Sunset Valley referendum asks to expand ‘green tax’

Sunset Valley voters could decide to expand a water quality protection program this election season.

The roughly one-mile square city sitting on Austin’s southwestern flank sits over the recharge zone of Barton Springs, and scientists have linked property development to pollution in the waterway. Eight years ago, Sunset Valley voters chose to dedicate an eighth of 1 percent sales tax revenue to land purchases for preserving water quality.

In a nutshell, more houses means more cars, more oil, more fertilizers, more pharmaceuticals that can be washed — one way or another — into the Barton Springs catchment zone. But land purchased by the city under the program goes chiefly undeveloped.

The 2007 vote, which passed 149 to 80, limited that dedicated sales tax revenue — known informally as a “green tax” — to buying land around Brodie Lane and Country White Lane.

Voters are now being asked if they want to expand the area in which Sunset Valley can use the money to the entire city, all 700 or so acres of it. Early voting ends Oct. 30; election day is Nov. 3.

The tax will remain an eighth of 1 percent in sales tax, which amounts to about $400,000 a year. Since the 2007 vote, the city has spent $1.4 million to buy 12 acres of land. It has nearly $1 million of unspent money in its green tax fund.

“It’s not an issue of Barton Springs being Austin’s problem to protect — it’s a regional issue,” City Administrator Clay Collins said of Sunset Valley’s watershed protection efforts. “Sometimes our residents might not see eye to eye with what Austin does, but we’re not adversaries.”

Collins said the city also has a stake in water quality because it has a water well that stretches into the Edwards Aquifer, the massive underground waterway that feeds Barton Springs, among other notable springs in Central Texas.

If the proposition does not pass, the existing tax and smaller area in which to apply the revenue for water quality protection land remain in place. There are 14 remaining parcels in the eligible area, not including existing developed sites, so there could be some additional acquisition or easements in the original area, Collins said.

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