- Coming up on "Austin InSight", the city's budget draft is hot off the presses.

We're breaking down what's in it and how much it could cost you in taxes.

Plus, Austin ISD has a balanced budget after some tough choices and cuts.

The changes coming to campus.

"Austin InSight" starts now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hi, there, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

It's budget season in Austin, and city manager TC Broadnax just released his first draft to kick things off.

Broadnax, in a message to the mayor and city council, says, "The financial landscape continues to present challenges."

But he says his goal with the budget is to, quote, "Not strictly react to those challenges, but to change the culture at City Hall to withstand them and others that lie ahead."

As we break down the budget, let's start with what it means if you're paying taxes.

According to city estimates, the owner of a median-priced home, that's just shy of half a million dollars, can expect to pay around $175 more in property taxes than last year.

But increasing utility rates and fees will add up, too.

Austin Energy up about $44, water up $93, and trash, recycling, and compost up $20.

Throw in a couple fees, and the increase ads up to almost $350.

And what is that extra money going to get you?

Well, the largest budget increases are for Austin Energy, the airport, and Austin Water.

As a percentage, the airport is a significant jump, almost 14%, largely to cover the expansion projects there.

Other departments getting boosts, police, fire, and homeless strategies.

This while the city is marking two months of a new strategy to clean up homeless camps, and we're getting our first look at how things have been going.

A new city memo describes the work they've done in the first four weeks.

The city received 852 311 requests related to homeless camps.

On average, it took the city five days to respond for an initial site assessment.

City crews went to 127 different camps.

On average, they went to each camp about three and a half times for a total of 456 visits.

They cleaned up more than 300 tons, or 600,000 pounds of debris.

For reference, that's roughly equivalent to the weight of a Boeing 747.

During the cleanups, city crews encountered 88 people experiencing homelessness, but half of them didn't accept any of the help offered.

35 people were connected to shelter.

Nine were connected to support services, but didn't accept shelter.

For a little different perspective on those numbers, a nonprofit, the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, did its own survey of people impacted by the cleanups.

Of the more than 100 people surveyed, almost 3/4 said they weren't offered any services.

About 70% say they didn't get a notice a cleanup was happening.

For a closer look at how those cleanups impacted people living in camps, here's "Decibel" senior multimedia journalist Blair Waltman-Alexin.

- That's where I charge my phone and my flashlights and stuff like that.

- [Blair] The Gus Garcia Rec Center might be Christina Ralston's favorite place in Austin.

It's quiet, but more importantly, she felt safe here.

- It is so peaceful at night, and all you hear is the birds, and you even- - [Blair] But now, she has to leave.

- Being homeless, it's not safe.

It's really not.

And having a safe place like this, it was great.

And then the city goes and just takes it out from under us?

(somber music) - [Blair] Ralston is one of scores of people impacted by recent homeless encampment sweeps across the city.

(machinery rumbling) Major camp removal efforts have been taking place across Austin for about a month.

City officials say it's necessary to comply with local laws and help people get into housing.

The advocates say these sweeps are just pushing people into an underfunded system that doesn't have space for them.

- When you reach that point where all of your shelter beds are full and you still have encampment sweeps to do, what are you gonna offer to those people?

- [Blair] So, what is happening during these sweeps?

Is it a viable option for a cash-strapped city?

And how is it impacting some of Rundberg's most vulnerable residents?

(energetic music) First, let's get a better understanding of the numbers at play.

There are currently about 6,000 people experiencing homelessness in Travis County.

125 people were counted in District 4 during last year's point-in-time count.

But the number is probably a little higher than that.

City leaders have been trying to tackle homelessness in Austin for years, but this cleanup initiative is new.

- The purpose of this initiative was to do a couple of things.

First, it was to bring a consistent process to how we do homeless encampment cleanups.

The second was to put more dedicated resources to the outreach and the cleanup process.

- [Blair] This is David Gray, director of the Homeless Strategies and Operations Office for the City of Austin.

He says this new model teams up different city offices and will help them better meet demand.

- Historically, we've averaged about 700 calls for services every month.

And at our previous staffing level, there was really no way for us to keep up with that volume of service request.

(bright music) - [Blair] So, what happens during a camp sweep?

First, the camp is identified by city officials.

Then, city workers and outreach specialists are supposed to go to the camp and offer to connect people with resources.

After that, the Austin Police Department comes to the camp and posts a notice that the area is going to be cleared, usually after three days.

Finally, the cleanup.

Teams of APD officers and Austin Resource Recovery workers go to the camp and start picking up items.

But advocates say it doesn't always go like that.

