The Austin City Council meets this morning to hash out the city鈥檚 budget for the next fiscal year. And with competing needs and limited dollars, council members may need three days to agree on the spending.
The city has an overall budget of $3.1 billion 鈥� that includes all city services and programs, including Austin Energy and Austin Water. But when it comes to budget adoption, most attention focuses on the general fund 鈥� the pot of money that pays for basic city services such as police, fire and EMS, parks, libraries and more. That amount has .
General fund spending will likely consume much of council鈥檚 attention 鈥� council member Kathie Tovo she鈥檚 looking closely at funding for youth programs and recreation centers. But the property tax rate that pays for many city services may be on the table too.
City Manager Marc Ott鈥檚 budget 鈥� the starting point for today鈥檚 budget negotiations 鈥� contains a 2.2 cent property tax increase. That amount is higher than the 1.8 cent increase , when it started drafting the budget. A difference between the county tax assessor鈥檚 springtime estimate of the tax rolls, and the certified tax roll she delivered in July is credited for the discrepancy.
Today鈥檚 meeting begins at 9 a.m. at City Hall. Council has two additional meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday if it can鈥檛 come to consensus today and approve the budget document.
You can watch the meeting , and read online.
