An outside audit? Meh.

Just a day after wondering what would come next for referendum entrepreneur Matt Mackowiak, I saw Save Austin Now hype an upcoming "major announcement" Friday morning. I initially made the mistake of believing it would actually be a major announcement.

The participation of Gerald Daugherty and Bill Aleshire left me almost certain that they'd be announcing a ballot measure to upend Project Connect, putting at risk a multi-billion dollar transit investment.

What they actually announced a few hours later was underwhelming:

With a broad coalition of city leaders with them, nonpartisan Save Austin Now PAC today announced it is launching a petition effort to put a Charter amendment on the May 2026 ballot that will require an external and performance-based affordability and efficiency initiative, which must be completed within one year of the contract engagement (with the independent contractor selected within 120 days) and which must be conducted every five years or no less than one year before any future tax rate election. The Charter amendment explicitly requires that the Independent Contractor commit to identify annual or multi-year cost savings that exceed the cost of the initiative.

This effort is modeled after a successful external audit conducted by the City of Houston this year which identified more than $120M in suggested savings and helped Houston avoid a tax rate election, unlike Austin.

You can read the petition on Save Austin Now's website.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but nor is it a game-changer.