Austin’s Mayor Steve Adler still doesn’t like the Senate’s property tax plan, and hopes for a better bill in the House.
Mayor Adler said he could live with tax caps if certain city budget items like public safety were exempt. But he isn’t too enthusiastic after the senate debated amendments to SB2. He said, “on the Senate floor there was an amendment that sought to have an exception for public safety, to make sure that we didn’t have to have cuts in public safety and the senate decided no.”
Adler wants the state legislature to work with city leaders about protecting public safety budgets and with the bill now passed off to the house, he’s looking to state Representatives for help.
Even after state Senators increased the city tax revenue growth cap to 3.5{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1}, up from the originally proposed 2.5{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1}. Mayor Adler was not exactly happy, he said the city could do annual public vote on the budget, but there could be consequences.
“The problem with having an election every year is that the credit agencies suggest their going to downgrade Austin’s credit rating and other cities,” he continued, “if we have to have public elections in order to be able to deal with things like rising health insurance costs.”
Adler hopes a friendlier piece of legislation can be formed to avoid drastic cuts to the budget. By his math if Austin used the same budget it has today, it would face a $35-million budget deficit in three years.
If it came down to it, in previous interviews, Mayor Adler said Public Safety, which makes up for a majority of the city budget, would be the first place to see cuts if such a bill became law.
Governor Abbott supports the Senate bill. In a statement he said “meaningful property tax reform is one step closer to becoming a reality.”
(Photo:Shutterstock/enciktepstudio)
