Item 1: Budget White Paper — original pdf

Backup

FY2026–27 Joint Inclusion Committee Budget Follow-Up This document summarizes the status of budget recommendations advanced by the Joint Inclusion Committee and its member commissions. While some priorities were maintained or partially addressed in the City Manager’s proposed budget, most remain unfunded or lack a clear implementation plan. Departmental support without dedicated funding, responsible staff, and a timeline is not implementation. Council should protect essential services and invest in prevention, including housing stability, healthcare, childcare, nutrition, legal assistance, accessibility, language access, and trusted community outreach. Where full funding is not possible, Council should provide a first-year investment and direct staff to return with a clear, costed path forward. Commission Status and Remaining Priorities African American Resource Advisory Commission ● Status: The proposed budget does not fund the $250,000 Multicultural STEM Symposium, and several Black-serving social-service priorities remain vulnerable to reductions. The City is exploring coordination with existing youth employment programs but has not funded the proposed symposium. ● Ask: Protect social-service contracts serving Black residents and provide a first-year investment or implementation plan for the Multicultural STEM Symposium and other culturally responsive economic-mobility programs. Asian American Quality of Life Advisory Commission ● Status: The AARC operating budget increases modestly, and ACME supports addressing its staffing and senior-service needs, but the proposed budget does not identify dedicated funding for pavilion staffing, temporary workforce support, or expanded senior nutrition. Community Health Navigator and language-access needs also remain unresolved. ● Ask: Restore and expand Community Health Navigator and language-access services, provide an itemized implementation plan for AARC’s unmet needs, and establish a funding timeline for an updated Asian American Quality of Life Study. Commission for Women ● Status: Emergency rental assistance and immigrant legal services remain in the proposed budget, but the full Mama Sana Vibrant Woman maternal-health and housing- stabilization request has not been funded as a dedicated package. ● Ask: Restore Mama Sana Vibrant Woman to the requested $900,000 service level and reverse remaining reductions to immigrant legal-service contracts. Commission on Aging ● Status: Older-adult outreach, in-language communications, and $400,000 in digital- equity programming are supported or maintained. However, the Parks and Recreation allocation associated with older-adult meal services decreases from approximately $666,000 to $572,000, and additional resources are still needed. ● Ask: Protect and expand home-delivered and congregate meal services and require implementation plans for transportation safety, adult-day health services, and employment and volunteer access for older adults. Commission on Immigrant Affairs ● Status: The City recognizes the need for immigrant legal assistance but has not fully restored prior reductions. The City does not support creating a separate Immigrant Affairs Office at this time, although it acknowledges that additional staffing within Austin Equity and Inclusion could strengthen the work. ● Ask: Restore budget cuts to immigration legal-service funding and provide additional funding to expand access to deportation defense, support the Immigrant Affairs Manager with additional staff, and reinstate the $3 million Family Stabilization Program. Early Childhood Council ● Status: Funding for AISD Parent Support Specialists is maintained, representing a clear success. However, proposed City funding for the Family Child Care Educator Network falls from $75,000 to $38,730, with no enhancement to preserve its full operating level or Network Coordinator. ● Ask: Maintain Parent Support Specialists, restore the Family Child Care Educator Network to its $150,000 operating level, protect its coordinator, and prevent reductions to bilingual early-childhood and family-support programs. Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Resource Advisory Commission ● Status: The proposed budget does not reinstate the $3 million Family Stabilization Program. Student mental-health, maternal-health, and digital-literacy recommendations remain subject to the social-services prioritization process rather than receiving dedicated enhancements. ● Ask: Restore Family Stabilization funding and provide practical first-year investments for maternal health, school-based mental-health services, and development of the Latino Artist Access Program into a complete artist-incubation program. Human Rights Commission ● Status: The proposed $350,000 Loan Buydown Program partially advances the Commission’s small-business assistance goal, but it is not the same as the requested hardship grant and forgivable-loan fund. The Family Child Care Educator Network also remains underfunded. ● Ask: Preserve immigrant legal services, restore the Family Child Care Educator Network, and require equitable access and public reporting for small-business assistance programs. Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities ● Status: Therapeutic Recreation funding increases from approximately $622,000 to $656,000, although additional staffing and operating resources are needed. The proposed budget provides no funding for Far Southeast Library predevelopment or the Elisabet Ney Museum accessible restroom. ● Ask: Fully support the Therapeutic Recreation Program and fund the $500,000 Far Southeast Library predevelopment request and an ADA-accessible restroom at the Elisabet Ney Museum. Commission on Veterans Affairs ● Status: Veterans are included within several broader programs, including APD’s auxiliary liaison program, but the proposed budget does not identify a dedicated Veterans Affairs investment or funding for Austin’s first Veterans Quality of Life Study. ● Ask: Fund the first Veterans Quality of Life Study and require veteran-specific outreach, participation data, and accountability within housing, food-access, digital-equity, public- safety, and social-service programs. LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory Commission ● Status: Austin Public Health supports disease-prevention services, but the relevant proposed allocation decreases by approximately $246,000. Legal navigation and the Entertainment District remain unfunded, while the liaison and Safe and Proud proposals received partial operational support without complete dedicated funding. ● Ask: Fully fund recommended MPox and HIV/STI prevention services; support housing stabilization, a dedicated legal-navigation resource, the $40,000 liaison investment, Stop the Bleed and CPR/AED measures, and implementation of the LGBTQ Entertainment District and Micro-PID.