AUSTIN, Texas — The fight over Project Connect continues, with a group of Austinites filing a class action lawsuit against the city, in hopes of stopping them from collecting their taxes for use on the transit plan.
The suit states more taxes shouldn’t be collected because previous tax money has gone unspent.
“You can’t cheat voters, you can’t cheat taxpayers, not in the state of Texas,” said Bill Aleshire, one of the attorneys suing the City of Austin.
Voters first saw Project Connect on the 2020 November ballot, labeled as ‘Proposition A;’ it’s a project by the City of Austin in partnership with CapMetro to expand public transportation with a light rail and accessible bus system.
The class action lawsuit also accused the City of misleading Austinites on the voter-approved plan.
“What passed [on the ballot], bears no resemblance to the project we’re looking at today,” said Rick Fine, the other attorney challenging the City.
Since being approved by voters in 2020, the project has gone through multiple changes but continued to collect tax dollars.
“The rail system is cut more than in half, no longer connecting to the airport or far north or far south Austin– and they’re also backing off on the promise to use all-electric buses,” said Aleshire.
Aleshire said in the past four years, the project has accumulated more than $400 million in taxpayer money, that has yet to be spent.
Because of that, Aleshire said it’s unlawful for the City to continue collecting the money, especially for a project that has gone through ‘massive’ changes.
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But Transit Forward Executive Director Bill McCamley said because of the multiple legal challenges the project has faced, there’s been little movement on bringing the project to fruition.
McCamley said this class action suit is an attempt to override the voters, who overwhelmingly approved the project.
“This is all about them trying to win with a last-minute Hail Mary in a court system, that we really believe, is trying to be a run around democracy and that’s not good– and Austin deserves better,” said McCamley.
McCamley said Project Connect has been nothing short of transparent with Austin voters about the updates to the transit plan and reminds the public: that it’s because of the voters that the project is set to move forward.
“We need this to get done– 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 town,” added McCamley.
Project Connect partners are set to update the public on the updates to the transit plan on Wednesday morning.
Mayor Kirk Watson and CapMetro representatives will be in attendance; there’s no word on whether or not they will address this lawsuit.
