Dear Neighbors, 

We have passed a budget that advances District 10’s values. As your Council Member, I have long prioritized reliable delivery of essential services, sound investments in public safety, enhanced access to parks and green spaces, and support for our workforce. Yesterday, my colleagues and I adopted the Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget. Over the years you have heard me champion many important initiatives from the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps to wildfire preparedness. With this my final budget season as your Council Member, I am proud to see City staff and my colleagues join me in recognizing the significance of these efforts in our budget document.   

I invite you to read the City’s budget overview here. I will share some highlights below.

District 10 Projects Funded in the Budget

The budget supported several projects related to resilience, parkland, safety and mobility in District 10. Here are a few examples:

New Fire/ EMS Station: The Canyon Creek Fire & EMS Station, which is under construction and scheduled to open in January 2025, will receive $2.6 million in personnel and equipment costs. This station located in District 10 out on 620 will help neighbors in crisis receive the public safety response they need as quickly as possible (see the project webpage). This is the fifth of 5 stations I secured in 2018 and the second in District 10. The Davenport/360 station was the first. The adjacent property is slated to become a new Northwest police substation in future years. 

Old Quarry Branch Library Renovation: Renovations began at the Old Quarry Branch Library this summer and the library is slated to reopen in early 2025. Planned investments include a modernized layout and interior design remodel, exterior façade improvements, ADA accessibility, improvements to the restrooms, new technology and lighting, upgrades to the fire and security systems, roof and windows replacements, and a new HVAC. 

The budget also funds trailhead development of the Upper Bull Creek greenbelt, a number of flood mitigation and reduction projects, and large investments to improve water and wastewater pipelines across the district.

Zero Waste Efforts: I am pleased to report that the Household Hazardous Waste Curbside Collection Program, which was successfully piloted in District 10, is going citywide beginning in January of 2025! I worked with Austin Resource Recovery (ARR) to make it easier for those living north of the river to safely dispose of hazardous waste. In the coming months, every ARR customer will be able to schedule a free home pickup of paint, batteries, oil, and more! Also, starting in early 2025, you won’t receive notices for scheduled bulk and brush pick-up anymore: instead, ARR will offer on-demand bulk and brush collection up to three times a year for ARR customers.

Budget Items Supporting our Citywide Priorities

PARKS AND OPEN SPACES

• Parks Maintenance: Looking at our parks, we can all see that they are deeply loved by our community and in need of more care. Over the last year, I worked with our Parks and Recreation Department and Budget Office to quantify the gaps in our parks service, which provided a roadmap towards meeting these needs. Building on this work, together with Council Member Ellis, I led on funding 16 new parks maintenance employees so that our beloved public spaces have a standard of service that our community deserves.

• Austin Civilian Conservation Corps: The budget provides continued support for the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps, a green workforce program I created that provides stewardship over our public lands. 

CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

• Climate Co-Lab: The UT-City Climate Co-Lab is a partnership with UT that I initiated in 2023 to provide a better understanding for how to build local climate resilience. Yesterday, I secured ongoing funding for this collaborative work, which I believe will reduce our long term risk and improve city services. We will make better decisions and plan better by using solid and local climate research / data to solve problems. 

• Emergency Preparedness: Austin Energy (AE) has allocated funding for wildfire prevention, line inspections, emergency management, grid modernization, and insurance. AE is also increasing funding for vegetation management, which will prevent power outages and fire risk. Further, the City has identified 90 locations for emergency generators, including 7 at District 10 Fire and EMS stations. One of my amendments also funded a virtual emergency operations center platform which will enable our Office of Homeland Security and Management to more effectively and efficiently collaborate with other departments during emergencies. 

• Austin Water: This year’s budget includes funding for the expansion of the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will improve the resiliency of our water utility. It also includes $7.9 million for the Water and Wastewater Multi-Family Customer Assistance Program discount, a program I helped create for apartment and mobile home residents.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Wildfire Prevention and Response: In addition to Austin Energy’s efforts to reduce our wildfire risk (noted above) our Austin Water Utility is dedicating 3 full-time employees to manage prescribed burns. Austin Water will continue to fund fuel mitigation work, including a new shaded fuel break on the Balcones Canyon Preserve. The Austin Fire Department continues to conduct neighborhood assessments, equip homeowners with home hardening best practices, provide community wildfire education, and has assigned over a hundred firefighters to receive additional wildfire training. 

