AUSTIN, Texas — The dispute over Project Connect continues: A group of Austin residents has filed a class action lawsuit against the city in hopes of preventing it from collecting their taxes for use in the transportation plan.
The lawsuit alleges that higher taxes should not be levied because the tax money so far has not been spent.
“You can’t cheat voters or taxpayers, not in the state of Texas,” said Bill Aleshire, one of the lawyers suing the city of Austin.
Voters first saw Project Connect on the November 2020 ballot under the name Proposition A. It is a project by the City of Austin in partnership with CapMetro to expand public transit to include a light rail and an accessible bus system.
The class action lawsuit also accused the city of misleading Austin residents about the plan approved by voters.
“What was passed (in the vote) bears no resemblance to the project we are looking at today,” said Rick Fine, the other attorney challenging the city.
Since voters approved it in 2020, the project has undergone several changes but continued to generate taxpayer dollars.
“The rail network has been more than halved and no longer provides connections to the airport or to the far north or south of Austin – and the promise of using only electric buses is also being abandoned,” Aleshire said.
Aleshire said the project has accumulated more than $400 million in taxpayer money over the past four years that has yet to be spent.
For this reason, Aleshire said it was unlawful for the city to continue collecting money, especially for a project that had undergone “massive” changes.
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However, Bill McCamley, executive director of Transit Forward, said there has been little progress in bringing the project to fruition due to the numerous legal challenges the project has faced.
McCamley said the class action lawsuit was an attempt to overrule voters who overwhelmingly approved the project.
“This is just about trying to win with a last-minute plan of action in a court system that we firmly believe is trying to circumvent democracy, and that’s not good – and Austin deserves better,” McCamley said.
McCamley said Project Connect has been completely transparent with Austin voters regarding updates to the transportation plan and reminded the public that the project can only move forward thanks to voters.
“We need to make this happen – it’s good for affordability, it’s good for job creation, it’s good for the environment, it’s good for public safety and we need it as a growing city,” McCamley added.
Project Connect partners will inform the public about transit plan updates on Wednesday morning.
Mayor Kirk Watson and representatives from CapMetro will be in attendance; there is no information on whether or not they will comment on this lawsuit.
