Public Citizen Supports Austin Prop Q to Fund Local Services and Climate Action
By Kaiba White
Public Citizen is supporting Proposition Q because funding our local government is essential for maintaining quality of life in Austin and to enable our city to live up to our stated values. Even as the federal government turns its back on working people and abandons responsibility for addressing the climate crisis, we can choose a different path. Instead of allowing a budget deficit caused by factors mostly out of local leaders’ control to force program cuts and layoffs, we can pool our resources and provide the necessary funding. We can show that we’re still a community that is committed to funding social services and taking action to reduce climate pollution and improve resilience.
Federal grants and other funds that were intended to help Austin and other cities fight and adapt to climate change have been illegally revoked. We can either step up to fill those gaps or we can stick our heads in the sand and hope someone else does the hard work. Without Prop Q City efforts to make energy savings improvements to city facilities, make purchasing more sustainable, prevent wildfires, transition to clean electric equipment, and protect and maintain parks and open spaces are in jeopardy.
It’s not easy to ask everyone to support a tax increase. We know that just as costs have increased for the city, so have they for residents and businesses. When resources are scarce, it can be tempting to hold on to what we have for ourselves, but we can do more collectively than we can as individuals. That’s the beauty of taxes and government – they should represent us working together to solve our problems. I hope Austinites will remember that as they head to the polls in a few weeks.
With our federal government being dismantled, collective action at the local level is more important than ever. The Trump administration can stop federal employees from saying the word emissions, but the climate crisis will continue. It won’t stop and wait for politics to change. We must take action at the local level. Let’s pass Prop Q and keep our city working for all Austinites.