July 9 Agenda, Items 15 and 16

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Delia Garza
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:20 am

July 9 Agenda, Items 15 and 16

Post by Delia Garza »

This Thursday I will be in Washington, D.C. to help represent the City in the Smart City Challenge. Unfortunately, that means I cannot be present for our Council meeting. Therefore, I wanted to offer a short statement of support for Items 15 and 16 on the agenda.

Austin is the most economically segregated city of its size in the country. Many members of our community have desperate needs, and nowhere to go for help except to the resources we provide. Items 15 and 16 reflect our commitment to provide those services. They will increase our payments to two local agencies to compensate for their increased cost drivers, which is necessary to ensure they will be able to continue providing services at the same level from year to year.

It is very important that we do not backslide on our commitment to funding essential health and human services. Historically, the City of Austin has invested far less in this area than comparable cities; and at a minimum, we should ensure that gap doesn’t become any worse. Increasing our social service contract payments annually to ensure we maintain the same level of services to our vulnerable populations was a policy originally passed by the last Council, which this Council decided to support earlier this year, and which we should continue to support through Items 15 and 16.
Mayor Pro Tem, District 2