City of Austin

The Austin City Council today adopted a balanced $3.1 billion Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Budget that goes into effect Oct. 1.

The property tax rate will increase from 48.11 cents to 50.29 cents per $100 of property valuation.  The tax bill for the projected median-priced home is estimated to be $897 per year or $74.75 per month.  This is an approximate increase of $1.67 per month for the owner of a median-priced home, estimated at $178,327.

The approved budget includes funding for:

• An additional 22 police officers and six Emergency Medical Services paramedics.
• Wildfire mitigation including authorization for three positions in the Austin Fire Department to create a Wildfire Mitigation Division.
• A Short-Term Rental Program in the Code Compliance Department including three additional positions for the program.
• Operation of the Town Lake Animal Center as an overflow facility for the Austin Animal Center.
• Operations and maintenance, including staff members, for the Asian American Resource Center.
• Seed money for an innovation program to keep the City looking toward new ideas to improve service delivery.  
• Additional rebates through Austin Energy’s Solar Rebate Program.
• A 3 percent wage increase for all City employees.

City Council approved an electric rate plan on June 7, 2012, which includes an increase in Austin Energy’s base rate; this will be the first increase in base rates since 1994.  The average Austin Energy residential customer, who uses 1,000 Kwh per month, will see an increase of $6.53 per month. 

Austin Water Utility retail customers will pay an additional $6.77 per month.  Average customers use 7,727 gallons of water and 4,699 gallons of wastewater.

Austin Resource Recovery will implement a new rate structure to further encourage reducing waste and increasing recycling.  Customers using smaller trash carts ¬(64 gallons or smaller) will pay a 16-cent per gallon fee.  Those using the largest trash carts (¬96 gallons) ¬will pay 25 cents per gallon. A $9.50 standard bundled services fee will apply to all curbside customers.

The Clean Community Fee (formerly Anti-Litter Fee) will increase $1 a month for residential customers and $4.50 for commercial customers.  This fee covers services from both Austin Resource Recovery and Code Compliance, including:

• Street and Boulevard Sweeping
• Litter Abatement
• Recycling Center
• Household Hazard Waste Facility
• Business Education and Outreach
• Resource Recovery Center
• Austin Reuse Centers
• Zero Waste Program Development
• Clean Austin
• Dead Animal Collection
• Code Compliance

Budget documents and presentations may be found here. The official budget document for the upcoming fiscal year will be posted in late October or early November.