ATX PULSE 8/20/24: AISD to Ask Voters to Approve 8%+ Tax Increase // Fire Cancels First Day at Kealing M.S. // Another Body Recovered from Lake Travis // AISD Still Committed to All Electric Buses // SOS Sues City over Charter Amendments

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TOP NEWS

“Austin ISD asks voters to approve over 8% tax rate increase,” Community Impact Austin’s Elle Bent and Sarah Hernandez — “Austin ISD officials are depending on voters’ approval of a tax rate increase in order to lessen a looming budget deficit of $78 million.

What happened

The AISD board of trustees approved the measure to place a tax rate increase on the November ballot during a special meeting Aug. 19. The measure passed 8-1, with board member Kevin Foster voting no.

The overview

Foster cited that if the tax rate were to increase, more money collected by the district in property tax would go toward the state due to recapture, which is when the state takes local property tax dollars from a district to redistribute to other public school districts.

“What we’re voting to do is fill the coffers of the state to do things that don’t serve us and what we get in exchange is $0.25 on the dollar, which doesn't make a dent in our deficit and our budget shortfall," Foster said.

If approved by voters, district officials predict a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, would generate $171 million in revenue under a tax rate of $0.9505 per $100 valuation. Due to recapture, AISD will keep $41 million of this revenue. This is an increase in $130 million of recapture payments under the VATRE.

Education Austin President Ken Zarifis said the district and the board of trustees made the "easy decision" to approve the tax rate increase, and it's up to voters to follow through.

"We as a community must come together and say, 'We love our schools, we love our kids, and we're going to do everything we can to do that,'" Zarifis said. "This not a burden. This is an opportunity to support our children. This is an opportunity to provide them the schools that we as parents ... expect for our kids and the schools our kids deserve."

This would be a $34-per-month increase to the average homeowner and is an 8.3% increase from the current tax rate of $0.8595 per $100 valuation, according to district officials.

A VATRE would also give way to adjust employee pay to compare with other districts and a $0.25-per-hour increase for hourly employees. Otherwise, district employees will not see the pay increase. The district labor union, Education Austin, is in support of the VATRE passing.” Community Impact

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“1st day of school canceled at Kealing Middle School,” Fox 7 Austin’s Jessica Rivera — “Classes are canceled on the first day of school for Kealing Middle School due to a fire. 

The Austin Independent School District says late last night, the Austin Fire Department responded to a fire on the second floor of the school. 

The fire was quickly contained and crews immediately began to air out the school with fans and repair the damage caused by the fire and sprinklers.

The district says they are hopeful they'll be able to welcome students back on Wednesday, Aug. 21, but will provide an update to families when they have more information this afternoon.

Any students who need to be on campus for any reason will have a safe space with activities in the gym and cafeteria.

Additionally, bagged lunch will be available for pick-up between 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the back of the school off Salina St. near the gym foyer.

Officials say it appears that the fire was related to an overloaded outlet in a classroom and the fire department does not suspect arson.” Fox 7 Austin

THE BLOTTER

~ “Body recovered from Lake Travis,” via Fox 7 Austin – “The search for a missing swimmer is now over after a body was found in Lake Travis.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office says there is no indication this was a criminal incident.

The identity of the victim is not being released out of respect for the family involved.

The search continues Sunday for a missing swimmer on Lake Travis.

On August 17, at around 5:50 p.m., TCSO Lake Patrol deputies and other first responders responded on Lake Travis to the area near the 19800 block of Lakehurst Loop after receiving a 911 call.

The call reported that a person had jumped from a cliff into the water and did not resurface.

At 6:47 p.m., officials transitioned the rescue mission to a recovery one.

Search efforts were suspended at nightfall on August 17.

The search continued on August 18 but it wasn't until the morning of August 19 that a body was found and recovered.” Fox 7 Austin

~ “Jugging robbery: Truck broken into, $8K stolen from Austin family,” Fox 7 Austin’s Meredith Aldis – “A 16-year-old is working to save money to buy a truck for this school year after criminals stole the money he planned to use to buy one. He believes he was a victim of jugging earlier this month.

"You don't ever think it's going to happen to you," Austin resident Timothy Jones said.

