Kirk Watson

Austin’s success depends on more investment and more revenue to cover the services our growing city needs and our residents want. Those funds are how we pay for our values. 

Our social safety net, our parks, libraries, housing programs, health care, climate investments, workforce pipelines, arts and culture, and the public servants we rely on to provide the services— are funded by a thriving, growing, and diversified economy. 

We also care about affordability, so we want to take great care before increasing taxes, rates, or fees in our community. Growing our economy is the obvious, most equitable, sustainable, and affordable way to generate needed funds. 

I am happy that Council passed my plan that lays out an active, progressive economic development policy for the City of Austin. 

The plan defines explicitly, and in advance, what the companies for Austin look like. 

➡️They pay living wages and invest in Austin’s workforce.

➡️They bring career pathways, not just jobs.

➡️They operate as stewards of Austin’s public resources—its water, its energy, its land—and not simply consumers of them. 

➡️They show up as civic partners, not just employers.

➡️They share the values that make Austin special in the first place.

That standard is the policy. A company that meets it, gets Austin’s embrace.  One that won’t, isn’t the right fit, regardless of the size of the investment or the numbers on the jobs announcement.

Latest : To the Rescue. Meet two new Watson dogs. We're still working on names.

We’ve adopted two rescue pups from Austin Bulldog Rescue (ABR). ABR is an excellent organization helping boodawgs that are in troubling bad circumstances by rescuing them, rehabbing them, and finding good homes for them.

“Boodawg” is a term that one of our sons coined when he was around 5. He called our mutant bulldog at the time, Emma, a boodawg. His 5-year old logic led him to argue that the breed wasn’t bulldog. It was boodawg because "She's so ugly that she's scary”.

Rescue organizations like ABR, by saving bulldogs and finding them a home like ours, help us humans, too.

It hurt bad to lose Doc. He was a special, long-time friend. Many folks told me that the best way to heal was to get another dog quickly. It's gonna take two new mutts to fill the big hole Doc left.

The one that sort of looks like a baby bear to me is a male English Bulldog. We think he's about 2 years old. The little brown one is a female French Bulldog. She's likely a year old.

We’ve had this combo before. We had a Frenchie named Lola. She was just a little bit of a dog that thought she was the size of an English Mastiff. We got Doc after her. He loved her. She was the experienced big sister that taught Doc the ropes. He followed her everywhere. Lola stepped on a rainbow and passed in 2024.

I’m as goofy and excited as a little kid about getting new puppies. It’s pretty great how rescuing these two needy dogs makes me so happy. They definitely need love and care, and it's going to be fun to be loved by them.

Read more: https://bit.ly/ABRWire

Today, I announced a hospital-led plan developed by Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health and St. David’s HealthCare to ensure sexual assault survivors continue to have access to critical forensic exam services across the hospitals.

The coordinated, multi-provider approach was developed by the hospital systems in partnership with community providers and ensures that every patient seeking a trauma-informed medical forensic exam from a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, or SANE, has timely access to compassionate, high-quality care.

For the past several months, I've led conversations between the hospital systems, the City Manager’s Office, Austin Public Health, Austin Government Relations, Austin Forensic Science, Travis County, and SANE service providers to address the need, and achieve a long-term vision for the community given the funding challenges presented by The SAFE Alliance.

I’ve been directly engaged with our community's healthcare system partners, SAFE Alliance, and others. Our priority has always been, as it should be, focused on sexual assault survivors and to make sure survivors in our community get the care and services they deserve.

I’m pleased that the hospital partners are ensuring care continues. Hospitals have a legal obligation to provide access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner services either directly or by referral to another provider, and they have the ability to determine how best to meet that obligation while ensuring quality care.

I thank Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White, St. David’s HealthCare, and Brave Alliance for stepping up in a difficult situation. They worked through a challenging set of circumstances, stayed focused on what matters most--the need for the services for survivors--and found a solution to ensure SANE services continue to be available in our community.

Latest : Funding Our Values. I’ve introduced a plan that lays out an active, progressive economic development policy for the City of Austin—a comprehensive and clear vision of the economy we’ll build, the tools we’ll deploy, and the standards we’ll uphold.

The proposal defines explicitly, and in advance, what the companies for Austin look like. They pay living wages and invest in Austin’s workforce. They bring career pathways, not just jobs. They operate as stewards of Austin’s public resources—its water, its energy, its land—and not simply consumers of them. They show up as civic partners, not just employers. And they share the values that make Austin special in the first place.

That standard is the policy. A company that meets it, gets Austin’s embrace. One that won’t, isn’t the right fit, regardless of the size of the investment or the numbers on the jobs announcement.

This framework makes Austin’s values binding, visible, and consistently applied so that every economic development decision reflects who we are.

Read more: https://bit.ly/WireFOV

Latest : Politics. Policy. Power. Pain. Since early 2025, I’ve strongly opposed federal actions involving ICE, and I’ve worked to protect Austin residents. In 2017, as State Senator, I fought SB 4, legislation the state uses to interfere with local governments and force cities to waste resources related to ICE.

Providing public safety is a primary function of our city government. Lisa Davis, Austin’s Chief of Police, revised the Austin Police Department’s General Orders earlier this year to address over 700,000 non-criminal administrative warrants put into the National Crime Information Center database in 2025. These documents authorize ICE agents to make civil arrests but aren’t judicial warrants signed by a neutral judge. They’re documents signed by a federal agency official.

