Brant Bingamon

Mayor Kirk Watson definitely does not want a bond election this November. It looks like it might happen anyway. In one of its last votes before heading out on summer break, Austin City Council approved a measure on May 28 that changes city policy to make an election on a new bond possible. Council also directed city staff to put together a bond package of projects costing $390 million and present it for consideration at a meeting in late July.

Mayor Kirk Watson definitely does not want a bond election this November. It looks like it might happen anyway. In one of its last votes before heading out on summer break, Austin City Council approved a measure on May 28 that changes city policy to make an election on a new bond possible. Council also…

Several Austin City Council members have told the Chronicle in recent weeks that they expect this year’s budget negotiations, which begin in earnest this July, to be the most difficult they’ve ever seen. A central question in the negotiations will be whether to cut spending on social services. City Manager T.C. Broadnax advised Council last December that Austin had about $74 million in social services contracts with a variety of local nonprofits.