What did hiking police pay get Austin?
The city budget is in shambles, but is the city safer?
Correction: Yesterday I wrote that Paige Ellis loaned her campaign $25k. In fact, she only loaned it $15k. The other campaign fundraising totals I reported (money raised, cash on hand) were correct.
On Tuesday, during a City Council work session on the budget, Council Member Chito Vela neatly summarized the city's fiscal challenge:
"Long-term, controlling the budget is a matter of controlling public safety costs," he said.
This is the reality many of the city's loudest critics will never acknowledge.
Are there instances of city government wasting money on progressive virtue signaling? Yes. Is there sometimes woeful incompetence and inefficiency in the delivery of progressive priorities? Yes.
But these are not the key drivers of the city's fiscal predicament. The biggest issue by far is the rapidly growing police budget.
