(Texas Scorecard) – Austin City Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly proposed a city budget plan for the 2024-2025 fiscal year that would include additional revenue for the General Fund while ensuring that homeowners, renters, and businesses would not see increases in property taxes.
“When my constituents tell me they are struggling to make ends meet, I believe them and take it seriously,” Kelly said in Monday’s press release announcing her plan.
“When the city tells us we’re in an affordability crisis, I believe them, too,” Kelly said in response to her tax proposal, which she says safeguards Austin taxpayers from higher property tax bills.
The city manager’s current budget proposal would increase property taxes by 5.7 percent.
However, Kelly says that with revenue growth from various sources such as new development and sales tax, “the city’s General Fund has more than $45 million in revenues for increases to department budgets without having to raise property taxes.”
Kelly’s proposal comes on the heels of a record-setting $5.9 billion budget proposed in July by Austin’s new city manager, T.C. Broadnax, which includes an increase from the 2023-24 fiscal year budget of $5.5 billion as well as the “the maximum property tax increase permitted by law.”
Before the release of her plan, Kelly wrote as a guest columnist for the Austin American-Statesman on Sunday, calling the proposed $5.9 billion budget “a missed opportunity for the City of Austin to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and our commitment to addressing affordability.”
“We can’t keep telling people they are in an affordability crisis while increasing their costs every year,” Kelly emphasized. “The City of Austin will do fine without increased property taxes, but Austinites will fare worse if we do. I choose Austinites.”
Kelly identified more than $51 million in possible budget savings without raising property taxes as part of her plan. She also wants her colleagues and the city manager to provide their ideas for cost savings.
With additional financial burdens for Austin residents already being considered for the near future, the City Council is scheduled to hold final budget deliberations for the 2024-2025 fiscal year on Wednesday, August 14.