Climate bond initiative likely delayed

A post on the City Council Message Board showed that Mayor Kirk Watson is concerned about moving forward with a proposed climate bond this November. On Friday, Watson wrote that he agreed with Austin Outside’s assessment that they take the time to move forward in a thoughtful, deliberative and thorough manner. “The Council has discussed a possible climate bond initiative one time—at a work session on May 28th. As a Council, we didn’t give specific direction to the Manager regarding what to bring back as a potential bond proposal. We didn’t identify priorities. We really couldn’t have done so. There was—and is still—insufficient deliberation and information,” Watson wrote. “Anything the Manager’s office would bring to us at this point would be piecemeal and lack the rigor we should want. Even if we decided to just put one thing on a ballot this November, such as land acquisition, we would be doing so without staff being able to answer many of the questions raised at the work session and raised by many constituents who care deeply about this issue and how best to address it.” In his post, Watson also acknowledged that city staff has warned that a large bond election this year would be imprudent and said that, in his opinion, such an election should occur no later than November 2026. As of press time, Watson had at least the support of Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, who added, “The Council does no favors to anyone without properly assessing the work in front of us. We have no second chances these days to get things right. And Austin’s future deserves our focused attention on doing things right.”