Austin city budget: Where is the money going?

AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin City Council recently got an earful from concerned citizens wanting to make sure the city budget includes funding for areas of need across the capital city.

Many public speakers at Wednesday’s Council work session had issues with items in the proposed budget, including the funding set aside for the Austin Police Department.

Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis joins FOX 7 Austin’s Mike Warren to discuss the city’s spending priorities and the effort to make Austin more affordable.

MIKE WARREN: So do you believe we are putting money where it’s needed most?

PAIGE ELLIS: I think we’re starting from a really good place. The city’s budget is quite large, but a lot of the dollars are allocated year over year over year. So when you look at the pie charts of what percentages are going to which departments, you don’t really see a lot of wiggle room either way. That being said, it’s really important to make sure that where there is wiggle room, that we are appropriately allocating our public resources and that includes parks, that includes libraries, that includes a lot of other community investments that people are coming to us every time we have a public hearing and saying that they want more of something else.

MIKE WARREN: The council passed an ordinance allowing for the reduction in lot sizes. Do you think this is going to help create new affordable housing?

PAIGE ELLIS: I believe it will. I was really proud to co-sponsor Councilmember Poole’s resolution about minimum lot sizes. There is a lot of debate about exactly how to get the most affordability out of our housing stock. Some of that is with deep levels of affordability commitments and some is to let the market develop the housing that the community is asking for. So in my opinion, one of the worst things you can do for affordability is demand big lot sizes and other things that drive up the cost of housing, including limiting the supply allowed.

MIKE WARREN: Talking about affordability beyond just people looking to buy a new home, how else can the city council make this city more affordable?

PAIGE ELLIS: Affordability is about a lot more than just housing costs. We have to look at transportation cost as well. So when you look at each family’s budget, the highest drivers of a family budget is going to be the roof over your head and your commute to and from work. And if you have children, child care comes up number three on the list. So we are working very proactively as a city council this year to make sure that we are tackling housing cost, making transportation more affordable, building bike lanes, expanding CapMetro, and doing things to make sure that we’re not limiting childcare options within the city of Austin.

MIKE WARREN: One more quick question on affordability. For all the people out there who say, you know, if you want Austin more affordable, just lower property taxes. What’s your reply to that?

PAIGE ELLIS: Well, what’s difficult about that is we always have to follow that question up with which services get cut. We don’t want to close libraries. We don’t want to close pools. We really need the community involvement at that point to let us know if they want us to deliver fewer services. Which ones they’re willing to cut. And those are really hard conversations that nobody, frankly, wants to have. But we are open to any and all conversations to make Austin the best city that it can be.

MIKE WARREN: Talking about that partnership or the lack of partnership between the DPS and APD. Did you support that? Where do you stand on that?

PAIGE ELLIS: That conversation has been a bit tricky for those of us on the dais. I have said publicly many times, and I’ll say it again here today, if they want to pull over people who are going 100 miles an hour on Moorpark, they’re more than welcome to do that. We don’t want them necessarily sitting in neighborhoods changing the way that rules are enforced. We know that DPS, their main task is to work for the state. Their jurisdiction is the entire state. But we had a lot of important conversations with our Austin Police Department, and I think they have a much better sense of which tasks we want them working on and how we want them to properly support the community. So it’s an ongoing conversation. We definitely see the difference between the way that DPS and Austin Police enforce rules within our city limits. And quite frankly, as someone who is the chair of the mobility Committee, I think we need to have a conversation about tech, stock roads and how unsafe they can be. They have a program called End the Streak because people are dying on Texas highways every day. And I would like for DPS to focus on that first, but I’m just one of ten people on the dais.

MIKE WARREN: All righty. Austin Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis, thank you very much for coming in and giving us an update on city hall.

PAIGE ELLIS: Thank you so much.