Austin City Budget Action Alert!

Last month, the City of Austin released its Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. After a series of work sessions and town hall meetings, the City is about to adopt the final version of the budget. Grassroots Leadership, along with several other community advocacy organizations, have expressed their concerns about an item outlined in the budget having to do with the Austin Police Department and Municipal Courts.

This is the specific item we are concerned about on page 35 of the proposed budget: 

Police

• $6.0 million for the increased cost of a revised interlocal agreement with Travis County for magistration and Council At First Appearance services. The total net General Fund impact of this revised agreement is $2.5 million, as the increased payment to Travis County is partially offset by a reduction of $3.5 million of services being eliminated by Municipal Court (p.35).

What this means is a net increase of $2.5 million in the Austin Police Department’s budget to provide magistration and counsel at first appearance services. We are opposed because magistration and counsel at first appearance services are best administered by the courts, not law enforcement. APD officers do not always promptly provide the magistrate court with the information they need to determine if the arrestee is eligible for a bond. That means people stay in jail longer than necessary, and their lives are unduly disrupted.

Grassroots Leadership staff and community members have raised this concern multiple times throughout the budget approval process, but our questions remain unanswered. Therefore, we are asking you to speak out, to hold the City Council and APD accountable, and to pressure the Council to release a budget that respects the community’s needs and concerns.

Here’s how you can speak out:

Attend and testify (in person or remotely) at the next City Council meeting:

The next hearing about the budget is on Wednesday August 13 at 10:00 am. Community members are welcome and encouraged to share their concerns either in person or remotely. 

The deadline to online register to testify is Tuesday. August 12, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. You can also register in person Wednesday morning before 9:00 am.

Here are instructions for signing up to attend and testify:

1. Go to the August 13, 2025 Austin City Council Budget Adoption Reading meeting link

2. You will want to sign up to testify against item 5 on the agenda, "Approve an ordinance adopting the City of Austin Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, beginning on October 1, 2025, and ending on September 30, 2026." (We are against the proposed budget because of the concerns we have about it and the lack of transparency around the money going to the Police Department.)

3. Click on the link that says "Hybrid Speaker Registration and Rules"

4. In the window that appears, click on the button labeled Agenda Item Speaker Signup.

5. Read the "General Information" screen and click 'Next"

6. On the next screen choose the radio button for "August 13, 2025 - Austin City Council Budget and Tax Rate Adoption Meeting." and click "Next."

7. On the next screen, choose the radio button labeled "Against / En Contra" and click "Next." 

8. On the next screen, indicate whether you wish to speak and, if you wish to speak, whether in person or remotely (by telephone). We are encouraging people to speak because otherwise, the City Council only knows that you oppose the current proposed budget, but not why.

9. On the next screen, fill out your name, telephone number and council district. (If you do not live in Austin, you may choose, "I am not a resident." If you do not know your city council district, you may choose "I don't know." To find out your city council district, click on this link.

10. After you register, you will receive an email confirming your registration at the email address you provided. If you do not receive that email, that means something went wrong in the registration process and you need to try again.

If you cannot attend the budget session either in person or online, send an email to all City Council Members by using this link:

https://www.austintexas.gov/email/all-council-members

Here’s the message we would like you to deliver (whether in your testimony or by email):

“Dear Mayor Watson and City Council Members:

”My name is [your name]. I live in City Council District [your district].

“[If you wish, share that you or one of your loved ones has been impacted by the criminal legal system.]

“I wish to express my concern about a proposed net increase in the Austin Police Department’s budget in the amount of $2.5 million for magistration and Counsel At First Appearance services. 

1. Which services, exactly, is the police department providing that justify this increase?

2. Why is it that the police do not provide probable cause affidavits immediately, or as soon as possible, after the person is placed in custody, but rather do so at the end of the officer’s shift? The current practice causes people to be held in custody hours longer than necessary, even in cases where there was insufficient probable cause to arrest them in the first place.

“What I would like to see done instead isto redirect this portion of the APD budget to the Magistration court to ensure that the probable cause affidavit is immediately processed. The City could also redirect this money to mental health diversion and substance abuse services to prevent people from having to go to jail in the first place.

“Thank you for your attention to this important matter.”

Thank you for taking action! If you have any questions about this process, please contact hmaverick@grassrootsleadership.org