REMINDER: Please join me tomorrow, July 21st, at 6 p.m. for our Virtual Budget Town Hall. Interim Budget Officer Kerri Lang will join us to discuss the FY22 Budget process and the City’s spending framework. The virtual presentation will be followed by a moderated Q&A session where attendees will be able to submit questions via the chat function in real time. I invite you to read my last newsletter for more details about the FY22 budget, including links to important budget documents.
Register to attend the District 10 Virtual Town Hall using this link. When you submit your registration, you will receive an email containing the video link and call-in number. If you plan to call in instead of using the video platform, please email your questions to budgetqa@austintexas.gov.
Budget Office Hours
Please join me and my staff for our final in-person budget office hours this Friday, July 23rd. We will be there to help answer any questions you may have about the proposed budget:
Public Hearing and Council Deliberation Dates
As a reminder, Council will hold budget public hearings at City Hall on Thursday, July 22nd and Thursday, July 29th. Members of the public will be able to provide comments directly to the City Council either in person or virtually. To sign up for public comment, follow the instructions on the council meeting website.
Council’s budget work sessions will be held Tuesday, July 27th and Tuesday, August 3rd. Final budget deliberations begin Wednesday, August 11th. These meetings will stream on ATXN. For further information on the budget process, you may review answers to Council budget questions and discussion on the Council message board.
I also want to call your attention to this morning's COVID briefing. COVID cases, hospitalizations, and positivity rates are all on the rise and steadily crossing the threshold into Stage 4 Risk Guidelines. Based off of our current numbers, Austin/Travis County Public Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes advised today that all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks when indoors with non-household members.
With the presence of COVID variants confirmed in Austin, we must remain vigilant. Current data shows that the vast majority of COVID cases and hospitalizations are happening in folks who are not vaccinated, although we are seeing a small but increasing number of "breakthrough cases", or cases where fully vaccinated people are getting COVID. If you are unvaccinated, please consider getting the vaccine if you are able. If you are already fully vaccinated, please encourage friends and family to access the many free vaccine resources available in our community.
We can help stop the spread of COVID and new variants by masking up, washing our hands, and staying home and getting tested when feeling sick. Please continue to monitor the situation in Austin/Travis County by visiting www.austintexas.gov/covid19 where you can look through various COVID dashboards, find vaccine resources, locate testing sites, see our current Risk Stage, and more.
Regards,
Alison Alter
Council Member, District 10
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