Jones’ son, 16-year-old Bradley Jones, worked and saved up enough money to buy himself a truck. Not long after, someone crashed into it and totaled the truck. About a week and a half ago, the family went to a bank in North Austin to pick up the money they received from their insurance. They withdrew $8,000.

"I got the money from the teller, I put it in my front pocket," Timothy Jones said.

They walked together out of the bank, got into their car, and decided to stop for coffee down the street.

"I put the money in the glove box, locked the truck, and went inside to get a cup of coffee," Timothy Jones said.

About five minutes later, Jones said he came back to his truck and an unbelievable sight.

"They had smashed out my window, they opened the glove box, opened the console, and took the money. They weren't interested in the $12,000 worth of Milwaukee tools I have in my backseat, they knew what they were looking for," Timothy Jones said.

Jones said he believes the criminals followed them from the bank.” Fox 7 Austin

~ “Firefighters tackle early morning two-alarm fire in east Austin,” CBS Austin’s Tara Brolley – “Firefighters battled a two-alarm blaze at a building in east Austin early Tuesday morning.

The Austin Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 5325 Lavender Loop. The department initially reported the incident on X at 6:18 a.m. before upgrading it to a second alarm as the situation intensified.

A photo posted by the department shows crews actively combating the fire, with at least one ladder truck extending its boom over the building. Thick smoke billowed from the structure.

Firefighters reported making progress, stating that the interior fire had been "knocked down." Shortly after, they found additional fires in the roof.

The building was searched and crews determined that no one was inside. The cause of the fire and extent of damages were not immediately clear.

Residents are advised to avoid the area as emergency vehicles and personnel work at the scene.” CBS Austin

~ “WilCo deputies investigate vehicle theft and shooting incident in Liberty Hill,” CBS Austin’s Stephanie Becerra – “The Williamson County Sheriff's Office is investigating a vehicle theft in Liberty Hill that led to a shooting over the weekend.

Deputies say they responded at around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, August 17 to a report of a stolen vehicle on the 200 block of Yellow Senna Place in Liberty Hill.

The victim told officials he followed the suspects toward State Highway 29 until they shot several rounds at him.

Deputies found the stolen vehicle unoccupied in the 100 block of Jonathan Way.

During the investigation, deputies stopped a speeding car near the scene and arrested six people on unrelated charges.

The case remains under investigation.” CBS Austin

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

~ “Austin ISDs plan moving to an all electric bus fleet still in the works,” CBS Austin’s Farrah Walton – “Austin Independent School District is going electric.

AISD is the first district in Texas to announce plans of moving its entire bus fleet to electric, and announced its plans to invest in electric school buses in October of 2022.

In January of 2024, the district received a more than $6 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to kickstart its goal of moving to al all electric bus fleet by 2035. The grant allowed them to purchase 25 electric school buses. It’s a plan still in the works, with lots of components.

"We started the pilot process, we’re pursuing grants," said AISD Superintendent Matias Segura. "There’s this kind of balance that we have to really consider every step of the way.”

"We did find $4 million dollars last year was allocated to buy new diesel powered buses," said CEO and Founder of Open the Books Adam Andrzejewski.

Those buses are expected to be used until 2040. That’s five years after the district’s commitment of an all electric bus fleet.

"So, it looks like there’s some cross purpose spending here at the district," saidAndrzejewski.

We asked Superintendent Segura why this decision was made.

"If you want to create a fleet, you have to be very intentional," he stated. "You have to relay the conduit, you have to have the charging stations, where are they going to be located?”” CBS Austin

~ “Save Our Springs Alliance files another lawsuit against City Council over Open Meetings Act,” Austin Monitor’s Amy Smith – “Claiming that City Council has again violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, the Save Our Springs Alliance on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to block the city’s placement of 13 proposed charter amendments on the November ballot.

It is the second lawsuit this year the SOS Alliance has filed against Council alleging violation of the state statute by limiting the time a person is allowed to speak on multiple agenda items. The environmental organization won the first lawsuit and later sought clarification on a speaker’s ability to address the Council during work sessions. The court ruled that members of the public may speak during work sessions on discussion items that Council will be voting on in the future.

In Monday’s filing, the environmental organization alleges Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council violated the public’s right to speak by lumping all 13 of the proposed charter amendments into a single agenda item.

