In September, 2011, City of Austin Financial Director Leslie Browder announced that the City was reversing its policy of making annual transfers from the Town Lake Park Venue Fund to the Tourism and Promotion Fund. The policy of transferring $125,000-$130,000 annually had been enacted in 2008. The 2011-2012 budget was corrected to make the transfer instead from Convention Center funds, and the correction would be retroactive for the previous three years. The text of Ms. Browder’s memo is here.
The reversal of the transfers means that $520,764 of venue funds that had been or would be illegally transferred will be returned to the venue, where they should be available for park construction.
