Project Connect proposes $312.2M budget for upcoming year focusing on development of Orange and Blue lines

The Austin Transit Partnership, the organization in charge of the Project Connect investment, unveiled a $312.2 million budget for the upcoming year that will largely focus on designs for the Orange and Blue lines.

The budget forecasted that funding would allow for 30% of the designs for the Orange and Blue lines to be ready by late summer 2022. The Orange Line accounts for $92.8 million of the budget compared to $82.8 million for the Blue Line.

“Our budget that we do each year is really about moving forward and progressing on adhering to what the voters said to do with the vote and the sequencing plan related to the tax rate election and ultimately implementing Project Connect,” said Greg Canally, Austin Transit Partnership chief financial officer.

In addition to the design of the two lines, Capital Metro documents listed right of way acquisitions, tunnel length designs and construction as key expenditures. It also listed $13.5 million in expenses for the construction of McKalla Station on the Red Line near Q2 Stadium.

The budget would allot $42 million for anti-displacement efforts and $42 million for MetroRapid, focusing on construction of the Expo Center and Pleasant Valley routes.

From a revenue perspective, $135.3 million would come from reserved dollars from the fiscal year 2020-21 budget. The other main source of funding, $153.5 million, would come from the property tax approved by voters in 2020. The approved tax rate was $0.0875 per $100 property valuation, but that tax rate can only yield a yearly 3.5% increase in tax revenue.

“The amount of that revenue is dictated by state law, and each year that revenue can only go up 3.5%, so really there's a balancing act between property values and revenue growth and what spits out is a tax rate,” Canally said.

The board is scheduled to vote on the budget at its next meeting Sept. 15.