AUSTIN (KXAN) — After Austin city council members laid out their proposals for a tax rate election Thursday, Mayor Kirk Watson told KXAN he doesn’t like the cost to taxpayers in some of those plans and will only vote to send a tax rate election to voters if the money will fund core city services.
“I must admit that right now I’m disappointed that the numbers we’re talking about are higher than I would feel comfortable voting for,” Watson said. “There could be something that I would vote for that’s higher than what my proposal is, but it would have to be funding core basic services in a way that I felt comfortable with.”
Because of a 2019 state law, taxing entities cannot raise the property tax rate more than 3.5% from the year prior without triggering a tax rate election (TRE).
That’s where the city manager’s base budget sits right now — at the 3.5% rate allowed without triggering a TRE — which would still mean a total monthly increase of $18.18 per month or $218.16 annually for the “average” ratepayer and taxpayer.
Some Austin city council members are calling for the overall impact to taxpayers to be much higher than that — at the highest end, roughly $270 more. Those council members want the city to put money toward homelessness, housing, parks maintenance, wildfire mitigation and other services. You can find a full list of proposals and what they would fund here.
“Absolutely. This is a process and we are looking to see where we can come together, what number that might be,” Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter said when asked if he would be willing to come down on the amount requested from taxpayers. He’s one of the council members proposing the most expensive tax rate election.
Watson also put forward a proposal that calls for a 3.5-cent tax increase, which would raise the average homeowner’s property taxes by $138.54 over the city manager’s base proposal. Most of the money in that proposal would go toward fully funding the Homeless Strategy Office’s plan.
“What I really want us to prioritize, what I want to see a real emphasis on… is now that we have the plan, let’s use that plan, let’s fund that plan,” Watson said.
All of the proposals on the table, with the exception of one, look to fully fund the Homeless Strategy Office’s plan. Wildfire mitigation and parks maintenance also appear to be common themes in those proposals.
Austin city council will take up their budget and tax rate starting on Wednesday.
“If I’m going to ask voters to raise their taxes to pay for those services I want to be able to ask them to do it for basic, core services and I’m going to be very stingy about that on their behalf,” Watson said.