RECAP: Austin City Council Members Respond to Save Austin Now’s Fiscally Disastrous Prop A

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Ballot measure projections would cost more than the entire city parks system or entire Emergency Medical Services department

Statesman: Austin police ballot measure could cost $119 million per year and force cuts to city services, leaders say

Austin is safe: Over 500 more police aren’t recommended

AUSTIN, TX – On Wednesday, Austin City Council Members discussed the devastating financial impact of Save Austin Now’s November ballot measure, which could demand up to $120M per year out of the City’s budget – $600M over the next five years. 

When Save Austin Now (SAN) says the City has an over $4 billion budget to pay for their petition, they are intentionally misleading the public once again. The overwhelming majority of the City’s funds cannot be used to pay for the police department because they are part of the city’s utilities or enterprises. The limited amount of legally available funds to the City would force the City to cut parks, libraries, EMS, Fire, and/or housing under SAN’s unfunded mandate.

Council Members recognized the ballot measure as “fiscally irresponsible” during the Aug. 11th Council Meeting:

  • “$120 million, my gosh, hearing that number is just staggering,” said District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes. “To know that our hands would be tied… knowing that this amount, this impact – should this proposition pass – would have on our community, would have on our ability as local elected officials to ensure the safety of our community, is just staggering.”
  • “I just can’t believe this group that brought this petition; it’s so irresponsible for them,” said District 3 Council Member Sabino “Pio” Renteria. “The first thing that we would have to cut is library, parks, our swimming pools, all our rec centers. And that is what’s keeping us safe, is keeping young people active. … For us to have to cut any of these programs is just going to put more people in the streets not having anything to do.”
  • “Even if we shut down the entire city parks system, we would not be able to pay for this,” said District 4 Council Member Greg Casar during his presentation. “If we shut down the whole library system, all our neighborhood pools including Barton Springs, and dozens of fire and EMS stations, we still would not have enough to pay for this.”
  • “It’s not effective,” said District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen. “Given the high cost of this, the fact that it’s not going to be effective, I can’t support it.”
  • “I find this item to be fiscally irresponsible and certainly not a very conservative approach to our municipal budgeting. It ties our hands, financially,” said District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool. “If I could vote no on (it) today, I would do that.”
  • “On top of the other concerns that my colleagues are sharing here, I really hope that people aren’t [misrepresenting] petitions, if that’s the case, because that’s really unacceptable and not a part of our democratic process,” said District 8 Council Member Paige Ellis.
  • “This does absolutely tie the hands of the City in terms of our future budgets,” said District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo. “And it ties us to unsustainable increases. Anyone who is thinking about voting for this measure should really take a look at the City budget, understand well the impact of being tied to this unsustainable cost, and make sure that they understand if this measure passes, we would have to cut City services across most City departments.”
  • “This petition is fiscally irresponsible… It is socially irresponsible… There’s a lot of questions about the validity… and I would add that it is also legally questionable,” said District 10 Council Member Alison Alter. “Our charter does not allow a voter-initiated ordinance to appropriate money.” 

$120M per year is the equivalent of the FY 21 budgets for: 

  • The entire Parks and Recreation Department ($101M) and the entire Housing and Planning Department ($16M) combined
  • The entire Emergency Medical Services Department ($102M) and ⅔ of the City’s social services ($20M) combined
  • OR the equivalent of: 
    • Shutting down the entire Public Library system ($58M) and
    • Closing 20 EMS stations ($22M) and
    • Closing 16 fire stations ($32M) and
    • Closing the Animal Shelter ($9M) and
    • Closing *all* 22 neighborhood pools and Barton Springs ($5M)

Resources: 

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