ATA issued a candidate questionnaire to all candidates running in the November 2022 general election. All questions were the same for Mayor, City Council, County Clerk and County Judge. Responses have not been edited. View all responses here.
Tom Wald – City Council District 9
1. As we head into the 4th year of Covid-19, what learnings have you taken from the pandemic and how will you apply those to your policies and community outreach moving forward?
We are still learning many lessons from the pandemic, and there are too many aspects to adequately cover in this space, so I will just cover a couple.
As typically happens with a major disruption to our city and economy, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted people with lower incomes and people of color. It highlights the need and benefit of the City of Austin playing a role in creating more resiliency in our various communities across the city.
Of course, remote working and meetings have become a new fixture of how many of us interact. Remote working has the potential to continue to shape our economy, including where people choose to live. Remote meeting usage has changed our civic discourse and participation, and while this provides a new mechanism for inclusion, it reduces the potential of in-person and informal contact among fellow Austinites.
2. How will you work with City leadership to provide a housing plan for unhoused residents?
I firmly believe that we can and should end chronic homelessness by providing adequate permanent housing to those who need it. On the way to achieving that goal, and by 2024, we should provide a minimum of basic shelter to those who need it. By the end of 2023, we should expand transitional or emergency shelter in order to immediately lift up the health and safety of all those who are unhoused.
Our overall housing policy also plays a major role. As local housing prices rise, and more people have to spend over 30% of their income on housing, homelessness also increases. People of higher incomes outbid those who earn a little less, and the result is that those with the lowest incomes have nowhere they can afford to live. Ending chronic homelessness means that we need to allow for more housing across income levels.
Indeed, there is typically a contributing factor to becoming unhoused (e.g. mental health issues, drug addiction, escaping domestic violence, job loss, or residence damage), and those all require attention too, but fundamentally, homelessness is a housing problem.
3. How will you work with City leadership to support marginalized communities in Austin?
I’ve led efforts over the last 16 years to support marginalized communities through my work for walking, ADA mobility, and bicycling, including access to transit. As a co-founder of People United for Mobility Action, I helped secure a $300 million anti-displacement in Project Connect to serve marginalized communities.
If elected, I would ensure the Austin Equity Office and Austin Civil Rights Office are adequately funded and provided the access they need to ensure our City government uplifts marginalized communities. I would also continue to work with various community leaders representing marginalized communities to ensure they continue to play a role in shaping city policy and implementation.
4. Homeowners and renters experienced enormous increases in Travis County Property Taxes in 2022. How will you address Austin’s ongoing housing shortage and displacement issues?
Our guidestar is to ensure that there is enough housing to meet the demand near jobs, services, and opportunity. We also need to continue to build income-restricted units (for those earning less than the median income) to fill gaps in the existing supply for lower income earners, to provide nearby options for those displaced now and in the future, and to help provide resiliency in the housing market.
Some of the mechanisms that should be approved by early 2023 and would have the quickest on-the-ground results include streamlining the development review process (including guaranteeing development timelines), eliminating car parking requirements (which both reduces costs and allows for more housing), building housing on city land, reducing development fees (temporarily and/or permanently), allowing existing residences to subdivide into multiple units, expanding Affordability Unlocked (to make it more effective and widely used, e.g., more sixplexes), and relaxing compatibility to allow more housing on corridors.
By the end of 2023, we should allow more of Austin to benefit from more housing types, e.g. town homes and cottage courts, that provide more opportunities for home ownership. And we should incentivize and facilitate replacing parking lots with housing.
Regarding property taxes:
Over the last decade or more, the City of Austin property tax rate has been comparable to other large Texas cities. With the FY23 budget, the city manager proposes to decrease rates to be among the lower rates of large Texas cities. Under this proposal, many homeowner residents would actually see their net City of Austin property tax bill go down in dollars. We need to continue to be diligent to prevent our property tax rate from escalating. Locally, the City of Austin should take advantage of new state exemption options to help reduce the tax burden for those on fixed incomes.
5. As our community continues to rely on virtual spaces, how should the City address the digital divide? What steps would you take to bridge that divide?
This is an important issue, and it threatens to perpetuate various inequities. I would pursue strategies outlined in the Austin Digital Inclusion Strategic Plan.
6. What are your thoughts on the City of Austin using cryptocurrency (AustinCoin)?
I am not optimistic that city coins are a good avenue to pursue. The story of MiamiCoin provides a cautionary tale.
7. How can the City better work with Austin’s tech community to bring innovative approaches to civic challenges?
As a nonprofit civic leader, I recognize that the City is only one of many players working to tackle civic challenges. Participation from Austin’s tech community (among the world’s most talented) continues to provide terrific opportunities.
The City can help third parties, including the tech community, to participate in developing creation solutions by openly sharing information and data, in order to provide a clearer picture of the challenges. It’s also helpful for City leaders, including staff and council members, to publicly acknowledge what challenges continue to be intractable.
The Austin Innovation Office can continue to provide a conduit to help these partnerships.
For more information visit www.tomwald.com