GOP-backed political action committee, which could only muster up half as many supporters for its November campaign as had voted for Prop B in May.
Unlike the earlier measure, the “SAN 2.0” police staffing plan (also a reference to the number of officers per 1,000 residents it would require) did not allow cranky Austinites to register a free protest vote about an issue where the city’s struggles were visible to all. Instead, SAN asked for a very expensive protest vote (with the price tag written right into the ballot language) to lard up an Austin Police Department that had just been restored to its highest funding ever, thanks to the Texas Legislature’s enactment of draconian punishments for cities that “defund the police.” That’s money the city does not have, and the threat that SAN’s plan posed to the rest of Austin’s tax-supported General Fund departments – parks, libraries, planning, public health, other emergency services, etc. – mobilized a bigger, louder, and better-funded opposition campaign to swamp the cop lobby. While the Austin Police Association (SAN’s de facto client in this campaign) has pushed for 2.0 staffing for decades, and sought to work the refs with endless complaints about officer vacancies, the PAC sought to convince voters that Austin is a lot less safe than it actually is, pointing to the unusual and coincidental spike in homicides that’s been observed in cities across the U.S. as they emerge from pandemic measures. Had SAN 2.0 passed, we would have had about two dozen officers ready to neither prevent nor solve each of those homicides, instead of the 18 or so we have now.
Top Austin Headlines of 2021: Save Austin Now Learns How It Feels to Lose
A version of this article appeared in print on Dec 17, 2021 with the headline: Top Austin Headlines of 2021: Save Austin Now Learns How It Feels to Lose
This article appears in December 17 • 2021.