How much does it cost to "Save Muny?"
It's not free, you know?
CORRECTION: In yesterday's newsletter I forgot to list District 1 candidate Alexandria Anderson. She has raised roughly $34,000 and had $7,300 on hand at the end of September. I'm very sorry!
Muny forever
Mayor Kirk Watson triumphantly announced today that Lions Municipal Golf Course has been saved. This is the moment where every self-described fiscal conservative cheers for government waste.
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The financials of the deal remain very vague. According to Watson, a game-changer is a group of anonymous donors:
A wonderfully generous set of donors—people who believe strongly in Muny being preserved as important greenspace and as an 18-hole golf course—has stepped up to contribute a very large amount of money to the University to support UT’s students and campus.
The donation is big and it's an important part of a potential agreement that opens the door to UT conveying Muny to the City of Austin and the WAYA campus to WAYA.
I’m beyond grateful for these donors who are long-time Austinites and who want to remain anonymous. They believe in Austin. Austin owes them great thanks. I’m also grateful for UT Austin and its current leadership for their collaboration through this process.
From what Watson is describing, it appears the city is not going to have to spend money outright to acquire Muny, so that's good. (In general, the city golf courses are self-sustaining, their operations funded entirely by green fees)
What remains unclear is whether there will be an attempt to get taxpayers to subsidize Muny through the Save Historic Muny District that Watson created through a 2019 state law he got passed. The legislation empowered the district — bounded by N. Lamar to the east, Lady Bird Lake to the south and west and 35th St to the north — to impose a utility surcharge if approved by district voters. Sure, it's democratic in theory but in practice it will likely be a tiny group of Tarrytown homeowners turning out to raise taxes for a place and cause that many apartment-dwellers on N. Lamar are entirely unaware of.
