AUSTIN, Texas - Austin voters gave a resounding "no" to a big tax rate increase. Now the city goes back to the drawing board to rework the budget.

A total of 164,504 Austinites cast their votes in the city's tax rate election.

63 percent voted against Prop Q and 37 percent voted for it.

Proposition Q fails

The backstory:

"The voters have told us what they want us to do, and now we have to react in a disciplined and mature way," Mayor Kirk Watson said.

If it had passed, the average homeowner would've paid about $300 more on their annual property tax bill. That would've generated $110 million. It would've gone towards homeless programs, public safety, public health, and climate response.

Watson says there should be an audit to better balance the cost of services.

"We're looking at

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