ATX PULSE 10/14/25 (free)(sponsored by CoW): Ground Delay Lifted at ABIA // APD Officer on Restricted Duty Pending Review // Slusher Releases 2nd Analysis of Prop Q // United Austin PAC Delivers 20,000+ Signatures to Stop Convention Expansion // Hays County Ends LPR Contract // Gibson Departs UT Football

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2025

Compiled by Matt Mackowiak

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WEATHER

Today: H: 91° / L: 63°. No relief from heat, per Fox 7 Austin.

Weekend cold front, but very little rain coming, per KXAN.

Wednesday: H: 92° / L: 62°

Thursday: H: 89° / L: 67°

Friday: H: 91° / L: 72°

TOP NEWS

“Ground delay lifted at Austin's airport after staffing issues’” KVUE

“'I feel embarrassed' | Austin teen recounts viral altercation with police on 6th street’” KVUE

“Austin officer on restricted duty in connection to 6th Street incident” KVUE

THE BLOTTER

“Man charged with murder for attacking, strangling ex-girlfriend“ Fox 7 Austin

“AFD puts out fire outside Downtown Austin condominium“ KVUE

2025

“The “Inherent Tension” Between Taxes and Affordability – Plus a Look at Campaign Contributions in the Prop Q Election” The Austin Independent’s Daryl Slusher -- "As the election on a City property tax increase (Prop Q) nears, opponents are beginning to hammer the point that the increase will affect the “affordability of Austin” — particularly for residents already on the verge of not being able to afford to live within the City limits. Let’s take a look at some points that a particularly cogent and well-informed person put together on that issue.

For instance there’s this: “We can’t ignore that collecting taxes, rates, and fees—even for important items—impacts Austin’s affordability.” That’s about as clear and straightforward statement as you’re going to find, although I personally have never accepted using impact as a verb in that manner.

Then there are forays into specific numbers: 

“Over the past ten years, the typical Austin homeowners tax bill has grown over two-thirds, from $4,950 to $8,301, an increase of over $3,350 or 67.7%. Last year alone, the typical homeowner’s combined property tax bill rose by almost $1,000, or 13.4%.”

A key word there is “combined,” by which the writer means the combined tax rates of all governmental entities that have the authority to charge property taxes in Travis County. The author next drives home that point by giving the total increases last fiscal year, by taxing jurisdiction: “In the last fiscal year, Austin raised the typical ratepayer and taxpayer’s bill by $361.92 a year. Travis County raised taxes on the typical taxpayer by $203.00, and AISD raised taxes by $515 a year. Central Health raised taxes by $43, and ACC raised taxes $29.” (There are parts of the City limits that are in Williamson and Hays Counties. Also, some City of Austin residents are not within the boundaries of the Austin Independent School District. For people in these categories, their tax rates would be somewhat different.)

The same writer continues, “Some of Travis County and AISD’s increases were voter approved. But they add up— jurisdiction on top of jurisdiction and year after year. They impact the cost of living.”

Now we’re going to quote at length: 

“Increased taxes and rates impact Austin’s affordability for all who pay them, but some arguably get hit harder than others.

About half of Austin’s people are renters who can’t claim homestead, senior, or disability property tax exemptions. Those exemptions are for homeowners. Landlords, who also don’t get those exemptions for rental property, most likely just pass increased taxes and rates through to the renters.”

The writer continues, “Someone is ‘rent burdened’ or ‘cost burdened’ if the household spends more than 30% of its income on housing costs, including rent and utilities. When a household spends more than 50%, it’s considered severely rent burdened.

Last December, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies said that over half of renters living in the Austin area were cost burdened.

That’s up about 4 percent from 2022. Those Harvard folks also found that low- and middle-income renters are now spending a larger share of their income on housing. In 2019, around 64% of people earning $30,000 to $75,000 were cost burdened. That number grew to 77% in 2024.

According to our city demographer, ‘about 1 in 5 Black and Hispanic households have extreme housing cost burden.’ This is likely at least part of the explanation for why Austin is losing Hispanic and African American population as a percentage of total population.”

Wow, that is really hard hitting and has some solid figures. I really appreciate that, but I better talk to someone from the pro-tax side and get their views on the affordability issue.

Oh, wait a minute. I think I made a mistake. That statement and those numbers didn’t come from someone urging Austinites to vote no in the upcoming (property) tax rate election. No, all that was from Mayor Kirk Watson in a late July 2025 “Watson Wire,” the email newsletter that the mayor sends to constituents and anyone else who signs up to get it. 

My bad.

Decision Making Amidst the “Inherent Tension“

This particular Watson Wire, titled “The Budget, Taxes & Affordability,” came out shortly before Watson and the Council were scheduled to vote on the budget and potentially call for a tax rate election. Watson was evidently trying to walk the tightrope of acknowledging that higher property taxes affect the cost of living i.e. affordability for Austinites while at the same time hinting that he and the Council might ultimately decide on a tax increase beyond what City Manager T.C. Broadnax recommended in his proposed budget.

