If you’re reading this on Thursday, your city government is slogging toward approval of a new budget for the coming fiscal year. If you’re reading this on Friday, the budget has probably already passed. Either way, on Wednesday afternoon, as the Chronicle went to press, it was clear what city leaders and residents want to see in the document.
The major priorities, in brief, are providing more funding to the city’s EMS services; saving funding for the Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team program, which provides mental health responders on emergency calls; and salvaging some portion of funding for the city’s homelessness plan, developed earlier this year.
The need to remake the budget arose after Austinites voted down Prop Q, a proposal to raise property taxes, at the Nov. 4 election. Prop Q would have generated $110 million to better fund the EMS, EMCOT, and homelessness plans, as well as parks maintenance and a host of social services. Voters rejected the proposal by a margin of 63-37%.
On Tuesday morning, city staff presented a new proposed budget which cut funding for the homelessness plan in half from what Prop Q envisioned. It erased tens of millions from social services, taking 10% off the top of budgets for over 80 groups that have contracts with the city, according to Kerri Lang, city budget director. Compared to the original budget, the new plan also cut $6.3 million from EMS; $5.2 million from the Parks Department; $3.7 million from the municipal court; and $1 million from the Fire Department. And it eliminated a $40 million transfer to the city’s emergency reserve fund.
CMs Mike Siegel, José Velásquez, Paige Ellis, and Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes proposed an amendment on Wednesday to restore $4.4 million of the EMS funding, with Siegel saying he would like to see at least one Basic Life Support ambulance added to the department’s fleet. Mayor Kirk Watson was joined by Council members Chito Vela, Zo Qadri, Ryan Alter, and Krista Laine in proposing an amendment to increase funding by approximately $4 million for the homelessness plan.
Both groups supported an amendment to provide more funding for EMCOT, so that the program can continue taking calls 24/7. Siegel, Velásquez, Ellis, and Fuentes proposed finding $500,000 in the budget for food pantries at economically disadvantaged schools. Laine requested $100,000 for emergency veterinarian care and $300,000 for the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center, to help children who are the victims of violent crime and abuse. CM Alter offered an amendment to cut his own office budget by 8.5%.
“We’re in a different era. Frankly, these are no longer boom times.”
Council Member Mike SIegel
Alter and Watson also directed city staff to take measures to help Council rebuild trust with Austin voters. Alter directed the city auditor to help determine how the city can operate more efficiently and to put those findings on an easily understandable webpage. Watson directed the city manager to develop a policy to centralize the procurement of social service contracts and to measure the effectiveness of the programs that are funded.
Lang’s budget presentation to Council on Tuesday emphasized that if financial matters don’t change, the city is facing budget deficits beginning in fiscal year 2028 and worsening thereafter. Additionally, some of the funding in the city’s proposed budget – for example, the cost-of-living increases provided to city workers – is only in place for FY 2026. As CM Siegel said at a budget question-and-answer session on Monday night, “We’re in a different era. Frankly, these are no longer boom times.”
A separate set of priorities from city residents has materialized over the last week which recognizes the changing times. At Monday’s Q&A and in public comment before Council, advocates have urged city leaders to reallocate money from last year’s police contract. Many also want the city to cancel or revisit the I-35 cap-and-stitch project, the plans to build a new convention center, and the still-unrealized Project Connect.
In a press conference on Tuesday, members of Equity Action, VOCAL-TX, and the city workers’ union AFSCME noted that the police budget takes up almost 40% of the general revenue fund and that there are about 300 vacant positions in the department. Brydan Summers of AFSCME said the group is proposing to take $13 million appropriated for one-third of the vacant APD positions and use it to fund programs that are being cut. “That money is sorely needed, particularly for the other public safety departments,” Summers said.
There is a clause in the police contract that allows the city to reduce APD’s budget under certain circumstances, but Ed Van Eenoo, the city’s chief financial officer, decided last week that the clause is not applicable in the current situation. Council seems to agree, as they’ve said little about the idea of reallocating the budget.
“If Council disagreed with that decision, we could adopt a budget that amends the manager’s proposal and decreases officer pay,” Siegel, an attorney, said on Monday night. “But I would not recommend that, because the next day the police officers association would take us to court, and I think we would probably lose.”
This article appears in November 21 • 2025.
