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Posted

The City of Austin is proposing to raise your city property taxes via Prop Q.

If this passes, the city tax rate will rise by 10 cents, from 47.76 cents to 57.40 cents, a 20% increase in the tax rate.
If this fails, the city tax rate will rise by only 5 cents, from 47.76 cents to 52.40 cents, a mere 10% increase in the tax rate.

10 cents of tax rate translates to $100 per year for every $100,000 of your home's taxable value.

What saith the Surl?  Do you plan to vote and if so, are you for or against?

Early voting runs Oct 20-31.  Voting day is Nov 4th.  This is an off-year election so turnout will be tiny.

Posted (edited)

BTW, full disclosure...

The tax rate is going up 10% or 20%, but that translates into an actual city tax increase of about 3.5% (if it fails) or 8% (if it passes)

Edited by Texas Jeff
Posted

Somewhat related, but I’ve been wondering lately what’s going to happen to all of the Project Connect dollars that have been collected over the last five years when ATP can’t secure federal grants for half the system cost. I’m having a hard time seeing this administration funding any mass transit infrastructure projects, especially in a blue city.

Posted
19 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Mass transit is used to transport Antifa homosexual Mexicans to attack ICE facilities.

Unfortunately, there's a not insignificant portion of the population that believe this whole heartedly...

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Posted (edited)
48 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Mass transit is used to transport Antifa homosexual Mexicans to attack ICE facilities.

We have 20. Do I hear 40%?!

Edited by Chopper
Posted

I'm a little torn and leaning to voting against.  

On the one hand, I have to hold my nose a little less supporting city expenditures* as they support the services our family utilizes the most, they are mostly well-managed, and there's a lot less fat on the bone than critics in the city of Austin Daily Texan thread would presume.  

*this is in comparison to AISD and Travis County expenditures

That said, I think when only Marc Duchen is voting against the tax increase it's strongly indicative of a path of least resistance undertaken by the rest of the city council/mayor, and I think it's time for Austinites to push back on tax increases overall.  It would perhaps push the city into thinking more thoughtfully about development as a mechanism for increasing tax revenue and not default into "let's just put up a tax increase".   

 

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Posted
2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

There’s no need to send more money down the homeless money pit.

For the record, this feeling is valid and I’m in support of continuing scrutiny here.  
 

That said, the actual amount spent on homeless support (and excluding bond money devoted to affordable housing that might also help provide housing for the homeless) is such a SMALL part of the budget.  We’re talking 1500 beds, and that’s 1500 people NOT sleeping on sidewalks or living in tent encampments and making garbage mountains along shoal creek.  It’s food for people that would be panhandling more aggressively otherwise, and pretty much every dollar being spent in this regard is supplemented by 3 or 4 dollars in private money to expand the support.  
 

I think there’s been this really bad sales job done on the left that makes tax payers feel they are getting a raw deal.   Unless the state is going to involuntarily commit them (and cover the expense), homeless people are a byproduct of a society with very few social safety nets, and in which mental health treatment is mostly left to the individual, and along with a level of access to drugs that appears to be almost impossible to curb.  It’s a negative externality of the economic system we’ve chosen and they won’t magically disappear if we decide to vote against prop Q. 
 

TL:DR What we spend on the homeless is some of the best dollar for dollar value we get as tax payers AND comprises such a small part of the budget that canceling it entirely won’t result in the savings needed to forgo a tax increase.  

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Posted

The city of Austin has done this to itself with its development regulations.  Thousands of acres of land that could eventually come into the city are completely out of its planning jurisdiction.  Furthermore, Austin has utility infrastructure sized for an area much larger than it currently is, including water rights.  Before SB 2038 there wasn’t a conflict between service area and ETJ but now it’s massive.  There are a host of issues facing Austin and the politicians are  unequipped to handle them.

Posted

For frame of reference the overall rate for a property in Austin proper was 1.81% in 23 after the state bought down the isd taxes. Then 24 it bounced back up to 1.98% and in 25 best case is 2.07% roughly. Wild shit that even if your property went down in value ~10% from 23 to present your actual tax bill will have increased. 

Posted (edited)

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.

Edited by Texas Jeff
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Posted
27 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

100% no. 
 

Pay plenty and city sucks in terms of roads, services, costs etc

Can’t see paying more for right to live here

I get that but it’s not like the city is going to get better without more money.

Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Mass transit is used to transport Antifa homosexual Mexicans to attack ICE facilities.

Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016
 

It’s way worse than that.

It transports Trans Antifa homosexual drug dealing illegal democrat voting Trende Aragua Mexicans from Venezuela to assassinate right wing podcasters, read to your kids in drag, and commit antisemitic attacks to ICE facilities.

Edited by Dnaguy
Posted (edited)

I’m torn. On the one hand, the state has put Texas cities in a real bind and some of the money would go towards basic city functions. Plus the campaign against Prop Q has united most of the worst people in Austin politics across the full ideological spectrum. 
On the other, the pro-Q campaign is off-putting, and the city’s currently approach to homelessness (where half the money would go) doesn’t work

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted
3 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Bandera ISD needs a new bootball stadium. Vote yes.

No, they need an abc affiliate tower for broadcasting (iykyk)

Posted

Please vote for more obstructive shit on the road that will fuck up your car. Anyone who votes for Austin props is an idiot.

This city need to seize land to get productive mass transit with ride along enforcement options to start with so its worth the tax dollars we consistently approve.

Posted
6 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Please vote for more obstructive shit on the road that will fuck up your car. Anyone who votes for Austin props is an idiot.

This city need to seize land to get productive mass transit with ride along enforcement options to start with so its worth the tax dollars we consistently approve.

Quite the one-two hot take combo 

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