Does it surprise anyone that the 2008 Austin real estate appraisals have increased 12.5% on average? The City of Austin is predicting a budget deficit of $20.6 million for fiscal 2009, and city hall is scrambling to find money (probably yours) to fill the gap. The dramatic increase in appraisals is more than likely a mandate from high within city hall to get the most out of imminent property tax increases. The city receives about 1/3 of its revenue from property taxes and about another 1/3 from sales taxes, and with the economic downturn, city hall is predicting less revenue from sales taxes. Since the city probably won’t increase the sales tax rate, look out property taxes.

I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but… (lights dim)

Shouldn’t the City of Austin eliminate wasteful spending and squeeze the $20.6 million out of existing budgets, similar to what real world business would do when revenues are down? Is that absurd for me to question this? Yes, of course it is, where talking about bureaucrats here. Words yet to be uttered within the walls of Austin City Hall: attrition, early retirement, hiring freeze, travel restrictions, reduction in contracted services (probably the most expensive city contracts are the ones making the recommendations on how to close the budget gap), reduction in capital projects and expenditures, overtime restrictions, reduction in force, deferred maintenance, mandatory vacations, etc.

The fine citizens of Austin shouldn’t be burdened with more taxes. The City of Austin could run efficiently with fewer employees, fewer departments, less capital expenditures, fewer facilities, fewer consultants, fewer “I wanna be governor someday” projects, etc.

Tags: Austin real estate

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Austin Texas Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.