$7.1B 'Project Connect' Transportation Plan Passes In Austin

AUSTIN, TX — Early voting results showing a 58 percent support among residents for "Project Connect" — a $7.1 billion transportation plan that includes a rail network — prompted city officials to declare victory on Tuesday.

The project came in two separate parts for voters, Proposition A and Proposition B — both of which gained support from the majority of registered voters. The former, which passed with 59 percent of the vote, calls for an 8.75-cent increase per $100 valuation to the city's property tax rate, resulting in around a 4 percent increase to the total bill, toward a high-capacity transit system known as Project Connect. Prop B, which passed with 68 percent of the vote, provides for $460 million in debt issuance toward transportation improvements —sidewalks, bikeways, urban trails, safety projects and the like.

"With the passage of Proposition A, voters have given the green light to a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revolutionize our transportation infrastructure and provide people in our community with a safe, reliable way to get around," City Manager Spencer Cronk said in a prepared statement. "Project Connect will be better for our residents’ health, the environment, our safety, and our economic prosperity. Now, in partnership with the community, we are ready to begin the hard work to make this vision a reality."

Cronk also spoke on passage of the second proposition: “With voters’ support for Proposition B, we also begin efforts to invest an additional $460 million in transportation infrastructure – including sidewalks, bikeways, urban trails, and safety projects – to improve safety and mobility for our community, consistent with the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan.”

City officials provided specifics of each proposition:

• Proposition A: Voters were asked to weigh in on approving the city’s property tax rate and dedicating 8.75-cents towards the implementation of Project Connect. The property tax revenue will provide funding for the capital cost plus operations and maintenance of the transit system once built. The initial investment also includes $300 million for transit-supportive anti-displacement housing strategies. The dedicated property tax revenue, along with Capital Metro revenue and Federal funding, will be directed to a new, independent government organization called the Austin Transit Partnership to oversee, finance and implement Project Connect.
• Proposition B: Voters were asked to cast ballots on the issuance of $460 million in voter-approved general obligation bonds for transportation infrastructure including sidewalks, transportation-related bikeways, urban trails, transportation safety projects (Vision Zero), safe routes to school and substandard streets.

In a prepared statement, Gina Fiandaca, assistant city manager for mobility, spoke about the next steps for Project Connect: “Work begins now to stand up a new local government corporation, the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP), to deliver Project Connect in a transparent, efficient and timely manner, in line with the Contract with Voters. Our immediate next steps are to recruit and appoint the first ATP board, craft its first budget, and begin the environmental process for individual projects. We look forward to engaging with the community as we move forward with our partners to reshape transit in Austin.”

Mayor Steve Adler, who has long championed the project, celebrated on social media. "I’m proud to live in a city that is looking to its future — one not satisfied with the status quo," he wrote on Twitter. "Austin is pushing to be more sustainable, equitable and affordable in new and innovative ways."

In particular, Adler thanked young voters and new residents for having supported the project with their ballots. "Thank you to the broad and deep coalition that worked so hard," the mayor wrote. "Record numbers of voters, especially those young and new, showed up to make 'change' the winner tonight."

Austin City Council member Greg Casar — who won in his bid for a third term on the dais Tuesday — categorized the project as a local version of a Green New Deal. In a statement, he said the project will help fight climate change and gentrification as it improves the transportation infrastructure.

“This is Austin’s own local Green New Deal," Casar said. "This mass transit system will make sure our working people can get around our city, will create thousands of good union wage jobs, and will put in place clean transportation solutions that fight climate change. Austin voters sent a clear message tonight: a truly progressive agenda for our city wins.”

The breakneck speed of growth in Austin prompted city officials to tout Project Connect, but up to now a rail-centered transportation network had been elusive. Austin voters in the past rejected rail propositions in 2000 and 2014.

For more information about City of Austin Propositions A and B, click here.

Elections totals are total but unofficial tallies from the office of the Travis County clerk.