Austin, Texas
| Austin, Texas | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Austin
Kirk Watson | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2024 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2028 |
| Last city council election: | 2024 |
| Next city council election: | 2026 |
| City council seats: | 11[1] |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 950,807 |
| Race: | White 72.6% African American 7.8% Asian 7.6% Native American 0.7% Pacific Islander 0.1% Two or more 3.5% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic 33.9% |
| Median household income: | $71,576 |
| High school graduation rate: | 89.4% |
| College graduation rate: | 51.7% |
| Related Austin offices | |
| Texas Congressional Delegation Texas State Legislature Texas state executive offices | |
Austin is the state capital of Texas. It is located in Travis County, Texas. The city's population was 961,855 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Council-manager government
The city of Austin utilizes a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council—which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body—appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative initiatives.[2][3]
Mayor
The mayor is a member of the city council. He or she presides over council meetings and official city ceremonies. The mayor also represents the city on the state, national, and international levels.
The current Mayor of Austin is Kirk Watson (nonpartisan). Watson assumed office in 2023.
City manager
The city manager is Austin's chief executive officer. The responsibilities of the city manager include overseeing the city's day-to-day operations, planning and implementing the city's operating budget, and appointing a deputy city manager, five assistant city managers, and the directors of the city's governmental departments.[2]
City council
The Austin City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for approving and adopting the city budget, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies and ordinances. The council also possesses the legal authority to inquire into the conduct or activities of city departments, agencies, and individual employees.[4]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Mayoral partisanship
Austin has a Democratic mayor. As of March 2025, 65 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, two are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2024
The city of Austin, Texas, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 5, 2024. A general runoff election was scheduled for December 14, 2024. The filing deadline for this election was August 19, 2024.
2022
The city of Austin, Texas, held regular general elections for mayor and city council on November 8, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was August 22, 2022. A general runoff election was scheduled for December 13, 2022.
The city also held a special general election for the District 4 seat on the city council on January 25, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was December 16, 2021. A general runoff election was scheduled for March 22, 2022, but it was not necessary.[5]
2020
- See also: City elections in Austin, Texas (2020)
The city of Austin, Texas, held general elections for city council districts 2, 4, 6, 7, and 10 on November 3, 2020. The filing deadline for this election was August 17, 2020.
2019
Austin voters also voted on two citywide ballot measures on November 5, 2019. Click here to read about Austin's Proposition A and Proposition B as well as other local ballot measures and statewide measures on the November 5 ballot in Texas.
2018
The city of Austin, Texas, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 6, 2018. The deadline for candidates to file to run in this election was August 20, 2018.
2016
The city of Austin, Texas, held elections for city council on November 8, 2016. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was August 22, 2016. Five of the ten city council seats were up for election.[6]
2014
The city of Austin, Texas, held nonpartisan elections for mayor and city council on November 4, 2014. The candidate filing deadline was August 18, 2014. Delia Garza and Ann Kitchen won contested races for Districts 2 and 5 respectively. Kathie Tovo was declared the winner in District 9 after Chris Riley withdrew on November 7.[7][8]
A runoff election took place on December 16, 2014, to decide the outcome of the mayoral and remaining city council races. In that election Stephen Adler defeated Mike Martinez in the mayoral race. Ora Houston, Sabino "Pio" Renteria, Greg Casar, James T. Flannigan, Leslie Pool, Ellen Troxclair and Sheri P. Gallo won the runoffs in Districts 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10 respectively.[9]
Redistricting
In conjunction with the November 2014 elections, the city of Austin implemented the "10-ONE" plan, a charter amendment approved by voters in 2012, which shifted Austin's city government from at-large representation to district-based, geographical representation. Under "10-ONE," members of the city council are elected by ten new districts instead of at-large.
The new districts can be seen on the map to the right. The "10-One" plan also expanded the size of the city council from 7 to 11 (the eleventh member is the mayor, who is still elected at large).
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for Austin | |
|---|---|
| Austin | |
| Population | 961,855 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 326 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 59.9% |
| Black/African American | 7.5% |
| Asian | 8.6% |
| Native American | 0.7% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| Two or more | 15.5% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 32.2% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 91.6% |
| College graduation rate | 58.2% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $91,461 |
| Persons below poverty level | 12.3% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal years running from October 1 to September 30 of the next year. The city charter gives responsibility for drafting an expense and capital budget to the city manager. The city manager presents the council with the proposed budget at least 30 days before the start of the budget year. A public hearing is held during the city council meeting at which the budget is submitted. The budget is adopted no later than September 27.[10]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[11]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[12] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[13] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
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Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[11]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The mayor is included in this number as one of the city council members.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Office of the City Manager, "About," accessed August 19, 2014
- ↑ Austin City Charter V 1-3, accessed August 26, 2014
- ↑ Austin City Charter: Article II accessed on August 20, 2014
- ↑ Austintexas.gov, "CITY OF AUSTIN ELECTION CALENDAR JANUARY 25, 2022 SPECIAL ELECTION TO FILL A VACANCY," accessed November 19, 2021
- ↑ City of Austin, "City of Austin Election Calendar," accessed February 25, 2016
- ↑ Travis County Clerk Election Results, accessed September 15, 2015
- ↑ Austin Chronicle, "Breaking: Chris Riley Withdraws From Run-off," November 7, 2014
- ↑ Travis County Clerk Election Results December 16, 2014, accessed September 15, 2015
- ↑ City of Austin, "The Code of the city of Austin, Texas," accessed August 24, 2023 (Article VII Sections 3-6)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 24, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 24, 2023
- ↑ KVUE, "'Several arrests' made as protesters shut down area near Austin Police Department in downtown," May 30, 2020
- ↑ KXAN, "Gov. Abbott sends state resources to Austin, other Texas cities to help maintain peace during protests," May 30, 2020
- ↑ The Texas Tribune, "State appeals court says Austin's paid sick leave ordinance is unconstitutional," November 16, 2018
- ↑ Law and the Workplace, "Austin, Texas Enacts Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law," February 22, 2018
- ↑ Austin Monitor, "Business groups sue to block city’s paid sick leave law," April 25, 2018
- ↑ The Texas Monitor, "TAB will try to put a stop to paid sick leave ordinances," June 7, 2018
- ↑ Statesman, "Court denies injunction in Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance," June 26, 2018
- ↑ The Dallas Morning News, "State appeals court temporarily halts Austin's paid sick leave ordinance," August 19, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "State appeals court temporarily blocks Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance," August 17, 2018
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 NBC News, "The crackdown on sanctuary cities gives birth to 'freedom cities,'" September 15, 2018
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 KVUE ABC, "Austin made first ‘Freedom City’ in Texas at tense city council meeting," June 15, 2018
- ↑ The Garden City Telegram, "Cities, states resist — and assist — immigration crackdown in new ways," August 19, 2018
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
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