Kirk Watson

Latest : To the Rescue. Meet two new Watson dogs. We're still working on names.

We’ve adopted two rescue pups from Austin Bulldog Rescue (ABR). ABR is an excellent organization helping boodawgs that are in troubling bad circumstances by rescuing them, rehabbing them, and finding good homes for them.

“Boodawg” is a term that one of our sons coined when he was around 5. He called our mutant bulldog at the time, Emma, a boodawg. His 5-year old logic led him to argue that the breed wasn’t bulldog. It was boodawg because "She's so ugly that she's scary”.

Rescue organizations like ABR, by saving bulldogs and finding them a home like ours, help us humans, too.

It hurt bad to lose Doc. He was a special, long-time friend. Many folks told me that the best way to heal was to get another dog quickly. It's gonna take two new mutts to fill the big hole Doc left.

The one that sort of looks like a baby bear to me is a male English Bulldog. We think he's about 2 years old. The little brown one is a female French Bulldog. She's likely a year old.

We’ve had this combo before. We had a Frenchie named Lola. She was just a little bit of a dog that thought she was the size of an English Mastiff. We got Doc after her. He loved her. She was the experienced big sister that taught Doc the ropes. He followed her everywhere. Lola stepped on a rainbow and passed in 2024.

I’m as goofy and excited as a little kid about getting new puppies. It’s pretty great how rescuing these two needy dogs makes me so happy. They definitely need love and care, and it's going to be fun to be loved by them.

Read more: https://bit.ly/ABRWire

Latest : Politics. Policy. Power. Pain. Since early 2025, I’ve strongly opposed federal actions involving ICE, and I’ve worked to protect Austin residents. In 2017, as State Senator, I fought SB 4, legislation the state uses to interfere with local governments and force cities to waste resources related to ICE.

Providing public safety is a primary function of our city government. Lisa Davis, Austin’s Chief of Police, revised the Austin Police Department’s General Orders earlier this year to address over 700,000 non-criminal administrative warrants put into the National Crime Information Center database in 2025. These documents authorize ICE agents to make civil arrests but aren’t judicial warrants signed by a neutral judge. They’re documents signed by a federal agency official.

The Chief’s orders were a common-sense policing approach that maximized the city’s limited resources to assure officers can best meet Austin’s public safety needs and to provide clarity to officers encountering the non-criminal ICE documents. The revised orders were consistent with state requirements, including SB4.

On April 16, the Governor, expressing disagreement with the General Orders, threatened to defund public safety grants awarded to Austin. Texas relies on cities to carry out certain public safety activity, and Austin relies on taxpayer-funded state grants to be able to keep Austin safe.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4226tzZ

In March, Chief of Police Lisa Davis revised the Austin Police Department’s General Orders to address the more than 700,000 noncriminal, administrative warrants put into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database in 2025.

The Orders were also to provide clarity for our police officers. Austin acted in compliance with state requirements. The Chief’s General Orders were a common sense, practical, and rational approach for policing that maximized our limited resources to adequately address Austin’s public safety needs.

We must do the job of policing in a practical and reasonable way. We do not have the time or resources to engage in activities that pull officers away from needed work and create inefficiencies. That is how we keep Austin safe. We also rely on funding from sources such as state grants to be able to keep Austin safe.

On April 16, the Governor notified me on behalf of the City of Austin that he believed the City was in breach of state grant requirements and threatened to terminate public safety grants awarded to the City. These taxpayer funded grants include:

➡️Sexual Assault Evidence Testing, which would help the City process hundreds of pieces of sexual assault evidence to identify perpetrators;

➡️General Victims Assistance, which helps victims of violent crime by providing trauma-informed support advocates throughout the legal process. It is expected to serve approximately 200 victims;

➡️Violence Against Women Act, which helps process digital evidence quicker, eliminating backlogs;

➡️Violence Against Women Justice and Training Program, which funds a coordinated Sexual Assault Response Team;

➡️Youth Diversion Program, which funds the GO ATX Youth Project, a city-led evidence-based truancy prevention program for students across AISD;

➡️Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which gives specialized training for our APD SWAT and Bomb Squad members;

➡️Peace Officer Mental Health program, which funds our First Responder Mental Health Project to help officers who have experienced direct and indirect trauma on the job.

I believe the City was following state requirements and I feel strongly that too often politics overwhelms good policy. The threatened loss of these grants would have meant the loss of important public safety services for people we want protected. We have an obligation to them.

The City and State have come to an agreement that the Chief and I believe is practical for our day-to-day policing, will not create undue harm for residents who are the subject of noncriminal, administrative warrants, and preserves important public safety funding. The newly amended General Orders take into account the practicality and reality of policing in Austin while also satisfying some of the concerns raised by the Governor’s office.

We will continue to provide quality public safety services to everyone. We will continue to support our officers. We will continue to support survivors. We will continue to protect people who ask for help. That is our duty. That is how we keep Austin safe.

I thank Chief Davis for her leadership and efforts in keeping our community safe, holding up Austin’s values, and ensuring that we are providing the needed resources for our officers and community.

Today, the City presented its 5-year financial forecast to the Austin City Council, which includes projections using the “No-New-Revenue Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Tax Rate”.

This is the first step of our budget process and as part of this first step, I asked our financial staff to give us projections at the No-New-Revenue rate to give Council and the residents of this City more clarity regarding budget priorities, how we use revenue and offers a measurable impression of how the state imposed 3.5% revenue cap impacts our ability to provide services.

My priority remains Austin's affordability. The decisions we make as leaders impact the ability of every day Austinites to be able to afford to live here. The reality is that life is not more affordable for Austinites right now. Residents are worried about their grocery and utility bills, their property taxes, the price of gas, and how inflation impacts their day-to-day costs.

This forecast offers a better understanding of the City’s budget challenges and gives us an opportunity to govern with fiscal responsibility and to focus on providing effective City services that make the day-to-day lives of Austinites better.

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=471944