Prop 1 Vote Clears Way for UT Austin Medical School

Austin voters in the Central Health district approved Proposition 1, which will raise revenue allowing the University of Texas at Austin to establish a medical school, a site for a new teaching hospital, and other projects aimed at expanding services to indigent patients.

Proponents of the measure heralded a need for additional health care services and resources in the Austin area. Opponents cited an unnecessary increase in already relatively high property taxes and pointed to other medical institutions created without property tax dollars.

• Austin homeowners: Approval means the countywide health care tax will rise 63 percent, from 7.89 cents to 12.9 cents per $100 of assessed value, boosting average property tax bills by $107.40 to $276.79 in 2014.

“This is a historic night for Austinites, the UT community and world-changing medical research. I’m thrilled and grateful that Central Health residents voted to invest in health care and to help us move ahead with a UT Austin medical school,” said University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers.

“Now that the vote is over, the hard work of building a medical school begins. Provost Steve Leslie and I will appoint a committee of faculty members and health care officials to help recruit an inaugural dean, choose a location for the school and finalize details with Central Health, Seton and other partners. We hope to have a new medical school building and teaching hospital in place for our first class of 50 students in 2015.”

The university is in north central Austin, in close proximity the high-rise condos of downtown Austin and homeowner communities such as Tarrytown.