Austin will spend $5.7-billion over the next five years on capital improvement projects.
While that is indeed a large amount of money, Austin’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo said voters are responsible for most of the debt the city has taken on for these projects. He explained, “about 80{2db634631ef8bd3f096060bc7daa4fc6677d16e616113d8c02bec6b420e3105c} of our general obligation debt is coming from voter approval, as apposed to that non voter approved piece at $352-million.” The dollars specifically would come from the come from voter-approved bond packages from 2016 and 2018.
The $5.7-billion will include major mobility and corridor upgrades, multiple ground breakings for low-income housing developments, and public safety issues that include new stations or even flood buyouts. Austin Water, Austin Energy, the convention center, Resource Recovery, and aviation will account for more than $3.5-billion of that overall spending.
(Photo:Shutterstock/Roschetzky Photography)
