The fruits of a tax hike

And the police union (seems) to respond to my article.

Jack Craver

Jack Craver

— 3 min read
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OK people, I'm in town this week doing some research & interviews...this will be my last newsletter of the week.

I don't know if this tweet from Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock was a response to my article yesterday, but it certainly could have been:

As you can see, City Council's near-unanimous approval of record pay raises didn't really change the APA narrative. They got what they want from the city, but they can still blame recruitment issues on the district attorney. The same goes for the Central Texas Public Safety Commission, the police advocacy group.

If you go to either the APA or Safety Commission's X accounts, you'd definitely think Austin is both very dangerous and becoming more dangerous by the day.

Unfortunately this is not a tension that is going to be resolved anytime soon. If Travis County's electorate shared the politics of the local Twitter user base, Garza would be in big trouble. But it doesn't and Garza coasted to reelection over an APA-backed primary challenger two years ago.

The fruits of a tax hike

The past few years have been pretty demoralizing for proponents of a robust public sector in Austin. So many of the investments that people have voted to fund with their tax dollars have failed to materialize. The 2016 transportation bond projects are way behind schedule and have been trimmed down due to escalating costs. The promised light rail system has been chopped in half. The big school district tax hike authorized in 2024 was almost immediately followed by announced school closures.

But on the bright side, the child care tax that Travis County voters approved is already actually delivering child care!

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