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Budget

City Council approves Austin's $5.5 billion budget for 2024

With Mayor Kirk Watson in the driver’s seat, City Council delivered the Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget of $5.5 billion just before 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, including amendments requested by a variety of assistance groups and pushed forward by Council. Council…

Equity Action to continue push for community needs not met in new city budget

Late changes to Austin’s next budget, which was adopted on Wednesday by City Council, include a mix of items from the Community Investment Budget. A coalition of community groups led by Equity Action months ago released a proposal for what…

Garza pauses changes for Civil Rights, Equity offices until after budget passage

The controversial plan to reorganize the offices of Civil Rights and Equity and two others is being put on hold and will be evaluated after City Council concludes its work to finalize and approve next year’s budget. At Tuesday’s budget…

Equity Action slams budget proposal as ‘throwback to the ’90s’

Some community advocates are decrying interim City Manager Jesús Garza’s budget proposal as a “throwback to the ’90s.” Garza released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2023-24 in July. The $5.5 billion budget represents what Garza calls a “Back to…

Austin Water and Watershed Protection Department seeking small rate hikes

Neither Austin Water nor the Watershed Protection Department have asked for an increase in their rates in many years, but both are doing so in the upcoming budget. Austin Water has not asked for an increase in its rates since…

Proposed police budget increase sparks community pushback

Interim City Manager Jesús Garza’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 city budget proposal would increase the Austin Police Department’s operating budget by $31.7 million, or slightly more than 7 percent, prompting pushback from police reform advocates. Some of the major cost drivers…

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Garza says reorganization ‘will in no way diminish’ offices of Civil Rights, Equity

Interim City Manager Jesús Garza has clarified his plans for reorganizing a handful of city offices, including the Equity and Civil Rights offices, which will be located in different buildings despite being part of the newly created Community and Business…

Proposed budget includes small changes at Austin Energy, Austin Resource Recovery

Citing Austin Energy’s critically low levels of cash reserves, the utility’s financial planners are proposing that it raise base rates by 2 percent, which will cost the typical residential customer about $1.04 per month, Budget Officer Kerri Lang told City…

Proposed budget emphasizes city basics, long-term financial stability

Interim City Manager Jesús Garza and city financial staff on Wednesday presented their proposed $5.5 billion budget for 2023-24. Austin taxpayers currently pay 46.27 cents per $100 taxable value. That rate will decline to 42.42 cents for next year, although…

Garza explains motivations behind proposed changes to Equity, Civil Rights offices

At Wednesday’s budget work session, interim City Manager Jesús Garza offered some of his rationale behind the proposed reorganization of four city offices, a change that has drawn criticism from community groups involved in equality and racial justice. During the…

front of City Hall

Proposal to reorganize Equity, Civil Rights offices draws criticism ahead of budget release

The proposed reorganization of a handful of city offices under the early draft of the city budget is drawing criticism from community groups, who argue the changes will undermine years of work to improve equity, civil rights and services to…

What you need to know about Austin's budget season

It’s that time of year again. The process to adopt the annual city budget is set to begin late next week and last through mid-August, according to a detailed schedule released by Mayor Kirk Watson last Friday.  Over the next…

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