City Council Budget Work Session
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What does the council do at the start of the meeting?
You're watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor Pro Tem Cheeto Vela, Council Members Natasha Harper-Madison, Vanessa Fuentes,
Jose Velasquez, Ryan Alter,
Krista Lane, Mike Siegel,
Paige Ellis. Zoe Khadri. Mark Duchin.
City Attorney Deborah Thomas. City Clerk Erica Brady. And City Manager T.C. Brodnax. Well, good morning everybody. I'll call to order the Austin City Council meeting for this work session on July 16th, 2026 at 10 o'clock in the morning. We have a quorum of the Austin City Council present. And we have a new sound system, so it sounds a little weird to me. But we'll get used to that, won't we? This is a work session. It'll be our first work session on the budget. I want to say a couple of things. One is I want to say that last week, Councilmember Ellis, who now sits over here, she had a birthday. So let's wish her a happy birthday. For those that don't know, seated next to her is Councilmember Velazquez, and I believe that we are celebrating his birthday by having this meeting.
No, next week. Next week, okay. I'm so thankful. Yeah, July 23rd works out. Yeah, good. We wanted to make sure it was a special gift, but let's start celebrating it now. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, so this is the first meeting after we have had a little bit of break from meetings. What I want to do is run through a couple of things. One is I want to run through the schedule that we're going to have with regard to the budget. As Council Member Velazquez just pointed out, next week we will have a work session on the 21st that will be a work session like we do in anticipation of a regularly scheduled Council meeting, and that will be on the 23rd. But we also have a series of meetings that are set up so that we can discuss the budget, the public can see the budget, and the public will have opportunity to comment on the budget.
So let me just walk through a little bit of that. Of course, today is July 16th, and we will have a budget presentation on the proposed budget, and it will relate to all departments. On Wednesday, July 22nd, beginning at 10 o'clock in the morning, we're going to hold another work session. And it will include a discussion on the city's strategic priorities related to community health and sustainability, homelessness and housing, and social services contracts. On Tuesday, July 28th, again, 10 AM, We'll have another work session, and it will address items related to economic and workforce development, mobility and critical infrastructure, and issues related to high performance in our government. On Thursday, July 30th, at 10 a.m., we will begin a work session that is focused on public safety and
and any final strategic priorities. We will also, on that day, July 30th at 3 o'clock p.m., we will have a public hearing on the budget, and we will hear public comment related to the maximum tax rate. On that date, we will set the maximum tax rate, And I want everybody to understand that setting the maximum tax rate is a requirement that the city council needs to follow under the Texas state's truth and taxation process in which the city's governing body publicly declares the maximum property tax rate it will consider in the upcoming budget process, and it has to be done by a vote of the governing body. So we will begin that day at 10 a.m. We will have the briefings. but we will also have a public hearing at 3 o'clock that day, and that day we will set the maximum tax rate.
On Tuesday, August 4th at 10 o'clock, We have tentatively scheduled a budget work session in case there's the need for some additional time. If we have final questions that need to be worked through or want to try to address some sort of specific topic of interest, we may not need that date, but it is scheduled so we'll have that. On that date, however, we're requesting that we set the goal of council filing proposed budget amendments and budget IFCs by Tuesday, August 4th at 6 o'clock p.m. That will give us some time for all the council members to see them. It will also give some time, hopefully, for the financial staff to look at those and create any fiscal notes.
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Agenda
8 items
1
What does the council do at the start of the meeting?
0:06–22:07
2
How do community members begin speaking about the budget’s violence‑prevention funding?
22:07–1:00:55
3
Why does the council discuss setting a public‑hearing date for the budget?
1:00:55–1:52:38
4
What key points are covered when the City Manager presents the budget overview?
1:52:38–2:13:17
5
What rubric is being used to determine social service contract cuts?
2:13:17–2:25:42
6
How does the Mayor address equity, inflation, and budget constraints?
2:25:42–3:01:52
7
What are the details of the police budget increases and recruitment funding?
3:01:52–3:45:42
8
How are public hearing dates and procedural next‑step items being set?
3:45:42–4:15:39
Speakers
3 identifiedOfficials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.