Copyright The New York Times
A referendum in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday to raise taxes for city services partly to address homelessness has set off a surprising backlash in the deep blue city. Opponents fear sharply increasing property taxes will add to a crisis of affordability and have suggested the City Council is beholden to developers. Some, particularly among Austin’s vocal conservatives, have accused local homeless service nonprofits — which support the measure — of grifting from taxpayers as part of a “homeless-industrial complex.” But even some on the left worry the city is asking voters to price themselves out of Austin. “We’re just one step from becoming homeless” ourselves, said Susana Almanza, the director of PODER, an social and environmental justice nonprofit based in East Austin. “And so we feel like this additional increase will really hurt.” Supporters have been bracing for defeat on Election Day. “People are not happy campers,” said José Vela III, known as Chito, a member of the Austin City Council, which voted 10 to 1 to approve the tax rate increase, then sent it to the voters. A referendum is required under Texas law for property tax hikes that would raise revenue more than 3.5 percent. “It’s a tough time to have a civic-minded election about municipal services,” Mr. Vela added. “If anything takes us down, it’s going to be this ‘to hell with them all’ approach to government.” The 2019 law mandating such votes was part of an ongoing push to rein in the state’s Democratic cities. Tuesday’s tax rate referendum in Austin appeared to be the first by a large Texas city under the law, Mr. Vela said. The proposed tax increase, known as Proposition Q, has stirred a sprawling debate over the many complaints that Austin residents have had about their rapidly changing city, where high-rise buildings now dominate the skyline of what was once a quirky college town. For some, the tax hike proposal is a slap in the face from city leaders who have lost the trust of voters after years of increasing spending — epitomized by the creation of a new city logo, developed at a cost of more than $1 million. For others, it is a chance to reject the pro-growth, anything-goes ethos associated with the Austin area’s new wealthy technology elite, which includes residents like Elon Musk. “The sort of extreme YIMBY-ism that Austin’s been experiencing is failing, and the pushback against Prop Q is, in effect, a pushback against those failed policies,” said Robin Rather, a proposition opponent who used the acronym for “yes, in my backyard,” to describe policies that support growth and housing development. “Everybody loves Austin, but only some people can afford to stay here,” said Ms. Rather, a lifelong Democrat, environmentalist and the daughter of the former CBS News anchor Dan Rather. Such beliefs have forged an odd opposition that includes the political action committee Save Austin Now — spearheaded by Matt Mackowiak, a former chairman of the Travis County Republican Party and now a top adviser on Senator John Cornyn’s re-election campaign — and liberals like Ms. Rather. Despite some dissension, the local Travis County Democratic Party endorsed the proposition by a two-thirds vote, Doug Greco, the party chairman, said. Turnout in the off-year election, with no major state or local offices up for a vote, was expected to be low. But spending by opposition groups has been significant. At an early voting center near the State Capitol this week, voters appeared split. Almost all expressed a desire for the city to do more about the people sleeping on its streets, whose numbers appear to be increasing sharply. But some voters lack faith. “I want to see people helped,” said Javier Juarez, 58, after voting against the proposition. “But I see all this money being spent on homelessness issues, yet where I live,” he continued, “there’s a lot of homeless camps.” Scott Denko, 73, a lawyer and longtime Austin resident, voted in favor of the proposition. “You don’t get something for nothing. That’s an important notion that’s kind of been lost in contemporary politics,” he said. “Self-interest has gone too far.” He added that he believed that while opponents had been noisy, a “silent majority” would back it. Supporters got what they hoped would be an unexpected late boost from an unlikely source, Ken Paxton, the state’s hard-right Republican attorney general and an unpopular figure in the city. Mr. Paxton said last month he had initiated an investigation into the fund-raising of the main political action committee backing the proposition, Love Austin PAC. Much of the financial backing for the group has been provided by homeless service nonprofits. Mr. Paxton suggested such engagement in politics by the nonprofits violated the law, and he singled out Foundation Communities, a longtime affordable housing and homeless services provider. “Every nonprofit, including Foundation Communities, that is unlawfully contributing to an effort to squeeze more taxes out of Texans must immediately stop,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement announcing the inquiry. Mr. Paxton has been increasingly aggressive in challenging local tax increases in Texas cities, with his intervention in Austin only the most dramatic. “This is a new one for me,” said Joe Cascino, the political strategist running Love Austin PAC and a former campaign manager for Mayor Watson. People who are stakeholders on an issue are going to give to a campaign, he said. “That’s just how politics works.” Supporters of the proposition said Mr. Paxton’s action could backfire. “That might win us this election,” said Mr. Vela, the city councilman. “Austin hates Ken Paxton.” The city’s portion of property taxes is slated to increase more than 20 percent if the proposition passes. If it fails, the council would still be able to increase city property tax rates by about 10 percent while staying below the threshold for a mandated referendum under Texas law. Nate McGuire, a 38-year-old software engineer who recently bought his first house, got involved in opposing the tax rate increase after creating a website that he said was aimed at clarifying the budget numbers. (Others have created competing sites with different messages.) He said he had not been active in politics but began to worry about public safety after family members were harassed by men on the street while walking around downtown and near a homeless support center in South Austin. “This used to be the place a lot of Texas kids dreamed of coming,” Mr. McGuire said, declining to describe his partisan politics. “And now it feels unsafe.”