• EMS Innovations: In accordance with the direction that I offered last year, this year’s budget increases staffing for the EMS’ Collaborative Care Communication Center (C4) so it can operate 24/7. This program addresses low acuity calls from patients who do not require ambulance or emergency room services and this expansion is funded in collaboration with Central Health. Yesterday I provided a similar direction to further improve our EMS billing system and seek partnerships so we can run our Paramedic Practitioner program on a 24/7 basis, as well as hire additional EMS communications personnel. As a dais, we also created a new EMS Command District in Downtown on the weekends, added funding to the Counter Assault Strike Team Medics program, and expanded our Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team services. I also supported a pilot program to add dedicated EMS personnel at the Domain over the weekends. Together these programs should improve health outcomes and decrease response times throughout the City. 

• Support for Survivors: I have longed worked with sexual assault survivors to improve the City’s response system and am proud that this budget funds the identified unmet needs associated with the Collective Sex Crimes Response Model (CSCRM). Moving forward, I hope the City will deploy a similar approach to domestic violence response. To that end, this year I identified funding to hire retired detectives for the Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) and acquire mobile data equipment so DVU personnel can access critical technology while working in the field. Further, this summer, Austin Public Health began the Family Violence Protection Shelter’s construction phase and we expect the facility to open in summer 2025. The project will be a critical resource for families fleeing violence.

• Anti-Hate Education and Outreach: The We All Belong Campaign launched last year, in response to a budget amendment I authored during FY23. The program improves our ability to track and respond to hate, and celebrates our community’s cultural richness. My amendment this year provides additional funding for outreach and education.

• Gun Violence Prevention: The budget includes continued financial support for ATX Peace, a community violence intervention program, that helps de-escalate potential shootings, and provide support to victims of gun violence in parts of our community experiencing high levels of violence. The Office of Violence Prevention also funded the operations of the Harvest Trauma Recovery Center, an initiative I was proud to co-sponsor. During budget deliberations, I further co-sponsored efforts to fully fund the City’s distribution of free gun locks and safe firearm storage education campaign with Lock Arms for Life and create a Firearms Examiner Position within Forensic Sciences to help address the case backlog. Read more about my work to end gun violence in this recent newsletter.

• Cybersecurity Investments: As Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee, I have worked closely with the City’s Information Security Office to protect the City against cyberattacks. Yesterday I initiated a review of our technology contracts to more efficiently manage these systems, with special attention to consolidations that generate savings for the City which then can be reinvested to address high priority information security needs. 

SUPPORT FOR OUR WORKFORCE

• Expanding Access to Child Care: The budget supports a property tax relief grant program for home-based child care providers, which mirrors the property tax abatement I initiated earlier this year for commercial child care centers.

• Retention for Critical Staff: I reinstated retention bonuses for Aviation & Austin Water Utility employees whose pay was not adjusted following a recent market study. These departments must be able to recruit and retain qualified staff.

• Supporting our City Employees: Council backed a 4% cost of living increase, extended parental leave, expanded income limits for the City’s child care assistance program, and invested in our employee pensions. We also increased the City’s living wage requirement to $21.63 an hour. Please note that the City is currently working with the Austin Police Association to negotiate a long-term labor agreement. 

• Maternity Leave for Firefighters: For the past 6 months, I worked with our female firefighters to secure up to an additional 10 weeks of maternity leave for firefighters as they recover from childbirth. 

• Austin Fire Department’s Overtime Costs: I authored a budget rider to explore whether adding additional firefighter positions could help decrease overtime costs and reduce burnout within the department. We hope to have the results of this study later this fall. 

Other Investments 

The budget also invested in helping our neighbors experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, in the continued expansion of our airport (learn more here), language access programs for residents, and addressing some of the needs of our Animal Services Center, which has currently waived adoption fees because it is operating at capacity.

Property Taxes & Fees

In May of this year, I was proud to co-sponsor an item increasing the senior and disabled homestead exemption from $124,000 to $154,000. The adopted property tax rate is 47.76 cents per $100 taxable value. A typical non-senior residence will see an increase of $15.67 a month, or $188.02 a year in the City’s portion of their annual property tax bill. To meet our community’s needs as well as rising costs, several City rates and fees will increase. This budget website will be updated in the coming week with the final budget that includes all Council amendments, as well as the updated taxpayer impact statement including all fee changes. 

In conclusion, I want to thank our new City Manager (T.C. Broadnax), the budget office, our City staff, my District 10 team, and my colleagues for their hard work. It is an honor to advocate for the needs and priorities of District 10. 

In the remainder of this letter, you will find information on a new City resource for survivors of assault, updates on District 10 mobility projects, and more.

Regards,