- It's been a very discouraging approach that isn't giving us, really, any results to reduce the number of people that are living outside right now.

- [Blair] Eli Cortez is an organizer with Vocal Texas.

(truck rumbling) - [Eli] They said HSO is supposed to be here.

Where?

- [Blair] Their organization has filmed some of the sweeps, including the one at the Gus Garcia Rec Center.

- We've heard a varied degree of folks either being given two bags that they can grab or 15 minutes to grab what they can't, and they lose the rest.

(melancholy music) So, folks are losing IDs, documentation, Social Security cards.

We've had members lose really personal belongings that can't be replaced, like even ashes of a loved one that have been thrown out.

And I think our city is under a lot of pressure to comply in a way that satisfies our state government.

(melancholy music continues) - This is your ballot card- - [Blair] In 2021, the state of Texas passed a law that banned camping in public spaces, making it a class C misdemeanor.

It was passed just after Austin voters approved Prop B, which banned sleeping or lying in public spaces.

- What we're focused on is implementing the law that the voters of Austin approved and that the Texas state legislature mandates, but implementing that law in a compassionate, human-centered framework.

(gentle music) - [Blair] Advocates say that this is the major issue with homelessness in Austin right now.

There is not enough space.

- We're just not going to have enough beds to put everyone.

- [Blair] Mark Hilbelink is the executive director at the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center.

They are the largest homelessness service provider in Travis County, and he says that space is a major issue.

- We have one bed for every six people experiencing homelessness.

So, even if we want to put everyone in a shelter or offer everyone shelter, we really just, math-wise, don't have the ability to do that.

And there's different ways that you can address it.

You can either invest more in shelters or you invest in other pipelines and ways to kind of help people exit homelessness that are not going through a shelter.

I think you've got some double whammy situations going on right now.

One of those is that homeless services was extra invested in for several years under ARPA, coming out of COVID.

And so, a lot of that money is starting to roll off.

(gentle music continues) - [Blair] ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act.

It was a COVID stimulus package passed back in 2021, and a lot of cities used that money for housing.

Austin in particular allocated about $96 million for different homelessness initiatives.

But those were one-time funds that had to be used by the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, Austin is facing budget constraints due to falling tax revenue.

Voters last year rejected a tax rate election that would've sent money to homelessness services.

And now, council members are working on a new budget, and they're eyeing about $17 million in cuts to social service programs.

Groups like Sunrise and Vocal are losing funds and having to cut back on services.

- I think everyone is very, I don't wanna say fearful, but concerned.

- Yeah, I think for all major providers, including Sunrise, there are programs that we have that are, we already know are going to be cut in the next fiscal year.

- Hi, Charlotte!

How you doing?

- Good!

- That's good.

- [Blair] The city's new homeless abatement plan calls for teams to continually check and clear old encampments.

It's also adding more beds and continuing outreach efforts.

(soft music) But with limited space and funds, for the time being, there are a lot of people like Christina who don't know where they're going to go.

(soft music continues) - Just go find a piece of wood that nobody knows about and hide.

So, that's all I'm allowed to do now.

(soft music continues) - Homeless strategy officials weren't ready to provide any cost estimate for the cleanup effort.

They're also still working on a way for residents to file grievances about the process, but they say they don't yet have the resources to be able to do that.

Meanwhile, this November, Austin voters will decide whether they want even more oversight of city spending.

A successful citizen petition means a charter amendment will be on the ballot.

It would require a recurring external audit of all city departments.

But city council already approved a similar plan on their own.

Local government reporter Sam Stark is at City Hall to break down how we got here.

- This November, Austin voters will have the chance to decide between two proposals that, on the surface, appear to share the same goal even as their supporters strongly disagree on the best way to achieve it.

One measure which will be on the ballot would amend the city charter to require an independent audit of all city departments every few years.

But if voters reject it, an independent audit will still happen.

In February, the Austin City Council approved an ordinance also requiring an audit of all city departments to follow a similar schedule.

- This ordinance is practical, effective, and it is unifying about good governance.

- The two approaches stem from the same source, Proposition Q. The tax rate election's decisive defeat last year was widely viewed by people in and outside City Hall as a referendum on city spending and a sign that voters were losing confidence in how the city manages public funds.

The Save Austin Now PAC started collecting signatures in November for a charter amendment to go on the ballot.

The group gathered more than 20,000 signatures in June, allowing the question to go to voters.

Similarly, in the weeks after Prop Q's failure, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson also began thinking of ways to improve trust with voters.

Among other things, he proposed in December an independent audit ordinance.

So, while these two proposals have similar beginnings and aims, the two sides strongly disagree on the approach.