Watson reports (as we quoted him last week) that under Broadnax’s proposed budget “the typical city ratepayer and taxpayer will pay an additional $268.23 a year.” Broadnax’s proposed budget maxed out how much a City is allowed, under state law, to raise taxes in a single year without an election, 3.5%.

Watson and the Council ultimately approved the maximum level of property tax increase proposed by Broadnax, then added a tax rate election for an additional five cents per $100 valuation. In his Watson Wire post, the Mayor wrote “If Austin has a TRE, every 1 cent increase in the tax rate will increase the typical taxpayer’s bill by another $40.26 per year.”

According to Watson’s figures, Broadnax’s budget increased property taxes by $268.23 a year. Then the tax rate election proposed by Watson and the Council will add $201.30 ($40.26 x 5).

So the total property tax increase on the “typical taxpayer” will be $469.53 if the tax rate election is approved; $268.23 if voters turn Prop Q down. 

Watson also added in his Watson Wire statement, “Each cent also will generate around $21.6 million to fund services.”

This was all to illustrate the tough choices that the Council faced. As the mayor explained, “There’s an inherent tension between collecting the public’s money to pay for our needs and adding to our affordability challenges. We have to be balanced, disciplined, and stable in this difficult process. We don’t want to inappropriately contribute to the problem we say we’re trying to solve.”

Watson in the end decided in favor of the tax rate election. He originally proposed a three cent per $100 valuation increase while a few Council Members were proposing a seven cent increase. Watson and the Council ultimately decided to go to voters with a five cent per $100 valuation increase. 

Voters who are still undecided, or who perhaps haven’t studied the issue yet, will have to wrestle with what Watson describes so well: “inherent tension between collecting the public’s money to pay for our needs and adding to our affordability challenges.” I know that some folks out there think Watson cynically put out all these numbers to make people think he is empathetic to their situation. Perhaps, but I’m going to just go with it’s a good thing that he put all those numbers together and released them publicly.

Whatever the case Watson appears to have made peace with the “inherent tension” that he agonizes over in his Watson Wire post. He is listed as an endorser of the Love Austin So Much campaign (the PAC leading the effort to pass Prop Q). Watson not only decided to support the tax rate election, but his PAC was one of the first donors to Love Austin So Much; and one of the biggest. That was the KPW PAC which features his initials and lists Watson as the treasurer in state records. The KPW PAC contributed $20,000 to Love Austin So Much on September 5, 2025.

The KPW PAC is a left over from Watson’s days as a state senator. He did not report receiving any contributions in his October 6 report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. His PAC, however, is not hurting. He reported having $955,541.30 on hand. 

The contribution from the KPW PAC is the leading example of a rather odd twist in this election. That is the Mayor and some Council Members — or their PACs and campaigns — contributing to a campaign that seeks to persuade voters they represent to raise property taxes. The “Vanessa Fuentes Campaign,” as in the campaign fund of Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, contributed $4,000 to Love Austin So Much PAC. And, Council Member Chito Vela contributed $1,000 as an individual.

Love City Contracts So Much?

Those numbers come from Love Austin So Much’s October 6 contributor and expense report, filed with the City Clerk. The group’s treasurer is former Council Member Leslie Pool. Many of their contributions, specifically the most sizable ones, come from a lineup of groups who would almost certainly benefit financially from the tax increase. These groups can be divided into three categories: labor PACs; affordable housing groups and corporations; and groups and corporations providing services related to homelessness. (Note to readers wanting to do more research: At times I had difficulty with the links to the individual reports. If that occurs they can all be found under this link. Then scroll down to the section headlined “Reports Filed by Committees 30th Day Before Election.“)

The City has stated that the biggest allocation of funds from the Prop Q property tax increase would go to services for the homeless and services to prevent homelessness. Organizations or corporations that provide homelessness services likewise were the biggest contributors to the Love Austin So Much campaign; contributing at least $40,000. (These were listed in a section of the contributor and expense report titled “Monetary Contribution from Corporation or Labor Organization.” Also, Love Austin So Much goes by that name on their website and on campaign materials. Their contributor and expense report to the City lists their name as simply “Love Austin PAC.”) 

For instance ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition Inc.) contributed $25,000; on September 4 the same day that Mayor Watson’s PAC ponied up $20,000. According to City online financial records on December 1, 2024, ECHO began work on a $939,100 contract for “ARPA Capacity Building.” ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act, a Joe Biden administration COVID relief bill passed in March 2021. The City Council approved the funds on October 24, 2024. The backup for that agenda says that the contract is intended “to support the ECHO Grassroots Homeless Service Provider Capacity Building Cohort,” a cohort which “aims to empower grassroots organizations to enhance their capacity to serve unhoused populations more effectively,” with the focus being “to support Black-led grassroots organizations.”

