Thursday, August 7, 2025, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall, 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701
The Austin City Council held a budget work session on the FY 2025-26 proposed budget and possible tax rate election (TRE). After extensive public comment, the council went into executive session, then heard council members lay out proposed budget amendments and competing TRE packages: a 2-cent proposal (Duchen), 3.5-cent (Watson), 5.75-cent (sub quorum of Laine, Ellis, Siegel, Qadri), and 6.75-cent (sub quorum of Fuentes, Velásquez, Vela, Alter). Council members also presented standalone amendments and IFCs on items including sidewalks, emergency vet services, homelessness prevention, parks maintenance, food pantries, and a joint emergency communications department. The mayor asked financial staff to compile items showing where consensus exists across the four TRE proposals and report back to form a base motion for the August 13 budget meeting; no votes were taken.
0:09 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim Vanessa
0:18 Fuentes, council members Natasha Harper Madison, José velazquez, che Vela, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe
0:41 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad
1:01 on August 7th, 2025, and I will call to order the Austin City Council budget work session for this date.
1:08 Uh, we have a quorum of the City Council present and one, um, Council Member is, is joining
1:14 us virtually. We are meeting in the Austin City Hall in the City Council chambers, which is located
1:20 at 3 0 1 west second street.
1:24 Uh, so welcome everybody.
1:26 What we're gonna do today is the way we'll start this is we will start with our speakers
1:30 that have signed up to provide us with public comment.
1:33 Following those speakers, the council will go into a closed executive session, uh, pursuant to the texas government
1:40 code. When we come back out from that executive session members, what I anticipate we will do is
1:47 we will walk through, uh, proposed amendments and, and ifcs.
1:53 That's what this meeting has always been on the calendar for, is for us to have the opportunity
1:57 for us to lay out for our colleagues what proposed amendments and what proposed ifcs we might have
2:03 in the past. This has gone fairly routinely, but it's just an opportunity to get it out and
2:08 get it, uh, more transparent.
2:11 Um, the, the order that I would suggest we go in is that if there are any amendments
2:16 to the base budget, we start with that.
2:20 It is my understanding that there aren't any proposed amendments specifically to the base budget, that any of
2:27 the proposed amendments are amendments that would go beyond the voter approval rate and therefore be part of
2:33 a proposed tax rate election.
2:35 But I wanna say that out loud before we, you have something you want to, I have some
2:42 amendments that are revenue neutral.
2:44 Uh, then that's, that's exactly where I was headed.
2:46 Good. Uh, not exactly where I was headed, but that, that's helpful because what we might do is
2:51 take those up first, just the, the, the standalone amendments that are, because that's, that is functionally equivalent
2:59 to the base budget, I think.
3:00 So that, that gets to my point.
3:02 So thank you for that Council Member.
3:04 So what we'll do is we'll do that first, then we will go and, and what I thought
3:08 we would do is go lowest to highest, at least in terms of pennies, uh, for the, for,
3:14 for proposed amendments to the budget related that, that would take us above the voter approval rate and
3:21 therefore are related to, uh, potential for a tax rate election.
3:25 And then finally, I would, um, uh, we'll, we'll take up what I will just refer to as
3:32 other amendments. Those other amendments would be amendments that would not be, that are not in part of
3:39 any, uh, person or sub quorums proposed tax rate election amendment.
3:45 Uh, they're standalone and we'll take those up.
3:49 Uh, and at that point we will also take, take up after that any proposed items from counsel.
3:56 And, and again, the way we've done this in the past, it's worked out well is you just
4:00 lay out your amendment.
4:01 If somebody's got questions about it, they can ask it, but it's, it's, we're not debating this today.
4:07 We're just laying out the amendments to get them out there before we go to our speakers.
4:12 One other thing that I wanna mention, uh, related to this, this budget work session is that last
4:19 Thursday, I guess, well, no, I've lost track of my day.
