Proposition I / 01 / Property taxes
Audit the spending.Before the next tax vote.
Austin metro’s median property-tax bill is $7,140 a year. Proposition I would bar Council from ordering an election to raise the City’s maintenance-and-operation tax without a compliant review completed within the year before that election. Make the spending face scrutiny first.
01 / Compare the bills
Austin metro’s median bill tops Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
Median annual property taxes.
Austin metropolitan area.
That is $2,708 more than San Antonio and $2,330 more than Houston.
Median annual property taxes for owner-occupied homes, all taxing entities combined. Metropolitan areas, not city limits. LendingTree analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS five-year estimates, published May 2026.
Read the analysis and full comparison02 / Follow the increase
A higher City rate. Another $89.3 million.
Four budgets. The rate keeps climbing.
City tax rate per $100 taxable value, rounded to two decimals. Rate growth is not the same as an individual bill’s growth. The City attributes $19.2 million of its projected revenue increase to new property.
City of Austin: adopted rates and revenue notice03 / Put scrutiny before the decision
Before the next applicable tax election, show the work.
Proposition I would require a completed, compliant review within the year before an election to increase the City’s maintenance-and-operation property tax. The review would examine spending reductions, affordability, and comparisons with Texas peers.
Read the proposed tax-election requirement · §18(A)(4)Research reviewed September 30, 2026. Each comparison is labeled with its reporting period.
Explore how it works
The tax-election condition
A compliant review must have been completed within the year before the proposed election would occur. Explore the sequence below.
Review
A completed review comes first.
The initiative must satisfy the proposal’s requirements and have finished within the year before the planned election.
The proposal, explained
What Proposition I would require
Selection, scope, and follow-through: get the details behind the proposal.
Read the full proposal (PDF)What exactly is the tax-election requirement?
Before Council orders an election to increase the City’s maintenance-and-operation property tax, a compliant review must have been completed within the year before that election. This is a condition on the specified City election, rather than a change to school-district, county, or other tax rates.
What must the reviewer look for?
The proposal calls for identifying spending that could be reduced or eliminated, benchmarking operations against similar Texas cities, and examining affordability. The contractor must commit to identify annual or multi-year savings exceeding its fee.
Who decides what happens after the findings?
The review produces analysis and recommendations for public scrutiny and City decisions. The amendment establishes the review requirement; tax rates and implementation remain subsequent decisions.
Keep exploring
Explore another part of the record
City services
Demand results for every dollar.
Cost of living
Austin is expensive enough.
Independent oversight
Force the audit. Start the clock.
Waste & fraud
Demand a full accounting of the failures.
Stay connected
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