President Donald Trump cut the remaining funds for three ARPA grants to Austin in March 2025.  It is not clear if what remains of ECHO funding was to come from the ARPA contracts cut by Trump. Thus, it is unclear if the remainder of the funding for ECHO is among funding that would be restored by Prop Q. As reported last week, the Austin Independent submitted questions to City financial and communications staff on September 30 which asked what cuts Trump has made that affected the City budget and which of those cuts would be restored by Prop Q. City officials ignored those questions and have still not replied.

In any case City online records report that 75% of the funds for this contract, or $704,325, have already been “expended.”  

This is far from the first City contract with ECHO. City financial records report that the contract was “Awarded Non-Competitively,” with “No Solicitation.”  

Watson, Fuentes and Vela all contributed to the Love Austin So Much Campaign; respectively through a PAC, their campaign and individually. The Watson photo reads “I’m putting affordability first.”

I realize that ending homelessness is a noble cause. And, ECHO may well do good work on that cause. Also, some might argue that there is nothing wrong with contributing to a cause you believe in, even if fighting for that cause is the way you earn your living. Nonetheless, as a journalist I feel obligated to report it when a group contributes $25,000 to a campaign focused on persuading voters to increase property taxes, when that group would likely receive a considerable portion of the proceeds. The same is true for the items that follow. 

The Other Ones Foundation, Inc. — another local service provider in the homelessness field — contributed $10,000 to the Love Austin So Much PAC. They are one of four vendors on a $16 million contract for “homeless encampment cleanup.”

Likewise the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center on Menchaca just south of Ben White Blvd, whose services are currently the subject of a very controversial potential move to Oltorf and IH 35 — contributed $5,000 to Love Austin So Much. A recent Austin American-Statesman story reported that “the city has provided about $3.8 million in grants to support Sunrise’s services in recent years.” A link to City documents in that story sets the overall figure at $4.6 million.

Groups and corporations involved in the City’s affordable housing efforts also contributed significantly to Love Austin So Much. For instance Foundation Communities gave two contributions, totaling $25,000. Foundation Communities has built several successful affordable housing projects in Austin. But many of those were done with considerable City of Austin help.

Other organizations and corporations involved in providing affordable housing contributed as well. They included SGI Ventures Inc. which gave $5,000 and Capital A Housing, Inc. and the Austin Housing Coalition who each contributed $1,000 to Love Austin So Much.

Once again these organizations do important work, and, in chores like encampment cleanup, work that almost no one else wants to do. Still, they are organizations contributing to a campaign from which their organization will likely receive considerable City funds, if the Prop Q campaign is successful.

On the labor front AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees), which represents many City employees contributed $25,000 and the Austin Travis Co. EMS Employee PAC “pledged” $25,000. It is particularly difficult to fault the EMS group, whose employees — many would agree —  are overworked, underpaid and performing a critical service. Nonetheless they would likely benefit directly from Prop Q so the contribution is worth noting.

Funding of the Opposition

There are two groups who appear to be carrying the load in opposing Prop Q. Plus there are a number of people organizing opposition on social media. 

The most active group in opposing Prop 2 is Save Austin Now. Save Austin Now (SAN) touts itself as a bipartisan group, but many Democrats — especially “progressives” like those leading the Prop Q campaign — see Save Austin Now as definitely all Republicans. The group has been involved in local politics since the 2019 Council lifted the camping ban. SAN led a successful petition drive and subsequent election that reinstated the camping ban in 2021. After that they tried to require two police officers per 1,000 residents. They successfully petitioned to get that on the ballot, but voters turned it down.

The setup of SAN features a Republican and a Democrat as co-leaders. The Republican co-chair is Matt Mackowiak, who served as Travis County Republican Party chair for a number of years; and sometimes appears in national media.

Traditionally the lead Democrat in Save Austin Now is scorned by City Hall progressives as a fake Democrat. That was the case with Cleo Petricek, who served in the role until shortly before the 2024 election. She took a lot of online abuse as well as public insults. Steven Brown, who is perhaps best known for opposing the HOME initiative from a neighborhood and working class perspective, took her place. He doesn’t appear to have received quite the level of scorn that Petricek endured, but it’s still early in his tenure.

Given the nature of the group, one might except their coffers to be overflowing with large contributions from rich Republicans. This doesn’t appear to necessarily be the case. For one thing donors are not identified by party, but also there are many small donors.

