Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employee Association

After months of work by the community and city staff, officials finally approved a $2.8 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2010 Monday morning – a task the City of Austin faced with a projected $30 million budget shortfall.

The voting got under way at 9 a.m. at City Hall as Austin City Council members tackled the final Fiscal Year 2010 budget first thing Monday morning.

“We’ve listened to the community and brought forward a budget that maintains core services including public safety,” said Austin City Manager Marc Ott. “We explained to the community early on what we were facing, received unprecedented input, and with the Council, worked toward meeting those concerns.”

Several public hearings came before the final vote, which included citizen input the Austin mayor said highlighted the best decisions for the community and helped guide the outcome.

“Through this process, parks and libraries will stay open, public safety will be maintained, infrastructure will continue to be built and we will preserve core city services,” said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell in a statement .

For months, city departments have had to find ways to make cuts in order to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall due to the economic downturn.

Some of those cuts include city employees giving up about $10 million in pay concessions, including the police union giving up $4 million in pay raises to save the police cadet class.

EMS workers meanwhile gave up $750,000 in pay raises. Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employees Association President Steve Stewart said he is still unhappy, the council did not add an additional ambulance to the city’s fleet.

“Our call volume will go up, and we have no more resources to meet that call volume,” said Stewart.

Council Member Sheryl Cole said there is still time to amend next year’s budget as well.

“We are going to have to consider their equipment requests throughout the year,” she said.

Taxpayers will also be paying for the cuts. For single-family homeowners, the median increase in their property tax bills is estimated at $85 per year.

This means one-half of the homes will see an increase less than this amount.

Some budget highlights:

• No operational cuts to fire emergency response, emergency medical services, 911 dispatch, police patrols or police investigation
• Maintains scheduled police cadet class
• Invests in City’s infrastructure
• Avoids reductions to recreation center and library hours.

Still, Leffingwell said Austin continues to perform better than most cities because of its strong, diverse economy. The mayor said Austin’s quality of life continues to be its greatest asset.

“I am very optimistic about Austin’s economic future,” said Leffingwell.

Meanwhile, the city council has set a hearing on the tax rate for Sept. 24 at 6 p.m., with approval expected Oct. 1. The budget takes effect Oct. 1.