Stay tuned for St. Ed’s Update on possible new sidewalks

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Communications

Information from meeting posted here

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SRCC Executive Committee Meeting Minutes – 2/20/2017

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Secretary

Continue reading →

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Winter 2017 SRCC Newsletter

Posted on February 17, 2017 by President

The Winter 2017 edition of the SRCC Newsletter has been printed and delivery is underway. You can also get a head start on reading it here.

Complete delivery of the paper newsletter to thousands of homes takes a few weeks. If it’s been a while and you have not received your copy, please contact Gretchen Otto at president@srccatx.org.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers (area coordinators and block captains) needed in order to hand-distribute our newsletter! For many of our residents, this is still the only way for them to stay informed on what’s going on in our area.

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Upcoming CodeNEXT Community Open Houses

Posted on February 16, 2017 by President

FROM THE CITY OF AUSTIN:
We will be hosting five open houses to roll-out the CodeNEXT draft. We have secured AISD venues throughout the city and we are inviting all Austinites to attend and participate. These open houses are not specific to Council districts but are conveniently located across Austin to facilitate attendance and participation. The purpose of these open houses is to learn about the draft code, speak to code experts who drafted portions of the draft, and provide feedback.

Please assist us in spreading the word to your networks, constituents, associations and networks by sharing the attached fliers and pointing folks to the links below.

Here is the link to the draft code which provides opportunities for public feedback. If the comments are provided by a board or commission member, I recommend they log into the online draft using their BC email address. Prior to reading the draft code, I suggest reading the information below:

1. Here is a link to education materials that help explain the new Draft Code.
2. Here is a video of a presentation as well as the presentation made to City Council explaining the draft code.
3. Here is a link to the online CodeNEXT survey – through the collaborative and comprehensive process of CodeNEXT, problems in the existing Land Development Code (LDC) were identified and solutions were developed to align the LDC with the values and vision of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan. In the ongoing effort to solicit public input in the CodeNEXT process, this survey will ask you how well these solutions address the issues identified as problematic in Austin’s LDC.

In addition, there are a number of public engagement events that will be helpful to understanding the code.

The CodeNEXT Team will be hosting a series of open houses around the City:

1. Feb. 18, 2017
Crockett High School (5601 Manchaca Rd.)
Noon to 2 p.m.

2. Feb. 25, 2017
Lanier High School (1201 Payton Gin Rd.)
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

3. March 4, 2017
Lyndon B. Johnson Early College High School (7309 Lazy Creek Dr.)
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Thank you for your assistance. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Ashley S. Greenstein, Planner II
CodeNEXT Team
City of Austin Planning & Zoning Department
505 Barton Springs Rd.
Austin, TX 78704
Phone: (512) 974-2743
ashley.greenstein@austintexas.gov

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Why are my property taxes so high?

Posted on February 14, 2017 by President

Taxparency: the condition of being transparent with respect to taxpayer dollars.

Many folks in our neighborhood are being pushed out of their homes due to high property taxes. One reason why we pay so much in property taxes is because of the way the state recaptures our local school property taxes and then, instead of spending them on education, keeps them and uses the money for other things. AISD is paying the state $406 million dollars this year in recapture payments, the most by far of any school district in the entire state. One third of our annual local taxes raised to operate Austin ISD are actually diverted to recapture payments. Not only are our local dollars not going toward AISD, but they aren’t even going toward education anywhere even though they are earmarked for that use. For more information, visit this new info-packed website: www.taxparencytexas.org. This site was launched by the Plano ISD school board, with whom AISD is collaborating to educate folks on this complicated issue.

Why is Taxparency an Issue?

Texas taxpayers are not aware that public school districts get very little, if any, additional operating revenue when property values rise. At the same time, according to the outgoing chairman of the Texas House’s Public Education Committee, the Legislature is spending more than $2 billion a year that should have gone to public education on other programs and services in the state budget.

Over time, the state has spent less and less on education, relying more on our ever-increasing local taxes. The state’s share of public education spending has dropped greatly over the past decade; Texas is spending about $339 per student less this year than it did in 2008, according to the Legislative Budget Board. Local spending rose $990 per student over the same period.

See also this Politfact article, which confirms that the average Austin taxpayer could save $1,355 a year if AISD did not have to pay recapture money to the state.

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