The budget Austin City Council approved on Aug. 23 for the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year comes with a number of different investments in Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
Much of the discussion around Austin’s new budget revolved around the ways the budget begins a process of transitioning around $150 million dollars from the Austin Police Department into other areas of public health and safety over the course of the next year. But the budget encompasses many areas outside of policing. While funding for medics may not have been the topic most residents weighed in on during public comment, the dollars set aside for ATCEMS represent another key theme in this budget. Jasper Brown, the Chief of Staff for ATCEMS, said that based on his 23 years of experience working with the department, ATCEMS can have good years and bad years when it comes to how well the approved budget meets the needs the department has expressed.