The Austin City Council passed a resolution on Jan. 22 that limits how members can spend their office budgets. 

Prohibited uses of city funds include flight upgrades, alcoholic beverages and meals unrelated to city business, according to the resolution. Permissible expenses, like office supplies and subscriptions to periodicals and newsletters “relevant to the activities” of the member’s office, are also outlined in the resolution. 

The approved resolution also requires the Austin City Council to publish its spending on its website annually. 

Despite the resolution, the mayor and some council members said the guidelines should be stronger after amendments weakened a previous draft measure.

An earlier draft proposed a rollover cap, which would have allowed city council offices to keep no more than $50,000 between fiscal years. More funds left over would have been returned to the city’s general fund, according to the draft resolution. 

The council replaced the cap with an option to transfer unspent money to other city departments. City council members voted 6-4-1 to remove the cap from the previous draft.

Council member Zo Qadri, who represents UT and West Campus, voted to remove the rollover cap. Qadri wrote in an email that he voted against the cap because city council offices have “high levels of constituent engagement and service demands” that require the council to “plan across fiscal years.”

“My concern was not about retaining excess funds but about avoiding incentives for rushed or inefficient end-of-year spending,” Qadri wrote. “Strong oversight and clear rules for use are a more effective way to ensure fiscal discipline while allowing offices to meet district-specific needs.”

Mayor Kirk Watson, who helped create the draft resolution, said removing the rollover cap was a mistake because the city council wants to restore public trust.

“It wasn’t very long ago that, in part because of questions about council spending, the voters gave us a clear signal,” Watson said during the city council meeting.

The new spending policies come after voters rejected Proposition Q in a ballot election last year, a plan to raise nearly $100 million in property taxes to finance homelessness and other city projects. Council members faced criticism after an Austin American-Statesman article stated that some council members used city funds to pay for personal expenses. 

Matt Mackowiak, co-chair of Save Austin Now, a political action committee that opposed Proposition Q, wrote in an email its rejection was “an undeniable sign” of public distrust in Austin City Hall. The committee is collecting signatures for a petition that would conduct an independent audit of city council spending, Mackowiak wrote.

“This silliness needs to come to an end,” Mackowiak wrote. “It remains to be seen if the new policy will end these indefensible expenditures.”