing attempt to keep readers up to date with all that is going on at City Hall, we will now be offering weekly tip sheets for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of the meetings, with links to the entire agenda. Economic Opportunity Council Committee Monday, June […]
city budget
The city’s plan for expenditures based on income.
Posted inAustin
Council adopts six percent homestead exemption
Despite the fact that views among City Council members run the gamut as far as implementing a homestead tax exemption, they opted in a 7-4 vote to meet in the middle early Friday morning, approving a 6 percent exemption for this year and expressing an intent to increase it to 20 percent over the course […]
Posted inBudget
City planning departments talk budgets
As the city’s budget process gears up, each department is making its way to City Council with its budget for the upcoming year. And in the wake of the Zucker Report, eyes are on what was once the Planning and Development Review Department. Planning and Zoning Director Greg Guernsey and Development Services Director Rodney Gonzales […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: This week’s Council Committees
As part of our ongoing attempt to keep readers up to date with all that is going on at City Hall, we will now be offering weekly tip sheets for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of the meetings, with links to the entire agenda. Health and Human Services Council Committee […]
Posted inBudget
Austin General Fund forecast strong
Austin’s sales tax revenue is up 7.2 percent this year compared with the previous fiscal year, and city financial officials are forecasting that the city will bring in $2.1 million more than was budgeted, for a projected annual growth rate of 5.8 percent. The information comes from the second quarter fiscal year 2015 report. Although […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Concerns about concerns about concerns
Queen of Zoning exits City Hall stage… Betty Baker, the chief author of Austin’s historic preservation program as well as the first and only chair of the city’s 14-year-old Zoning and Platting Commission, said goodbye to her friends at the city on Thursday as she stepped down from ZAP. Baker, 82, began her city service […]
Posted inAustin
Council moves towards higher minimum wage
The city of Austin inched closer to a higher minimum wage for its employees Thursday. City Council members voted to direct City Manager Marc Ott to consider a minimum wage raise when he sits down to craft the coming year’s budget. But if Ott does follow Council’s direction, it’s not yet clear how far he will […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: gates, pies and tracheotomies
Council ponders homestead exemption, pie… City Council members may have been craving pie Wednesday afternoon, having tossed the metaphor around while discussing ways to fairly distribute the costs and benefits of a proposed homestead tax exemption on residents. Council Member Leslie Pool took the concept to levels of abstraction that may have had members of […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: This week’s Council Committees
As part of our ongoing attempt to keep our readers up to date with all that is going on at City Hall, we will now be offering weekly tip sheets for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of the meetings, with links to the entire agenda. Audit and Finance Committee Monday, […]
Posted inBudget
Council weighs homestead exemption equity
City Council is facing an array of difficult choices as it attempts to balance potential increases in the city’s homestead exemption tax with its upcoming budget needs. Following a Wednesday budget work session, Council members can add possible impacts on renters to the equation. In addition to issues involving renters — who comprise 55 percent of […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: this week’s Council Committees
As part of our ongoing attempt to keep our readers up-to-date with all that is going on at City Hall, we will now be offering weekly tip sheets for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of the meetings, with links to the entire agenda. Economic Opportunity Committee Monday, May 11. Agenda […]
Posted inBudget, City Council
Council begins to define budget priorities
Despite needing to fill a 5 to 6 percent hole to bring the city’s revenue in line with what it spends, City Council members continued to bat around a mix of ideas Wednesday about how to generate that money. At the second of several meetings held before adopting the budget in September, Council members heard […]