AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After Austin city council members laid out their proposals for a tax rate election Thursday, Mayor Kirk Watson told KXAN he doesn't like the cost to taxpayers in some of those plans and will only vote to send a tax rate election to voters if the money will fund core city services.

"I must admit that right now I'm disappointed that the numbers we're talking about are higher than I would feel comfortable voting for," Watson said. "There could be something that I would vote for that's higher than what my proposal is, but it would have to be funding core basic services in a way that I felt comfortable with."

Because of a 2019 state law, taxing entities cannot raise the property tax rate more than 3.5% from the year prior without triggering a tax rate election (TRE).

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