The biggest contributor to Save Austin Now in this reporting period is local attorney Adam Loewy who gave $10,000. Loewy has said online that he is funding billboards. So presumably they will be through SAN. Other top contributors were Neil Webber who gave SAN $10,000; Suzanne Harris who contributed $5,203.23; Susan Ogden who gave $1,500 and “builder” Clark Wilson who gave two donations of $1,000 each. There was a smattering of $500 and $250 donations, and other three figure amounts. The majority of contributions to Save Austin Now though were for $100 or less, many for considerably less. 

In fact Save Austin trounced Love Austin So Much in a political fundraising metric that Democrats love to tout. That is the average dollar amount per contributor. The lower the average contribution amount the more grass roots and closer to the people the candidate or campaign is thought to be. 

According to my calculations Save Austin Now had 496 donors who contributed a total of $63,506 during the reporting period. That’s an average contribution of $128.

By contrast, Love Austin So Much had 23 contributors (one of them a pledge) who gave a total of $127,870. That’s an average contribution of $5,559; 43 times that of Save Austin Now.

There is another group that is poised to enter the battle against the tax hike. That is a PAC called Restore Leadership ATX. They filed a contributor and expense report in the 30 days before an election category. Their treasurer is Ellen Wood who filmed a video expressing her opposition to Prop Q. The video has been reposted a number of times. 

This PAC reported $49,000 in contributions. Their biggest contributor was ATX Servicing which gave $25,000. A corporation listed as “D&S Ferdman Rev Tr” gave $5,000. Among individual contributors Rex Gore led with a $10,000 donation. Former Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, a Republican, gave $1,500. Former Travis County Auditor Susan Spataro contributed $2,500. Ellen Wood gave $1,000.

This is more the type of arrangement that Democrats tend to imagine when they envision Republican PACs, although on a much smaller scale. Still, Restore Leadership ATX had a lower average contribution than Love Austin So Much; $4,900 per contribution to Love Austin So Much’s $5,559.

Love Austin So Much Goes After “Dark Money”

Meanwhile, Love Austin So Much went after the big game. On Friday October 10 KXAN reported that Love Austin So Much “filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission against the person or people responsible for a website that discourages Austinites from voting ‘yes’ on Proposition Q.”

Grace Reader of KXAN quoted Love Austin So Much campaign manager Joe Cascino regarding the complaint, “They are proudly using dark money to fund their mission to make cuts to core city services such as fire, EMS, parks, pools, and libraries. But Austinites are much smarter than the mystery figure behind this illegal, deceptive website thinks.”

Reader and KXAN then solved the mystery: 

“On X Thursday night, a man named Nate McGuire said the website belonged to him. McGuire also responded to an email from KXAN at an address listed on the website. ‘Find it confusing how they could file a complaint about me and not figure out who I was: I haven’t been hiding,’ McGuire told KXAN. He said something similar on social media, tagging Cascino.”

KXAN said McGuire then sarcastically referred to “dark money” in a thread on X. KXAN added,“In that thread, McGuire attaches what appear to be receipts from his domain registration, costing roughly $12, and the host site he’s using, which is free. He told KXAN he was not behind the yard signs.”

McGuire also told KXAN, ‘“I am a private citizen, and I paid for the website out of my own pocket and will comply with any filings required.”

Love Austin So Much has since dropped the ethics complaint. Campaign Manager Joe Cascino confirmed that to the Austin Independent by email: “Yes, we dropped the complaint in its current form. We are pleased that he identified himself and want to give him the opportunity to file any necessary reports, as he indicated he would with KXAN.”

That’s all for now. Early voting starts on October 20. Stay tuned.” Austin Independent

» RELATED: I strongly recommend all of our readers to become PAID subscriber of The Austin Independent. You can do so here.

“Meet the 3 candidates vying for Leander City Council seat” AAS ($)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

“Effort to hit brakes on $1.6B Austin Convention Center redevelopment takes step forward“ ABJ ($)

“Feedback wanted for Congress Avenue redesign in Austin“ KVUE

“Hays County votes to terminate Flock Safety contracts in 3-2 vote“ KXAN

“Austin-based Oracle and AMD expand AI partnership deal“ AP

TEXAS SPORTS

TEXAS FOOTBALL: “Jerrick Gibson, Will Stone leaving Longhorns the week after Oklahoma win“ AAS ($)

AUSTIN CULTURE

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~ DINING: “The 38 Best Restaurants in Austin, Fall 2025” Eater Austin

~ DINING: “East Sixth’s New Seafood Spot Has Super-Fresh Fish and Tons of Personality” Eater Austin

~ NIGHTLIFE: “Cheer Up Charlies to be acquired by LGBTQ holdings company” AAS ($)

~ DANCEHALLS: “Historic Coupland Dancehall saved days before closure” ABJ ($)

COOL JOB ALERT

~ Manager, Member Relations. Texas Association of Business. Salary: Starting at $64,000–$74,000 annually commensurate with experience; additional compensation may include bonus or commission. Info / apply here.