Austin City Council holds public hearing on proposed city budget

AUSTIN, Texas - Austinites are getting a chance to voice their opinions about the proposed city budget.

Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk presented the budget to Austin City Council earlier this month. It includes more than $11 million in cuts to the Austin Police Department, the elimination of 100 officer positions, and it delays cadet classes.

RELATED: Austin city manager proposes $4.2B budget, including reducing APD's budget by $11.3M

The money cut from APD would be reallocated to other public safety strategies like mental health response, seven new community health paramedics, and public health services. 

As of last night, about 400 people were signed up to speak which would be an estimated 13 hours of speaker time. They will be assigned to two-hour batches in the order they signed up so they don't have to wait online all day to speak. Each speaker has two minutes to talk.

The meeting began at around 10 a.m and could go on until at least midnight.

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