Making growth pay for itself!

Tag Archives: city budget

Sign Petition/Letter to Austin City Council-No Tax/Fee Hikes!

 

Yes, it is totally true — the City wants to raise your energy, water and property taxes by an average of $265 per year.  Sign this petition/letter to the 4 members of the Council up next for reelection — Mayor Leffingwell, and Councilmembers Cole, Martinez and Spelman.  They must end unnecessary projects and the practice of the “growth lobby” (aka the big boy developers and the real estate lobby) offloading the costs of growth onto current residents.  As we say at ChangeAustin.org, ‘welcome to Austin, but pay your own way’ and growth must pay for itself.  Sign here and pass it on, folks, or forever hold your peace on Austin’s affordability.

[emailpetition id=”2″]

You can ALSO print out the Petition-No Tax Rate Hikes 2012 City Budget here, take it around and mail it back to us by September 10th, before the City Council votes on September 12.

City Wants to Raise Your Taxes $265/year

Bill Oakey Speaks on City Budget Reform.

Did you know that Austin City Council is being strongly advised by the City Manager to raise your energy, water and property taxes by $265 this year?  That’s in addition to all the likely hikes from the county, the healthcare district and AISD.

Sign this letter/petition now!  An immediate message is sent to Mayor Leffingwell and the three other members of the Council up for reelection next — Cole, Martinez & Spelman.  Then send it to your friends across the city!  (P.S.  Mark your calendars to attend the first budget hearing on August 25th.  More info soon.)  You can also print the petition out (see below) and take it around in your neighborhood.

[emailpetition id=”2″]

Petition-No Tax Rate Hikes 2012 City Budget (print out, take it to your neighbors and get it back to us soon!)

The Fight for Geographic Representation: Mark Your Calendars!

TheAustinBulldog.org constructed maps that pinpoint the residential location of every mayor and council member elected over the last four decades. It will tell you all you need to know about why citizen organizations, from across the spectrum, are coming together to push for a public vote on geographic representation. Read it here, share it, and consider a matching fund donation to the feisty (and hungry!) Bulldog to help counter the Statesman’s on-going efforts to stop us.

Meanwhile…please plan to join us at our next meeting of ChangeAustin.org.

What Citizens Must Do As the City Budget Hearings Begin Soon!

Come Find out!
Monday, August 15th, 6:30 to 8 pm
Manchaca Library, 5500 Manchaca (@Stassney)

Guest Speaker:  Bill Oakey

Bill is one of the most effective citizen activists in Texas who got the Texas legislature to enact two bills into law.  One was the over-65 freeze on school property taxes.  The other was a “truth in taxation” law, which reformed the guidelines for public hearing notices on property taxes published by all statewide taxing entities.  Currently, Bill is working on plans to address out-of-control property tax and utility rate increases in the Austin area.

For more information call us at 535-0989 or email us at

City Budget Charades

We recently attended the city’s only budget charade, uh we mean charrette. City staff must have outnumbered the audience 3 to 1. Just 2% of the budget was up for discussion to close the City’s $11 to $28 million shortfall.

ChangeAustin.org came up with an easy $14 million by having developers pay fees to process their development plans, like they do in other cities. But that item wasn’t in the 2% up for dialogue.

Watch this short video.

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Make sure you mark your calendar for our upcoming volunteer meeting on Thursday, July 15th, 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Carver Library. (We’ll do a followup on property tax protests there too.)

There’s more to tell you about historic property tax giveaways to some of Austin’s wealthiest, the new coalition working for police accountability and open government, congrats to TAG and, taking the cake this month is the City’s decision to spend $44 million more wasted taxpayer dollars to build th $1.3 billion Water Treatment Plant #4.  Never mind the wasted water, right?

Growth must pay for itself y’all, before they run us all outta town!

Check out the rest of our first newsletter and watch our new videos here. Pass it on.

Don’t Miss This Thursday, 6 pm!

Does Austin need a new
$1 billion water plant?

Watch the Debate on Proposed Water Treatment Plant

Thursday, September 17th, 6pm
900 Barton Springs Rd. click here for map
Palmer Event Center

The City Council will host a Town Hall dialogue and debate featuring Austin’s environmental leaders, including our own Brian Rodgers, on whether Austin should commit a billion dollars to building “Water Treatment Plant No. 4.” Learn more about this issue by clicking here.

Please come!  The Chamber of Commerce will be out in force and they want your tax money to fund their agenda.

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You can lead officials to millions, but…

..you can’t make ’em blink.

Brian Rodgers at the County Commissioners Court, July 16
Brian Rodgers at the County Commissioners Court, July 16

The Short Story
The Travis County Commissioners Court has so far refused to call for a full audit and to file a formal challenge to the under-valuations of commercial properties in Travis County. But some smaller taxing authorities (who, will remain anonymous at the moment) have contacted us and are preparing to go after the money they’ve been missing from the big developer boys. Meanwhile, the City of Austin just released its proposed budget and — guess what — it contains a property tax increase!

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