Vote Yes on Prop B

Early voting starts today, Monday, October 22^nd, for the Travis County Bond Election. The Save Our Springs Alliance Board voted to support Proposition B, which, in addition to general parkland acquisitions and improvements, will dedicate over $16 million towards conservation easements aimed at preserving open space and protecting water quality. As many areas within the county lack land use controls, conservation easements are some of the most effective tools we have to protect environmentally sensitive lands and mitigate against the consequences of overdevelopment.

Barton Springs University 2017

Barton Springs University held at Barton Springs on September 26th hosted over 800 high school students and a  few hundred more college students and others to day of learning from an incredible team of water, land, and environmental experts.   See photos  HERE. 

We thank all of our sponsors and partners (see below) and our amazing presenters, volunteers,and BSU participants!

Partners 

City of Austin Parks & Recreation, Watershed Protection, Water Utility and Austin Resource ~ Recovery * University of Texas' Environmental Science Institute * Texas State University * Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District * U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service * Texas Parks & Wildlife * Save Barton Creek Association * Sierra Club * Texas Campaign for the Environment * Lone Star Sierra Club

Sponsors 

Kirk Mitchell Environmental Law Fund | Texas Environmental Preservation Fund | Roger Worthington | Jenny Clark | Tracey Whitley /Roger Baker |  Barkley Houses | Meredith Dreiss | Dick Kallerman  | Barry George | Sheridan & Perry Lorenz | Brian Rodgers | Charles and Sylvia Zeller 

More Convention Center Follies

Please join us Thursday, Sept. 28th at City Hall or send an email to City Council to oppose Agenda Item 15, which would renew the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (aka Visit Austin’s) budget and also oppose Item 52, which would advance Mayor Adler’s  “Downtown Puzzle” plan and more than a billion dollars on a wasteful and irresponsible convention  center expansion.  These items will likely come up at or after 3:30 p.m.  tomorrow.

Last night, KXAN exposed how Visit Austin/ACVB has been treating Austin’s hotel tax revenue as their personal party fund. Check out the story here.  As just one example, the records we uncovered show Visit Austin spending tens of thousands of dollars on Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Adele concert tickets in other cities (thus incurring air travel, hotel and meal expenses as well), all purportedly to  promote Austin tourism.  It’s time to tell Visit Austin that the party is over. We need to demand an immediate and comprehensive audit of Visit Austin’s finance, management and operations as Austin’s tourism department.  We need to return these functions to the city rather than as payout to a private entity that wastes our money and hides its activities from public oversight.

Read more ...

Hot tax win!! Thank you, stay engaged, it's only round one

Last night, after hours of contentious testimony and city council debate, Mayor Adler threw in the towel with a minor concession from his colleagues and joined a unanimous council in voting to direct the City Manager to move $15 million from this year's proposed budget for the convention center over to fund $3.2 million for promotion of live music, $500,000 for locally-owned business promotion, and $11 million to create an Historic Preservation Fund.  This fund would help protect historic places that we are losing as well as historic preservation activities, such as operation of the Austin History Center.

The funding is only for this year's budget.  However, it sets the stage for future moves to shift even more funding away from the failing convention center and towards live music, arts, parks, preservation, and locally-owned business.

Read more ...

Help Save Live Music, Arts, History and Parks in Austin

Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and Councilmembers Leslie Pool, Ann Kitchen and Ellen Troxclair have proposed shifting $10 to $12 million away from the convention center and towards arts, music, and heritage preservation.  Their resolution is Item 60 on this week's August 31 city council agenda.  Please support this resolution with a quick email message to the entire council at this link.  Tell them you support the Item 60 resolution giving more hotel occupancy tax funding to Austin live music, arts, and parks and preservation.  Please attend the Thursday August 31 public hearing to show your support if you are able.   This is an important first step in matching our priorities with our spending of City taxes. The hotel occupancy tax and proposed convention center expansion issues are somewhat complicated, but breakdown to a simple question of choosing our priorities for billions of hotel tax revenues to be collected over the next 20 years.  Please read the pdf attached summary/opinion piece (101 KB) by Bill Bunch for the details.