- If you really wanna see an audit done, it needs to be mandated.

And the only way to really do that for this and future councils is to put it in the charter.

Under an ordinance that, if they just ignore it or if they do away with it, then no citizen has standing to sue a council for not obeying its own ordinance.

- After Save Austin now acquired enough signatures, Watson said in a statement, "The city already substantively has what Save Austin Now wants," in that he asked them to have a seat at the table in drafting the ordinance, and never heard back from the organization.

Watson called the push for a charter amendment a, quote, "Political move and repetitive haphazard proposal."

So, while Austin voters will have a chance to decide in November, Watson announced earlier this month that they're moving ahead with his plan and that they already have a company in mind to conduct the audit.

Back to you, Laura.

- Thanks, Sam.

We have lots to keep an eye on as we head toward November.

And another thing we'll be watching is the race for Texas governor.

Democratic nominee State Representative Gina Hinojosa is grabbing headlines with a new campaign proposal.

She wants to dip into the state's rainy day fund to cut Texans a check.

She's proposing a one-time $1,500 payment for every Texas household.

Her campaign says that would cost the state about $17 billion.

The state has $27 billion in the rainy day fund, so it would still have $10 billion left over.

But Hinojosa, if she were to win, couldn't do this alone.

The state legislature would have to approve.

We reached out to incumbent Republican Greg Abbott's campaign for a response to Hinojosa's proposal, but did not hear back by our deadline.

In the meantime, Governor Abbott is making education the focus of a new state commission.

The Texas Classroom Commission will include both current and retired public school teachers.

Their goal is to make recommendations to the governor, the Texas Education Agency, and the Texas Legislature ahead of the next session.

The governor says their work will focus on classroom instruction, supporting teachers, improving the learning environment, and ensuring student success.

School is out for the summer, but leaders in the Austin School District have been busy trying to tackle some tough issues the district is facing.

Joining us now to talk about some of those issues is Acacia Coronado, education reporter with the "Austin Current".

Acacia, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, let's start with the budget.

The school board passed it last month, but to get it balanced, the district had to make big cuts.

They started the process $180 million in the hole.

What did they do to dig out of it?

- Absolutely, so this process started because the deficit had grown from what had been originally projected.

So, the last June, it had been projected to be $19 million by the end of the school year.

Turns out, it was closer to $95 million.

And so, this growing deficit really made them have to make some very big cuts to prevent it from growing even more to $180 million by the end of the next school year.

With that, some of the things that they ended up having to cut back on were some teacher planning time in some of the campuses that had not as many academic challenges, as well as some resources here and there, including from bus routes, transportation.

We saw some changes to close to 500 positions, which, it is our understanding some of those positions were vacant, some of them were filled.

And the district has just worked to try to find everyone a new home as the reductions continue.

- But with those staffing cuts, have the people being impacted already been told whether they have a job next year?

- So, we do know that a lot of people were notified at close to the end of the school year.

They were brought into meetings with their principal to be notified that their position would be one of those reduced.

And then, from there, the district has been working to notify each of them where the next placement would be.

In my latest conversation this week with the union, what we know is that many people of about 200 that were affected by this have been given a new placement, particularly certified teachers.

But the number of which have been given a new placement is still unclear.

- And with potentially hundreds fewer people on staff, what else is the district going to have to do to accommodate the cuts?

You mentioned reduced, you know, planning times, but maybe larger class sizes, part-time APs, though counselors and librarians were preserved, we hear.

- Yes, so in a last-minute amendment to the budget, they did preserve librarians at every campus, which was something that the community had been really advocating for.

But we did see that some campuses, particularly smaller campuses, might not have an assistant principal or share an assistant principal.

We did see that some campuses are going to have bigger class sizes, particularly in grades two through five.

And the biggest changes are really gonna be seen most by campuses that are in what they define as band 1 and 2, which are campuses that are not facing as many academic challenges or not under state-mandated improvement plans.

- But let's take it back.

Let's talk about how we got here to this conversation in the first place.

There's this slashing of the budget this year.

Last fall, you mentioned there was already this painful process to close several campuses, and there were already significant cuts to the central office last budget cycle.

It seems like the district just can't get ahead.

What are they saying, though, about why they're having to make so many of these tough choices?

- Yeah, I think that this is something that the board and the superintendent have previously described as a moving target.

(laughs) And it really comes down to enrollment, is a big factor that we've seen really play a role into this.

The projected enrollment that they had just was very, very different from the actual enrollment at the end of the school year.

That number really affects the equation with which the school district gets funded by the state.

And the attendance levels were also not what they had projected.

