Statement issued by New Day Austin, in response to today's AFSCME press conference opposing Prop I (and attended by six Council sycophants): 📷 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Statement from New Day Austin AUSTIN, TEXAS, October 7, 2026 Today’s press conference underscores exactly why Austin needs a new City Council and why Austin needs to mandate regular City efficiency audits in its Charter. Austin needs a new direction at City Hall. These incumbents and their self-serving special interests simply failed to get the drift from last fall’s defeat, by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, of their proposed 20% tax increase under Prop Q. As city employees, these union members are supposed to be public servants. That means they are supposed to serve the public, rather than the public serving them. They are, in fact, the most resistant force against change. The public deeply mistrusts the City Council’s spending decisions. The reckless City Council majority needs to be replaced with responsible citizens who will put the household budget ahead of the city budget, who will abide by the public will, and who will welcome the scrutiny for savings that a Prop I audit would mandate before going back to the voters and asking for more. How is it that an audit is good if the Council requires it, but bad if the public requires it? In a democracy, citizens create their government. They can vote directly on laws and policies, such as Prop I, and they can elect public officials to represent them. Elected officials derive their power from the public, not the other way around. Austin voters want the government to take a different direction. We have a golden opportunity to correct our course in the upcoming election. To that end, New Day Austin wholeheartedly supports five challengers who will do so, and we endorse the audit mandated by Proposition I. NewDayAustin.com