4:22 So I guess it was Tuesday.
4:23 Uh, it wasn't all the way back to last Thursday.
4:25 It was last Tuesday.
4:27 The audit and finance committee, pursuant to the policy that has been adopted by the Austin City Council,
4:34 the audit finance committee met in a special called meeting of the audit finance committee.
4:39 And in that, in, at that meeting, the audit and finance committee passed a resolution, recommend making a
4:46 recommendation to the council, and, uh, so that we can get that on the record at a council
4:50 meeting, I want to, to read the motion that was made, seconded, and adopted by the audit and
4:57 finance committee unanimously and sent to the City Council.
5:00 The motion was that the Austin City Council audit and finance committee, having considered the policy of the
5:05 City Council and found that the items set forth in the council's decision tree have been met and
5:12 certifies to the council that these items have been met recommends to the full Austin City Council that
5:18 a tax rate election be conducted subject to the decision of the council regarding the actual conduct of
5:23 the tre and any amount.
5:26 So I wanna get that, uh, on the record as well.
5:29 So with that, unless there's questions or objection, uh, members, we will go to our public comment and
5:37 I'll look over at the city clerk's office and ask them to help us with that.
5:40 Thanks everybody. Thank you Mayor.
5:42 We'll start with remote speakers.
5:44 First we have denise baldwin.
5:52 Good morning, Mayor and council members.
5:54 Can you hear me?
5:55 Yes, we can. Okay, perfect.
5:59 My name is denise baldwin and I'm speaking on behalf of the success by six coalition.
6:04 First, thank you for your continued commitment to austin's children and families, your investments in programs like family
6:10 connects, which provides home visits by skilled nurses for families with new babies homegrown, which is supporting a
6:17 new family-based childcare network and a social service.
6:20 Contracts that support early childhood services are making a huge difference in the lives of our youngest residents.
6:26 Today I'm asking you to support the amendment to include funding for pre-k startup costs for two additional
6:31 classrooms. These funds are critical to help cover essential one-time expenses.
6:35 Early childhood classrooms are basically like a nice cte lab for littles, uh, classroom furniture, materials and curriculum,
6:43 all of that so that more three and four year olds can access high quality full day pre-k
6:47 in their neighborhoods. We also ask that you prioritize the family stabilization grant and continue to fund family
6:52 connects. This investment helps working families, support school readiness, and lays the foundation for long-term academic and economic
6:59 success. I myself have lived in Austin since I was five years old, and investments like this will
7:04 continue to make Austin a great place to raise kids.
7:06 Thank you for your time and for prioritizing the success of austin's children and families.
7:14 Next remote speaker is ivana neri.
7:21 Hey, good morning council members.
7:23 My name is ivana neri.
7:24 I am senior director of partnership startup together and a resident of district four.
7:29 I'm here to ask you to continue funding the family stabilization grant at $1.3 million, uh, an initiative that
7:36 you funded for two consecutive years and that is working.
7:40 Last week you heard from more than 20 people who showed up to, um, share their stories and
7:46 the real impact that this initiative has had just in the last, uh, 12 months from preventing families
7:52 from falling into homelessness to completing degrees, to improving educational outcomes for their children.
7:58 The family stabilization provides a stability.
8:01 It helps families to stay housed, reduce debt care for loved ones, and plan for the future.
8:07 It keeps people out of crisis and give them a chance to move forward.
8:10 And let's be clear, the cost of inaction is way more expensive than the cost of prevention.
8:16 When families fall into crisis, the city actually pays more in emergency housing, healthcare and public systems.
8:23 Family stabilization grant, um, helps prevent that.
8:27 It's not charity, it's a small, uh, smart, smart policy.
8:31 We need your leadership today, especially from district 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 your support.
8:37 Who make a d the difference.
8:38 Early this year, we worked to the feet at the, at the capital, then build 2010, protecting your
8:44 right to fund initiatives like this.
