I want local government that lives up to our city. Save Austin Now has given us as individuals a non-partisan way to hold them accountable for exactly that.
Fighting for Austin's Future
Auditing City Spending
Independent, public spending & performance audits of city hall!
Prop Q
Stopping the largest cost-of-living tax hike
Prop B
Overturning unregulated camping
The City of Austin spends $6 Billion per year with no public Audits?
Watch: Why Austin Needs Independent Audits
This Audit makes the city show waste, be transparent & prevents tax hikes.
This City Charter amendment needs your signature & our effort needs your donation. It will finally require a recurring, independent review of Austin City Council's billions in spending, their performance, and their staffing — and it must identify savings that exceed the cost of the review itself.
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✓Independent professionals, competitively selected by the City Auditor — not City Hall.
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✓Forensic accounting to reveal fraud, waste, conflicts of interest, and weak internal controls.
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✓Full transparency: all drafts, data, and findings are public information by law.
Austin can't become more affordable without honest numbers.
The cost of City government directly affects the cost of living. This amendment requires the City to benchmark its spending, staffing, and outcomes against what residents and businesses can actually afford — and against similar Texas cities — instead of asking for more taxes without proof of efficiency.
Legally required oversight of City Council.
The Independent Affordability & Efficiency Initiative isn't just a one-time audit. It's a recurring, legally required process that forces the City to measure what matters: affordability, wasted spending, & real-world performance.
What Austin residents are asking.
What exactly does this amendment do?
How does this protect taxpayers before taxes go up?
Is this just another internal audit?
Who has to cooperate with the Initiative?
Will the findings be public?
How often will this review happen?
Sign the Audit Austin Petition at a Meetup.
See the signing meetups happening closest to you to sign the Audit Austin petition in-person. You can also print & mail it in or request a copy be mailed to you:
I want local government that lives up to our city. Save Austin Now has given us as individuals a non-partisan way to hold them accountable for exactly that.
Our Vision for Austin
Over the past four years, Austinites have delivered a clear message at the ballot box: affordability, accountability & basic competence are not partisan ideas — they are the minimum standard for a city that wants to stay livable.
Our passage of Proposition B showed Austin rejects ideological homelessness policy
When city council de-regulated homeless camping & panhandling, it took over public spaces, parks, trails & roads. Over 100,000 Austinites from every background saw that purported compassion without any structure collapses into disorder. Prop B was a statement that public safety & public spaces must be prioritized over ideology. It proved Austin would take hard, grown-up positions when City Council would not.
Our defeat of Proposition Q showed Austinites feel heavily overtaxed by city government
When City Hall pushed a vote on the largest cost-of-living tax hike in Austin history of 20.2% in a single year, 10x the rate of inflation, we responded with a decisive 63%-37% rejection. Families, renters, owners, & small businesses made it clear: living in Austin shouldn't require having some of the highest taxes in the country. Prop Q proved that residents will say no to new taxes unless there is unmistakable proof of efficiency & value.
The Audit Austin law makes accountability the default
Prop B restored basic order. Prop Q defended affordability. The Audit Austin law completes this arc by embedding truth into the Charter itself. It requires independent reviews of City Hall's spending, staffing, efficiency, & performance regularly — with findings made public & a clear expectation: city government must prove value before asking residents for more money.
Our Momentum
Each step built on the last. Together, these campaigns show a through-line: Austinites will defend public order, protect affordability, and demand honest numbers.
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2020
Prop B Petition Drive
Campaign LaunchResidents from every part of Austin collected signatures to restore basic standards for public spaces. The campaign proved that ordinary citizens could organize, build coalitions, and put an issue on the ballot without waiting for City Hall.
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2021
Prop B Victory
58% – 42%Austin voted to overturn unregulated camping, restoring the expectation that compassion requires order, and that neighborhoods, parks, and public places belong to the whole community.
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2024
Prop Q Victory
63% – 37%When City Hall advanced a record cost-of-living tax hike, Austinites said no. A decisive result sent a clear signal: before asking for more, city government must show it is using what it already has wisely.
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2025
Audit Austin Petition Drive
In ProgressBuilding on those wins, residents launched a petition to require independent, recurring audits of City Hall's spending and performance. The goal is simple: make transparency and efficiency the default, not the exception.
Sign the Petition
Let's keep the momentum!
Every win builds toward lasting change
Prop B
Overturning unregulated camping
58% - 42% VictoryProp Q
Stopping the largest cost-of-living tax hike
63% - 37% VictorySave Austin Now is the Largest Grassroots Organization in Austin’s History