A majority of the Austin City Council wants voters to consider a bond package for climate-related infrastructure projects no later than November 2026, and on Thursday the council took a step toward getting the item on a future ballot.
The city’s governing body approved a resolution directing city staff to come back to the City Council with two large proposals: a climate bond package and a climate investment plan. The City Council would need to approve both of those items at a later date before further action occurs.
The bonds in question would be general obligation bonds, which can be issued to taxing jurisdictions, like cities and counties, to pay for things like major capital improvement projects that would not be able to be funded through city revenue. These bonds are approved by voters and are paid back over time through city-collected property taxes.
What exactly these climate projects will include is far from being finalized, but the initial direction of the City Council, as outlined in the resolution approved Thursday, includes land acquisitions, local and solar battery storage, flood mitigation and tree planting.
There has been previous debate among members of the City Council on when a climate bond election should occur as the region continues seeing increased climate-related disasters.
While Council Member Mackenzie Kelly was the only one to formally vote “no” on the resolution, other council members who voted “yes” expressed their disappointment about not moving faster on bonds to complete at least some of the priorities already identified by the City Council.
Council Member Alison Alter voiced concerns about the dwindling of past bond dollars for things like land acquisition, saying there could have been smaller bond packages in the $100 million to $200 million range this year to pay for land acquisition and solar infrastructure that would have served as a stopgap until 2026.
“It is very disheartening to hear that we do not have funding available for land acquisition until 2027 at best,” Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson pointed out during Thursday’s meeting that although the resolution calls for an election to be held no later than 2026, “that doesn’t mean it has to be ’26.”
Even if a bond election occurred in 2025, an idea that was brought up Thursday and would be viable under the proposal, Fuentes said, “Ultimately, I do think we’ve lost an opportunity here.”
In addition to the climate and infrastructure bond proposals, the resolution directs city staff to explore additional funding mechanisms like federal grants and “innovative ways to leverage the City’s fee schedules and utilities and enterprise departments” to pay for climate infrastructure projects.
The resolution also mentions that the City Council will establish a bond advisory task force.
“The Task Force shall be comprised of relevant stakeholders and engaged community members as determined by council at a later date,” the draft resolution approved on Thursday states.