The lawsuit notes that when the proposed charter amendments appeared on Council’s July 18 agenda, SOS executive director Bill Bunch appeared before Council and requested time to speak on each of the proposed amendments. When Watson denied the request, Bunch responded: “All right. I have to see you in the court again.”

The suit also claims that City Council’s Aug. 14 agenda was noticed for the widely publicized adoption of the new city budget. But a separate item on the same agenda called for ordering a Nov. 5 general election to elect a mayor and five Council members, and authorizing a special election for voters to decide 13 proposed charter amendments.

“In doing so,” the suit states, “the Defendant also violated the (Texas Open Meetings Act) Meeting Notice requirement that agenda items must be worded more specifically when the public has a special interest in the topic under discussion. Certainly, each proposed amendment to the City’s ‘Constitution’ (the City Charter) is of special interest to the public and must be placed on the ballot as distinct and separate ballot propositions.”” Austin Monitor

SPORTS

~ TEXAS FOOTBALL: “Texas football’s Steve Sarkisian not worried about injured OL who’s been here ‘15 years’,” Austin American-Statesman’s Thomas Jones — “Still cooling down from his team’s Monday morning practice inside Royal-Memorial Stadium, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian acknowledged that starting center Jake Majors missed this past weekend’s scrimmage with an ankle issue.

But Sarkisian wasn’t sweating that injury. After all, Majors can afford to miss a practice or two after making 41 starts in his four previous seasons.

“We're great health-wise, quite frankly,” he said in his Monday meeting with the media. “We're making some business decisions as a staff on what we need to do, and a guy like Jake Majors, who's been here for 15 years and started about 100 games, I don't know if he necessarily needs that scrimmage.”

For the record, Majors had a limited practice Monday and Sarkisian has no concerns about his availability for the Aug. 31 season opener against visiting Colorado State. He isn’t too concerned about any nagging injuries for the No. 4 Longhorns at this point, either. Running backs CJ Baxter and Christian Clark both suffered season-ending injuries earlier in summer camp, but the rest of the squad has gone through three weeks with just a few bumps and bruises.

“We've had a couple tough injuries that you have to deal with (but) we're really not missing many players at all,” he said. “Everybody's back working.”” AAS ($)

~ TEXAS STATE FOOTBALL: “Expert picks Texas State to make expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, but not Texas,” KVUE’s Jeff Jones — “A longtime college football reporter shocked fans with his prediction heading into the new season.

On Monday, former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy predicted the Texas State Bobcats would make it to the expanded 12-team playoff.

One school from a smaller conference is guaranteed a spot, but the real controversy is who McMurphy left out of his prediction - the Texas Longhorns.

The Bobcats could make the College Football Playoff thanks to a rebuilt quarterback room featuring last year's Sun Belt Player of the Year Jordan McCloud and Westwood High School alum RJ Martinez.

"To get where we want to go, I think you as a quarterback, you got to play at a certain level," Texas State head coach GJ Kinne said. "We challenge those guys ... Jordan and RJ both demonstrated that they can go out there and do that."

Oddsmakers tend to agree.

Betting odds have Texas State as a favorite in the Sun Belt Conference, just behind Appalachian State. They also have Texas trailing Georgia as the top team in the SEC.” KVUE

~ COLT MCCOY: “Former Texas QB Colt McCoy retires from football,” via Fox 7 Austin — “Former Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy has announced his retirement from football and will now be a TV analyst.

After 14 years in the NFL, McCoy is now joining NBC Sports for its Big Ten Football coverage.

In a news release, McCoy is quoted as saying, "College Football has always held a special place in my heart. With the expansion of the Big Ten and new era of College Football, it is the perfect time to join NBC Sports."

"I can’t wait to share in the passion, excitement, and competitive spirit every week!" McCoy added.

McCoy made the announcement he was leaving football on his social media page.” Fox 7 Austin

AUSTIN CULTURE

~ DINING: ”A Japanese All-You-Can-Eat Wagyu Barbecue Restaurant’s Coming to an Austin Mall” Austin Eater

WHAT TO DO TONIGHT

~ FILM: Thelma & Louise. Paramount Theater (downtown). Doors at 6:30pm, film at 7:30pm. Tix $12 here.

COOL JOB ALERT

~ Associate Vice President, State Government Affairs: Spectrum (Austin). No salary description offered. Info / apply here.