41 Austin groups propose $5.2M city budget for housing, health, safety, climate, childcare, workforce, immigration, education, reentry, and arts. on Wednesday, calling for the city to prioritize funding for housing, health, and safety initiatives in the upcoming 2025 fiscal year budget. The proposal, which amounts to 5% of the city's general fund or $5.2 million, includes investments in park maintenance, library resources, and infrastructure repairs guided by equity and sustainability.
"This proposal has emerged from a months-long collaboration among the undersigned organizations," said Kathy Mitchell, Senior Advisor to Equity Action. "These items are the ones that dozens of community organizations agree should be prioritized by the City Manager and Council in the upcoming budget process. They can absolutely be funded if they are made a priority by our new manager and elected leaders.
Key priorities in the budget proposal include addressing climate resiliency, reducing waitlists for childcare subsidies and rental assistance programs, supporting workforce development for marginalized communities, providing immigration legal services for low-income families, funding early childhood education, enhancing reentry services for formerly incarcerated individuals, and investing in arts programs in East Austin.
"Austin's failure to adequately address climate resiliency and improve our ability to help residents in extreme weather emergencies is appalling and a top priority in this year's community budget is to fix that," said Bobby Levinski of the Save Our Springs Alliance.