We're also seeing that property values, which affect how much property taxes the district receives in funding, that has also gone down.

And so, the district is just operating under a different reality in which home values are different, the enrollment is different.

It's a very different reality than what they were facing five to 10 years ago.

So, that's what district leaders have cited so far.

We're obviously still looking into what, historically, could have played a role in this.

But this is, those are the main contributing factors that we're aware of as of now.

- And lastly, what about the threat of a state takeover of the district?

We know that hinges on three middle schools, Burnet, Dobie, and Webb.

At this point, how real or imminent is that threat?

- The state has in the law that if a school reaches five consecutive failing grades under the state's accountability system, that the commissioner shall take an action, such as closing the schools or replacing the elected school board with an appointed board of managers.

So, these three schools are at a significantly high risk of receiving one of those Fs, one of those fifth Fs.

Because their STAAR results came out, and though they did see significant gains, gains that are really difficult to achieve and that the students and teachers worked really hard for, a significant portion of the students are still not passing in math and reading.

And so, that could signify that the schools are closer to that key fifth failing rating.

And so, if even one of those achieves that, then that would open the possibility that this could happen.

And if it does, it would likely happen after the ratings come out, which is usually in August.

In the next few months, we'll really see what the future holds for Austin ISD.

- Indeed, a difficult and ongoing conversation.

Acacia Coronado, education reporter with the "Austin Current", thank you so much for breaking this down for us.

- Of course, thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) - Before we go, an Austin-based company is helping adults with disabilities find independence through jobs.

Here to tell us more about this under-the-radar program is Justin Sayers with the "Austin Business Journal".

Justin, thank you so much for being here.

- Yeah, thank you so much for having us here and letting us talk about this story.

- And this program, Justin, really seems like a win-win.

- Yeah, no, it's definitely, it's great for employers who need workers to fill jobs.

It's also great for people like Eric Guerrero.

When he was growing up in San Antonio, going outside was sometimes scary for him.

He wasn't sure what he was gonna do after high school.

Maybe he was gonna work at HEB or Walmart, or work in fast food.

That was until he joined the workforce development program at Professional Contract Services, Inc.

This is an Austin-based nonprofit that connects people with disabilities to jobs.

That ranges from facilities management and cafeteria tasks at military installations, or with big corporate names like Amazon.

In Eric's case, he interned at a hospital in San Antonio, helping with supply stocking and maintenance, and then he fell in love with it.

- The more I got to meet the people there and started working, that's when I realized this job is meant for me, and that this was the end game, to go get a job there at the hospital, become a full-time member.

- Since 2015, PCSI has helped more than 6,800 people like Eric find jobs.

It separately has 2,100 employees through mostly government contracts in more than 15 states.

CEO Tony Cucolo called the values-based organization the best thing he's done since the military.

They work with students to match them with their interests and help ferry them into jobs they didn't previously think were available.

Then, they stick with them and work with employers to make sure that everyone finds success.

- And that's one other thing about employing individuals with disabilities.

I'm telling you, more companies should do that.

The attrition rate is almost nil.

These are really wonderful human beings with great skill sets who are just so grateful to have employment.

- This is also really filling a need here in Austin.

Companies moving and growing here continue to label finding workforce as their biggest concern.

We're going to need thousands of workers to fill jobs over the next several years.

Programs like this help fill that gap and find jobs for the one in four adults that identify having a disability.

- And this sounds like such an amazing program on multiple levels.

But what's next for Eric?

What's coming up for him?

- Yeah, so he recently wrapped up his internship.

He's hoping to get hired full-time at the hospital.

That will allow him to make money and rent his own apartment, buy his own food, pay his own utilities.

Eric has lived with his grandparents since he was 14.

He said that he knows they'll be sad when he moves out, but he's looking forward to hosting them and having them over once he's moved into his own place.

- I know they're gonna probably be bawling out once I finally move out.

I always promise them, once I do, I'm gonna always visit them, call them, see how they're doing, and just even invite them to my place whenever, like for dinner, takeout, home-cooked meals, like whatever.

And, you know, but they always tell me, even if they do cry, they will be proud of me for what I've accomplished and what I have done throughout my time living there with them.

- I love that for him so much.

You know, it sounds like he's really got it all figured out.

Well, Justin Sayers with the "Austin Business Journal", thank you so much for sharing this story.

- Yeah, thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to highlight this important program.

(upbeat music) - And that's our show this week.

You can catch up on all our stories on the Austin PBS YouTube channel, and you can find full episodes of "Austin InSight" in the PBS App anytime for free.

Thanks again for watching.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(cheery flute music)