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City reports 2,002 responses to bond survey; housing, transportation and parks top priorities
Summary
City staff told the task force that a 26‑day survey of 2,002 participants showed housing and homelessness, transportation, and parks as top priorities; 70% of respondents indicated willingness to accept some tax increase for tangible solutions.
Lucero Arechiga of the City of Austin’s Communications and Public Information Office presented results of a 26‑day public input survey on July 28 that collected 2,002 responses and additional outreach contacts. The survey, conducted on PublicInput.com and offered in four languages, sought to align community priorities with bond categories.
Key findings: In an open‑ended question asking the greatest needs facing Austin today, respondents prioritized housing and homelessness (34%), transportation (22%), and parks/parkland. When asked to allocate a hypothetical $100 among bond categories, transportation received the largest share (19.8%), followed by housing and homelessness (18.5%) and parks. Respondents also showed strong support for climate and sustainability as cross‑cutting design considerations: 81% said climate and sustainability were important when designing and building projects.
Tax willingness: The presentation reported that 70% of participants would support a tax increase for tangible solutions; the median reported willingness was $10 per month. Staff cautioned that the survey respondent profile skewed toward higher incomes (median household income reported around $120,000) and that the sample is opt‑in.
Engagement and next steps: Staff said outreach included 98 community meetings/events, 30,000 multilingual postcards, door‑to‑door contacts and 179 HOA/renter group connections. Town hall and working‑group public meetings are planned for September and afterward; staff said supplemental data, cleaned datasets and an appendix of AI‑assisted thematic coding will be provided to task force members.
Ending: Staff asked task force members to review detailed supplemental materials and flagged a second phase of outreach to target underrepresented neighborhoods before finalizing project lists.
