City of Austin’s proposed budget to drop next week

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The city manager’s proposed budget will be presented to Austin City Council on July 12. It will outline how the city plans to spend your money over the next fiscal year.

Austin City Council approved a record-large $5.5 billion budget last year , but financial staff have said they’re going to need to cut back after sales tax revenue dipped below expectations.

There will be several opportunities for the public to voice their opinion on the budget before it is approved by Austin City Council. You can find ways to give your feedback here . The fiscal year starts October 1.

KXAN reached out to all Austin City Council members ahead of the proposed budget being released to ask about their priorities. This will be updated as those responses come in.

Council Member Zohaib ‘Zo’ Qadri

• Continue funding mental health diversion pilot
• Permanent supportive housing wraparound services
• Downtown Austin Alliance Homelessness Engagement Assistance Response Team ( HEART) program
• Maintain EMS staffing

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes

Council Member Fuentes says her top priority is going to be homelessness.

“This has been a big priority for our community and for Austinites,” she said. “It’s a topic that we hear from constituents on numerous occasions. And so I want to ensure that we continue to have well-suited investments both on prevention and towards addressing homelessness.”

Council Member Chito Vela

A spokesperson for Council Member Vela told KXAN that tenant assistance was the council member’s No. 1 priority. He would like recurring funding for the tenant assistance program with a direct emphasis on eviction prevention.

Council Member Ryan Alter

Alter wrote the following to KXAN:

“For homelessness, having only one walk-up navigation center in the City results in a disproportionate impact on the neighboring area and doesn’t serve clients as effectively as we could. We need to further our remote outreach efforts and take serious steps towards satellite locations for these services.

Regarding public safety, while the police contract negotiations are expected to be a central consideration of our budget discussions, there are other actions we can take that will also help improve public safety immediately. This includes expanding EMCOT which is an emergency mental health response done in partnership with Integral Care. It also means using technology like new camera units to monitor park areas. Lastly it should include sustained funding for our Office of Violence Prevention, which helps to address crisis situations before they turn into criminal activity.

Regarding environmental investment, there is much for us to do as a City to accomplish this community’s goals. Earlier this year CM Alter called for an Environmental Investment Plan that sought funding for our already adopted plans related to sustainability, resilience, carbon reduction, and water conservation.  This effort was always imagined to take both capital funds like bonds, but also operating and utility funds to accomplish. There is now broad support for this to be included in a future bond, but he’ll be looking to see what can be done urgently in this year’s operating and utility budgets. This could include simple changes to existing programs like expanding the eligibility of Austin Energy’s weatherization assistance program so we can help more residents prepare their homes for extreme weather and reduce their costs.”

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly

Kelly says her priorities are helping cut costs for Austinites and public safety.

“As part of the budget process every year, I meet with the chiefs of each public safety department to discuss what their unmet needs are and then I use that as a tool for when we have these budget discussions,” she said.

Kelly also said she’s made a list of items on last year’s budget that she thinks should be cut from the current one “to ensure that there is no revenue tax increase in the budget.”

Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison

Council Member Harper-Madison wants to see things like the following when the budget is released next week:

• Ensuring the Mobile Court Program that was piloted last year is funded. That program helps resolve criminal charges for people experiencing homelessness
• Supporting the African American Cultural Heritage District and historic properties associated
• Investing in affordable housing through community land trusts and public land purchase
• Putting money toward permanent supportive housing

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