I will be voting no.
The city proposed a 20% tax rate increase for Project Connect with pictures of a downtown tunnel and a stop at the airport. They got the money and almost immediately cancelled the tunnel and the airport stop.
The city is proposing this 20% tax rate increase now. The PAC supporting the city is claiming that Greg Abbott and Donald Trump have made cuts to the city budget and this is to restore those cuts. Which is bullshit and the city and PAC know it. The mayor and all but one of the city council members are supporting this argument.
This is a choice between a 3.5% raise in taxes and an 8% raise in taxes. The additional revenue isn't earmarked for anything. It's more money for the stuff the city spends money on, a large portion of which is police, fire, EMS, the homeless and salads.
If you support higher spending on city services and your number is 8%, then you should vote for this. If you are OK with the 3.5% number, you should vote against. I would like to see more honesty from our city before I go for the higher number, and I'm not seeing that.
Most people aren't looking at an 8% raise this year, which means that a larger portion of their income will go towards city taxes, which makes it tougher to live in Austin. I can't support that.