Austin election: Propostion A puts millions of dollars toward affordable housing
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Passing Proposition A puts $350 million toward affordable housing efforts.
AUSTIN (KXAN)-- When you head to polls in Austin, you'll see a measure down the ballot regarding increasing your taxes to fund affordable housing.
City of Austin Proposition A reads:
The issuance of $350,000,000 in tax-supported general obligation bonds and notes for planning, designing, acquiring, constructing, renovating, improving and equipping affordable housing facilities for low and moderate income persons and families, and acquiring land and interests in land and property necessary to do so, funding loans and grants for affordable housing, and funding affordable housing programs, as may be permitted by law; and the levy of a tax sufficient to pay for the bonds and notes.
The housing bond was officially proposed back in July, backed by city leaders and nonprofits, including Austin Habitat for Humanity, HousingWorks Austin and the Austin Justice Coalition.
See election results below after polls close at 7 p.m.
“We’re hemorrhaging people. We’re just losing a lot of the diversity. That makes this city special,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said during a kickoff rally in July. “One of the most successful proven tools we have in this city is affordable housing and affordable housing bonds.”
Opponents of the proposal said there are other ways to get more affordable housing, like making the city's building process more efficient.
“The answer is not saddling taxpayers with $300 million in debt and building a small number of affordable houses and cherry picking who gets to live in them,” said Matt Mackowiak, co-founder of Save Austin Now. “We need to streamline permitting. We need to increase the size of the development office. We need to cut development fees. We need to make it easier to build housing more quickly more efficiently in Austin.”
Awais Azhar with HousingWorks said it's one of many tools they need to tackle affordable housing.
“Looking at comprehensive land development code reform, looking at our development process, looking at some partnerships with key community partners and private sector partners,” are part of the solution, he said.
The bond was initially slated for $300 million, which, according to a City of Austin memo at the time, would have an annual impact on “the typical homeowner of $40.14.” A typical home in Austin is defined at $448,000 with a taxable value of $358,400, including a homestead exemption.
City council members upped the bond to $350 million when they approved the measure for the ballot at the end of July, also bumping the impact to the average homeowner to $45 a year.
If passed by voters, this would be the city’s largest housing bond to date.