City Budget
The City of Austin is committed to an inclusive and transparent budget process that utilizes community and stakeholder feedback to ensure budget priorities are being met. The fiscal year begins on October 1. In the Spring, the City begins the annual budget preparation process that includes opportunities for citizen participation and culminates with the adoption of a final budget in mid-August. Any comments, questions, or suggestions about the City's budget can be sent to budgetqa@austintexas.gov.
Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget documents
Budget Development
This section has information about how community input, together with Council’s questions, directly informs the development of the City’s budget.
Community Engagement
Visit the community engagement website for the City of Austin, to learn about how to provide input on the annual budget process. The site is active each spring, when the City gathers early public input for the upcoming budget. During the rest of the year, the site serves as an archive where people can review past engagement and see how community ideas were used.
Explore budget engagement
City Council budget questions
As part of the budget process, City Council members submit formal budget questions, a process that typically takes place in the summer between the release of the proposed budget and Council’s final approval and adoption. Staff responses provide data and context that support transparent and informed decision‑making.
Fiscal Year 2025-26 Adopted Budget City Council Vote
| Name | District | Vote |
|---|---|---|
| Kirk Watson | Mayor | For |
| Natasha Harper-Madison | 1 | For |
| Vanessa Fuentes | 2 | For |
| José Miguel Anwar Velásquez | 3 | For |
| José “Chito” Vela | 4 | For |
| Ryan Alter | 5 | For |
| Krista Laine | 6 | For |
| Mike Siegel | 7 | For |
| Paige Ellis | 8 | For |
| Zohaib “Zo” Qadri | 9 | For |
| Marc Duchen | 10 | Against |
Click here to view details about the City's Tax Rates and the FY 2025-26 City Council Tax Rate Vote.
Past budget documents
To access additional past budget documents, visit the Austin History Center in person.
Budget data
Open Budget ATX provides a guided view through the City's budget and how funds are allocated. Explore interactive charts, graphs, and tables.
The comparison of actual expenditures to budget may appear inconsistent. That is because base wages for personnel are fully budgeted in the expense categories regular wages—full-time, regular wages—part-time or regular wages—civil service. The budget does not assume expenditure levels for the various leave categories, such as sick pay, vacation pay, or jury leave. However, actual expenses for various leave categories are recorded based on timesheet coding. The result is that actual expenditures for regular wages are spread across multiple expense categories while the budget is shown in one expense category.
Personnel savings is budgeted to account for the likely savings in personnel costs generated through attrition. However, the savings is realized in the expense categories regular wages—full-time, regular wages --part-time and regular wages—civil service. Therefore, the actual expenditures in the personnel savings expense category will always be zero.
The data contained on this website is for informational purposes only. Certain Austin Energy budget items have been excluded as competitive matters under Texas Government Code Section 552.133 and City Council Resolution 20051201-002.
| Current Fiscal Year | Location |
|---|---|
| Operating Program Budget Versus Expenditures | Data Portal |