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Quote of the Day
“If we’re not seeing much change in our job growth, we may continue to see lower levels of domestic migration. If (we) are now facing additional countries on travel bans, more restrictive immigration policies that really curb humanitarian and undocumented migration…. it could mean population decline, which is something that we have not experienced in our area’s history.”
— City Demographer Lila Valencia, from Austin growth is slowing, increasingly driven by international migration, as Hispanic and Black residents leave.
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From Lina Fisher:
In 2022, Austin had just broken into the top 10 largest cities in America. It was the fastest-growing large metro area in the country, and had held that title for 12 years. Now, Austin has dipped to the 13th largest city, and the fourth fastest-growing region in the country. What happened in the last three years that accounts for such a sudden slowdown?
Austin’s “pull factors” — the things that draw people to a city — have been changing, said City Demographer Lila Valencia in a presentation to the Airport Advisory Commission on Wednesday. “Those historically have been things like our highly-educated workforce, our beautiful green spaces, our culture, our vibrant economy – but our economy of late is a little bit slower in terms of job growth.”
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Firefighters strongly support no confidence vote on Chief
Last week, Austin firefighters overwhelmingly approved a resolution expressing no confidence in Fire Chief Joel Baker. As Austin Firefighters Association President Bob Nicks reported on Facebook, that 93 percent of Austin firefighters (or 927 votes) cast a vote of “no confidence” in Fire Chief Joel G. Baker. Only 4 percent (or 36 votes) were opposed.
Firefighters were dismayed that the chief did not deploy lifesaving swift water rescue resources to Kerr County when those resources were first requested before the catastrophic July 4 flood. Nicks said he tried to contact Baker several times to find out why the chief was sticking to his standing order from June 6 not to deploy any resources.
Baker told the Austin Monitor via email last week, “In an effort to strike that balance, AFD deployed three rescue swimmers on Friday, July 4 to serve with the Texas Task Force 1 helicopter search and rescue team (HSART) to perform water rescues in San Angelo, Kerrville and Seguin. On Saturday and Sunday, July 5 and 6, two crews, eight total fire personnel, and an AFD boat, were assigned to assist ESD 1 with search efforts at Cow Creek and Big Sandy Creek.”
Nicks told the Monitor on Sunday that he had met with Baker and Assistant City Manager Eddie Garcia on Friday. At that meeting, Nicks learned that the manager’s office will ask City Council to rescind the ordinance requiring four-person firefighter staffing on each emergency apparatus. Firefighters have been adamant about the requirement and the 2018 ordinance noted that the National Fire Protection Association standards require four firefighters per each firefighting apparatus.
Nicks said 10 of 11 Council Members have given his association a signed statement that they would support four-person staffing. He said the group did not ask Council Member Krista Laine for such a promise because they supported her opponent, Mackenzie Kelly, in the election.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax has said he will present the proposed upcoming budget to Council on Tuesday.
— Jo Clifton
Budget our, tax election looms
As scheduled, the city released its $6.3 billion proposed budget Friday night. And, as anticipated, a $33 million funding gap has the prospect of a tax rate election, or TRE, firmly on the table, as reflected by a Saturday morning post on the City Council Message Board by Mayor Kirk Watson. In his post, Watson lays out an annotated timeline of the budget process, which will be continued Tuesday during a City Council work session, and lays the groundwork for an election. The proposed budget envisions a tax rate of 3.5 percent, which is the maximum tax rate allowed under state law without voter approval. “Over the next couple of weeks, we will have conversations about how to navigate best the current financial situation the city is facing. I believe we must consider going to the voters with a TRE,” wrote Watson. “Unless there is an objection, it is my intent during the July 15th presentation to request that the City Manager provide alternative budgets for our consideration. Our request would be that he provide alternative budget proposals that increase the budget in $0.01 increments above the base budget (up to $0.08).” As currently proposed, the budget would raise city taxes and fees by $268.23 for the average Austin homeowner.
The total budget breakdown in the proposed budget currently looks like this:
And the breakdown of the $1.5 billion general fund looks like this in the proposed budget:
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ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS
New flooding over the weekend stalled stalled search efforts and sparked more emergency operations.
Here’s a little more on the city budget from the Statesman (we’ll have more too, after Tuesday’s work session!)
KUT reports on the dangers of “alert fatigue”
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