Budget Redux (updated)
"Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget and I will tell you what you value," quoth former VP & later President Joe Biden.
Well, my spouse and I were willing to pay more property taxes and voted yes on proposition Q but I will add to the gaggle of election wrap-ups later. For now, if you wish, you can read the mayor’s expositions of Tuesday November 4th and Thursday the 6th if you don’t subscribe to The Watson Wire.
The latter does contain this schedule and I’ve added the link to the budget redux below for your weekend enjoyment.
Friday, November 7th — City Manager releases an updated staff proposed budget.
Thursday, November 13th at 9:00 am — We will be posted for and have a budget work session.
Tuesday, November 18th at 9:00 am — We will have a budget briefing/work session as part of the already scheduled work session.
Thursday, November 20th at 10:00 am — We will post for potential adoption of the new budget.
Friday, November 21st at 10:00 am — We will post a special called meeting in case it is needed for final passage of the new budget.
Monday, November 24th at 10:00 am — We will post a special called meeting in case it is needed for final passage of the new budget.
The amended budget recommendation can be found on the City Budget webpage.
UPDATE: The accompanying November 7th memo was unavailable to me over the weekend but appeared on the city’s public memo page today, November 10th.
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Revised Budget Recommendation
You might especially appreciate that the staff budget changes are summarized on p.2 of the memo whereas they occur in various parts of the amended budget recommendation spreadsheet. The memo also has a more detailed timeline for the budget process than was available in The Watson Wire.
The timeline for consideration of a revised budget will be as follows:
• Thursday, November 13th: Budget work session. Staff will present a briefing outlining the FY 2026 Amended Budget Recommendation, provide an updated five-year financial forecast and other supporting materials, and address City Council questions and feedback.
• Tuesday, November 18th: Budget work session as part of the already scheduled City Council work session.
• Thursday, November 20th: Meeting will be posted for potential adoption of the revised budget.
• Friday, November 21st: Posted for a special-called meeting in case it is needed for final passage of the revised budget.
• Monday, November 24th: Posted for a special-called meeting in case it is needed for final passage of the revised budget.
Budget staff are working to curate a process for City Council Members to submit their own amendments and will provide further details in a communication early next week. The tentative plan is to request that all amendments be submitted by the close of business on Friday, November 14th, so that they could be compiled in time to be daylighted and discussed at the November 18th work session.
UPDATED: A second November 7th memo pertinent to the budget process which was not available to me over the weekend also appeared today.
Proposition Q and Funding Obligations in the Austin Police Association Labor Agreement
This is the process referred to by CM Siegel last July and here is a link to what he wrote on the council message board. He brought an IFC regarding how the budget was to be changed in the event the TRE failed and it passed along with the rest of the budget in August. In the memo CFO Ed Van Eenoo is certifying that no proportionate decrease in the police contract is necessary at this time.
UPDATED: After examining the amended budget recommendation spreadsheet I obtained last Saturday and the accompanying memo I obtained today it was evident to me that the starting point for budget redux was the budget passed in August. My guess is that the mayor didn’t want to risk bringing up “one budget” in last Tuesday’s Watson Wire since that would probably leave a lot of people who don’t follow the budget process in detail lost in the weeds.
The Watson Wire from last Tuesday stated that the city manager and staff were going to submit a new budget as in the link above and that was a surprise to me. Here is my summary of what the mayor said at the August 7th council meeting (my bold).
Council Member Siegel had an IFC on the council message board designed to determine how the budget would be changed if the TRE failed in November (Discussion starts at 2:30pm, ends at 2:43pm). This raised objections to the wording from Council Member Duchen and a complaint from Council Member Vela that even having such an IFC was confusing. The mayor took the opportunity to emphasize that when the council finished voting on August 13-16th there would only be one budget as required by state law. There would no longer be a base staff budget and a TRE budget. Sounded like he favored the IFC. Council Member Siegel had already written on this topic on the council message board.
You can go back to the video in my earlier post and use the times in the above paragraph to hear the entire discussion rather than just my summary. What I took from what the mayor said was that the budget passed last August would be the starting point for budget redux and that the council would decide what to cut out of it to conform to the 2019 state law (SB2) with the maximum 3.5% property tax increase. If I misled you in my earlier post I do apologize but I am also asking other people about this.