The Chief’s orders were a common-sense policing approach that maximized the city’s limited resources to assure officers can best meet Austin’s public safety needs and to provide clarity to officers encountering the non-criminal ICE documents. The revised orders were consistent with state requirements, including SB4.

On April 16, the Governor, expressing disagreement with the General Orders, threatened to defund public safety grants awarded to Austin. Texas relies on cities to carry out certain public safety activity, and Austin relies on taxpayer-funded state grants to be able to keep Austin safe.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4226tzZ

In March, Chief of Police Lisa Davis revised the Austin Police Department’s General Orders to address the more than 700,000 noncriminal, administrative warrants put into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database in 2025.

The Orders were also to provide clarity for our police officers. Austin acted in compliance with state requirements. The Chief’s General Orders were a common sense, practical, and rational approach for policing that maximized our limited resources to adequately address Austin’s public safety needs.

We must do the job of policing in a practical and reasonable way. We do not have the time or resources to engage in activities that pull officers away from needed work and create inefficiencies. That is how we keep Austin safe. We also rely on funding from sources such as state grants to be able to keep Austin safe.

On April 16, the Governor notified me on behalf of the City of Austin that he believed the City was in breach of state grant requirements and threatened to terminate public safety grants awarded to the City. These taxpayer funded grants include:

➡️Sexual Assault Evidence Testing, which would help the City process hundreds of pieces of sexual assault evidence to identify perpetrators;

➡️General Victims Assistance, which helps victims of violent crime by providing trauma-informed support advocates throughout the legal process. It is expected to serve approximately 200 victims;

➡️Violence Against Women Act, which helps process digital evidence quicker, eliminating backlogs;

➡️Violence Against Women Justice and Training Program, which funds a coordinated Sexual Assault Response Team;

➡️Youth Diversion Program, which funds the GO ATX Youth Project, a city-led evidence-based truancy prevention program for students across AISD;

➡️Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which gives specialized training for our APD SWAT and Bomb Squad members;

➡️Peace Officer Mental Health program, which funds our First Responder Mental Health Project to help officers who have experienced direct and indirect trauma on the job.

I believe the City was following state requirements and I feel strongly that too often politics overwhelms good policy. The threatened loss of these grants would have meant the loss of important public safety services for people we want protected. We have an obligation to them.

The City and State have come to an agreement that the Chief and I believe is practical for our day-to-day policing, will not create undue harm for residents who are the subject of noncriminal, administrative warrants, and preserves important public safety funding. The newly amended General Orders take into account the practicality and reality of policing in Austin while also satisfying some of the concerns raised by the Governor’s office.

We will continue to provide quality public safety services to everyone. We will continue to support our officers. We will continue to support survivors. We will continue to protect people who ask for help. That is our duty. That is how we keep Austin safe.

I thank Chief Davis for her leadership and efforts in keeping our community safe, holding up Austin’s values, and ensuring that we are providing the needed resources for our officers and community.

Latest : Avoiding the Same Mistakes. From the 5th—8th grades, I had a buddy who owned a “mini-bike” – a small motorcycle with nothing much more than a lawnmower engine. The exhaust pipe sat right behind his right leg.

He rode in cutoff jeans or a bathing suit, and that hot pipe seemed to burn his leg at least every other time he mounted the mini-bike. Not occasionally. Not every now and then. But almost every time and always in the same way. He’d scream, cuss, throw the machine down, sometimes cry. But he never learned. I laughed at him. Not occasionally. Not every now and then. Every time. I was a good friend.

He never seemed to learn from his mistakes or even the pain.

There’s discussion about having a bond election this year. I want us to approach the discussion with some sense of past mistakes and pain those mistakes may be causing.

We can’t really talk about a new bond election without revisiting the past few bond elections because those elections created the context for where we are. Austin had elections in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Read more: http://bit.ly/BondWire2

The announcement today is extraordinary. Susan and Michael Dell revealed again their tremendous generosity and their commitment to the future of Austin, the State of Texas, and its people. We thank them.

The new Dell Campus for Advanced Research and the UT Dell Medical Center will change the world and save lives. The combination of the Dell Medical School at UT and MD Anderson Cancer Center will set a new standard for health innovation and care.

Our community is proud. In 2012, we invested in certain health care goals, including the creation of a medical school at UT and an effort to make Austin a center for comprehensive cancer care. That investment and vision continues to grow and provide returns that are remarkable.

Again, on behalf of Austin, I say “thank you” to Susan and Michael Dell for their support of our community and the good they continue to do.

Today, the City presented its 5-year financial forecast to the Austin City Council, which includes projections using the “No-New-Revenue Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Tax Rate”.

This is the first step of our budget process and as part of this first step, I asked our financial staff to give us projections at the No-New-Revenue rate to give Council and the residents of this City more clarity regarding budget priorities, how we use revenue and offers a measurable impression of how the state imposed 3.5% revenue cap impacts our ability to provide services.

My priority remains Austin's affordability. The decisions we make as leaders impact the ability of every day Austinites to be able to afford to live here. The reality is that life is not more affordable for Austinites right now. Residents are worried about their grocery and utility bills, their property taxes, the price of gas, and how inflation impacts their day-to-day costs.

This forecast offers a better understanding of the City’s budget challenges and gives us an opportunity to govern with fiscal responsibility and to focus on providing effective City services that make the day-to-day lives of Austinites better.

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=471944