Liberal Austin's crisis of faith

My gut tells me Prop Q is in very bad shape. In a low turnout election like this, it is possible that a campaign with a strong field operation will get enough supporters to the polls, but the baseline political sentiment in Austin appears very unfavorable to a tax hike. Even if the measure does pass, city leaders need to take seriously the deep wells of pessimism in the community about local government and the future of the city.

A telling vignette is the yuuuuuge (177k views & 670 comments!!) response I got on r/Austin, the enormous Reddit forum for all things ATX, when I posted an analysis debunking Save Austin Now's bullshit "tax calculator."

Some characteristic responses:

I'm still voting no, but I appreciate having this info. Since I moved to this city, the population, property values, and cost of goods have all increased significantly, and yet I'm being asked every year to pay more. And what has it gotten us? New sidewalks and a spiffy downtown library? We might get a train. We voted to pay teachers more and now we're closing 13 schools. I know there's a lot more nuance to all this, but shit's expensive.

I can’t imagine voting yes on any further tax increases after seeing how they completely dropped the ball on Project Connect. Hindsight and time are our friends on these matters. City leadership and incompetence have only continued to grow and at some point you just have to stop giving into what they want with the hope that they’ll do things right.

People that have been in Austin for decades are fed up with the idiotic spending regardless of explanations like this. Prop Q won’t pass. Austin is fed up. Both sides of the aisle. Stop taking our money while city conditions get worse. Stop changing school district zones and closing schools because of self-inflicted mismanagement.

All my maga neighbors have a vote no on Q sign in their front yard, and it really makes me want to raise my property taxes just to spite them. But this time they may just get their way, because Austin/Texas needs to chill on these fixed cost taxes when we’re all losing our jobs out here.

I appreciate this info. Thank you. My issue is that I don’t see the city making good decisions with the money I’ve already given them, and I’ve voted yes on every bond for the last 30 years. I’m just done.

This is 100% the issue for me as well.  The inefficiencies I see in this city are staggering.  They are not able to focus on actual quality of life for the average austinite but have plenty of cash to knock down and rebuild a perfectly good convention center?  Get. Fucked.  Retime/sensor the lights for god sake and then I might think you actually care about the citizens here.

Prop Q will reportedly raise around $110M or thereabouts. Last year, the city spent $131M on overtime for city employees (source: KUT). $49M of the total went to APD. Outrageously, 41 APD employees earned over $100,000 in OT apiece, bringing their average salary to $260,000. And they get a generous pension and benefits as added icing on the cake.

$200 this year, bond election next year, another $200 TRE next year, another TRE next year etc etc etc. I've been here for 11 years and have voted for every tax increase thinking we'd have better schools, better transportation, solutions for those experiencing homelessness etc. Most of the change I've actually seen is middle and lower classes being pushed out and upper middle to upper class moving in.

Respectfully, I feel like my city council has been wasteful with my money. They keep raising taxes without providing any services that actually improve the city. Meanwhile, they have plenty of money to waste on an ugly as shit logo that was not needed and will not improve tourism. 

I feel the exact same way. My wife is for prop Q and as it currently stands, I'm against it. She basically says it's such a small amount and it's for things our city needs. My argument is, why are we subsidizing poor budgeting. I don't have confidence it will be used properly.

In case it's not abundantly clear, these are not MAGA trolls. These are disillusioned liberals.