8:46 The decision today is yours.
8:48 If keeping a hundred families stable doesn't qualify as a strategic investment, then I don't know what those.
8:54 Thank you. Next speaker is nancy harris.
9:04 Good morning Mayor and council members.
9:07 My name is nancy harris and I'm here on behalf of keeping recycled reeds in the budget.
9:12 Library management has said they're working to make sure that what has made recycled reeds unique is replicable
9:18 throughout the system. They're missing the point of what makes it unique and valuable.
9:24 Most of us have heard the expression the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
9:28 This is the idea that when individual elements are combined, the resulting whole processes qualities, possesses qualities or
9:35 capabilities that the individual elements do not have on their own.
9:39 This is the concept of convergence and recycled reeds definitely is an example of this.
9:45 Its current form where patrons can find thousands of items in one location where they're categorized and alphabetized
9:51 is in no way, in no way compares to those same items spread out over 21 branch libraries.
9:58 Recycled reads is a destination for citizens who go there to buy books and other material.
10:03 People go to libraries to check out books or use the computers and perusing the sale books is
10:08 usually just a diversion.
10:10 Libraries staff is justifying closures saying the new recycled reeds will be more efficient and economical.
10:17 But what is efficient about asking people to go to 21 locations?
10:22 Management says it would reduce some of the costs associated with storing and transporting material to this location.
10:27 However, the library system already has a place to store materials and it's called recycled reeds, and it
10:34 already has an inter-library transportation system in place to convey materials from one library location to another.
10:42 We will be losing a well used well of service to the citizens of Austin whose integrity will
10:46 be destroyed by splitting it into fractional parts.
10:50 Some of the types of material that recycled reeds candles is not mainstream yet.
10:54 Patrons of recycled reeds are thrilled to find out, to find the ordinary and the unexpected.
11:00 The branches do not have the time or space to accommodate many of these materials.
11:05 This is not an expansion at all, but have fragmented.
11:07 Thank you, nancy. Your time has expired.
11:09 Recycled reeds unique and thank you, nancy.
11:15 Our next speaker will be chip harris.
11:26 Chip harris.
11:34 We'll try to get mr. Harris back.
11:38 Next speaker is beverly luna.
11:44 Hi, my name is beverly luna.
11:45 I'm with Austin, lost and found tess.
11:47 We're an 80, 87,000 member group that tries to reunite, lost and found tets in Austin and travis
11:54 county. We also try to do things that are actually the job of animal services in Austin, including
12:01 finding temporary fosters to take in stray dogs until they can get into the Austin animal center, which
12:07 is awai generally until until October I'm extremely concerned about the proposed cut that animal services is proposing
12:17 to cut over $400,000 from its budget for emergency vet services paid to an emergency vet for sick
12:24 and injured animals bound outside of shelter hours.
12:29 They're proposing to shift more of their job to the, to the public, including this burden of taking
12:35 care of the sick and injured animal.
12:37 This is a core public service and also it's not really a budget cut.
12:41 They're proposing to add two highly paid administrators and other physicians that our group cannot bear this burden
12:51 anymore. We do fundraisers at times to try to get help for sick and injured animals, but the
12:56 cost of vet care has become so enormous.
12:58 You're just gonna have dogs and cats out there that are suffering and dying in the streets, uh,
13:04 because they can't get vet care because the Austin animal center wants to cut it from the budget.
13:09 But the reason those animals are out there is generally because the Austin animal center five years ago
13:15 stopped following the law and stopped picking up stray and injured animals.
13:20 That's why they're out there.
13:21 They're getting hit, they're starving to death.
13:24 I was on the task force to come up with a, with a strategic plan for the Austin
13:29 animal services and nowhere that anyone mentioned that they needed more administrators, it was discussed that they needed
13:37 more vet services to get us out of this nightmare problem.
13:41 I strongly urge you to vote against this problem.
13:45 I would be happy to meet any of you speaker.