The City of Austin has been considering asking voters to approve $816-million in bonds this fall, which would be used for an array of items such as low-income housing, transportation, and parks. On Tuesday, council member Greg Casar indicated that he might want to go even larger than that, basing his recommendation off of a memo from city staffers.
“With the staff’s recent memo saying, if we sell the bonds over an expected period of time, we actually can do up to $925-million in a bond while keeping the tax rate increase under two-cents,” Casar said.
He is throwing his support at such a large number because he says that would give the city enough wiggle room for numerous projects, specifically his push for hundreds of millions of dollars for low-income housing units.
“I think that we can actually address that housing challenge while still addressing things like arts, music, creative space, pools and trails, and the like,” Casar added.
The discussion about housing funds within the bond has been ongoing this year, and others like council member Delia Garza have thrown their full support toward using a large amount of the package for that very issue. She told the council work session that she believes there’s enough public panic over housing to finally get the bond approved by voters.
“I think when the last affordable housing bond failed, I don’t think people were feeling the crisis state I feel like we are in now, so I feel like now is the opportuniity to do that,” sad Garza.
In total, Casar and Garza are pushing for $300-million in housing bonds.
As the council discusses another bond, it comes at a time in which citizens of Austin continue to complain about the rising cost of living. In 2016, voters gave their approval to $720-million in mobility bonds, and in 2017, voters in the Austin Independent School District said yes to a bond package of about $1-billion, all of which are factors in the ever-rising costs to live within Austin’s city limits.
