Austin’s battle over a police staffing ballot measure has a new heavyweight entering the ring: billionaire financier and Democratic Party activist George Soros.
In a bombshell announcement that threatens to shake up the Nov. 2 election, a political action committee opposed to Propostion A — which if passed would require the city to hire hundreds of police officers — says it has accepted a $500,000 donation from Soros.
The 91-year-old Soros, of New York, is known for supporting liberal poltical causes. His net worth is estimated at $8.6 billion, according to Forbes. Soros has made it a recent focus to target elected prosecutors he sees as too punitive on crime. His involvement in the recent Travis County District Attorney’s race helped to lift Jose Garza to victory over incumbent Margaret Moore in 2020.
Soros’ son, Jonathan Soros, also has recently been involved in Austin elections, contributing $25,000 earlier this year to a PAC that tried but failed to move the city to a strong mayor form of government.
More: Austin ballot measure could benefit police — but might that come at the expense of firefighters?
According to finance records published Friday, George Soros transferred the $500,000 to Equity PAC on Monday through his Open Society Policy Center in Washington. That same day, Equity PAC accepted a donation for $200,000 from another reform-minded organization in Washington, the Fairness Project.
Both donations were the product of relationships cultivated by local activists groups affiliated with the PAC, according to campaign treasurer Laura Hernandez.
“This really allows us to talk to voters about the implications and about how important it is that we defeat this measure,” Hernandez said. “We’re thankful for the support.”
Neither donation will be included in the PAC’s full campaign report because they were made after the deadline. That report is expected to be available Monday.
Immediately after news broke of the donations, Save Austin Now — the PAC that got the police staffing measure on the ballot — made its own plea for donations through co-founder Matt Mackowiak.
In a tweet with a link to donate, Mackowiak wrote: “National left wing interests are trying to destroy public safety in Austin. Help us ensure adequate police staffing, increase community policing, double police training and enact sensible police reforms.”
Save Austin Now has had little trouble generating donations. Prior to the May election on the homeless camping ban, the PAC raised $1.9 million — a near record in a citywide election that trailed only an election funded exclusively by Uber and Lyft in 2016.
‘Our days seem harder and meaner:’ Adler takes aim at critics in State of the City address
Like Equity PAC, Save Austin Now will publish a new fundraising and expenditure report in the coming days.
If approved by voters, the police staffing measure would start with requiring the city to employ two officers per 1,000 residents. A second provision would mandate that 35% of an officer’s shift must be spent on uncommitted time — often referred to as community engagement time — and not responding to calls. To ensure that shifts are staffed adequately, city staffers say even more than two officers per 1,000 residents are needed. The true ratio, they say, is somewhere between 2.1 per 1,000 and 2.5 per 1,000.
Weighing police attrition rates against Austin’s current population and projected growth, the city would need to hire 403 to 885 more officers in the net five years, according to the city’s math. The cost to do that is $271.5 million to $598.8 million, the city says.
To come up with the money, the city could have to cut funding for other departments, some city officials have said. Those could include Austin Fire Department, whose labor union members voted this week to oppose Prop A and spend $15,000 to defeat it.
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Satan Incarnate
Just like his demon spawn kids are..
The epitome of evil that the Democr. . er . .COMMUNIST party sees as a wind fall of foreign interference of our constitution.
Too much money involved by too many families for this to end; this will all get worse before it gets better for the entire nation!! you have Soros, Bush, Obama, Clinton’s, Podesta, Rice, Holder, Brennon, Clapper and they all have children that are being groomed to destroy the United States, if this continues we will not have a Republic in 5 years! When President Trump called it the Deep State even he didn’t realize how deep it was!
I’d say if the 2022 mid terms are stolen things are going to quickly spiral into another civil war. I don’t think it’s 5 years away.
Don’t forget the clintons and bush’s..
Soros needs to go! We need a stronger police presence to stop the violence in our cities!
HIS Entire family tree needs to go….
When is this guy going to do the world a favor and die?
Won’t matter he has 2 Sons that make him look like an altar boy!!
IMO all that means, is we need to eliminate his entire FAMILY TREE as well.
Soros is a communist and the Democrats are communists. Hey George Soros, you are a traitor to our Country, so guess where the devil lives! We are all mortal George and when the time comes for you, you will be meeting the devil in h*** for what you have done on our Earth.
Backpacker it won’t matter, this devil worshipper has 2 kids in their early forties that make him look like an altar boy! If you watch his interview with Steve Kroft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npvHhGZTSXo this man has destroyed and collapsed economies in entire countries and he is admitted atheist! Him and his 2 sons have over 150 non-profit organizations that are designed to bankrupt and turn countries including the United States into a Socialist Communist country, one of his most notable non-profits is called the Open Society Project which literally funds illegal immigration whereby he provides the transportation, clothing, cell phones, food and etc to illegals from Haiti, Mexico, South and Central America, not only that he is doing this with the Clinton’s, Bushes and Obama! Here is more on George Soros background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros his organization also funded the rigged elections with dominion machines as well as a partnership with with Bill Gates in a UK company that provides COVID test. these are not conspiracy theories but facts!
These leftist, racist murderer’s are the scourge on civilization. They may look like ‘normal’ human beings, however, they are truly despicable, evil, morally corrupt ‘things’. If you can slaughter a newborn baby and not blink an eye, you are truly a spawn of evil. You killers make me want to throw up.
Soros is a real-life megalomaniac James Bond villain without a real-life James Bond to counter him. British M6 has been corrupted since the days of the Cambridge 5 traitors working for the USSR. A former agent for British “intelligence” fabricated the Steele dossier of lies about Trump for his paying customer Hillary Clinton and all US “intelligence” arms accepted and spread that piece of garbage instead of investigating the source, no James Bonds among them. The CIA hired and promoted Brennan, a card-carrying communist in his youth and along with the FBI has rotted from the head. Soros and his latest anti-police pro-criminal agenda oozes evil.
why oh why is this nazi still breathing air on gods green earth?
he should be taking a dirt nap.
RIGHT along side his demon-spawn kids!