After the successful completion of a pilot program last year, the city of Austin is joining an initiative to put the property it owns to work. The city announced recently that it's included in the Putting Assets to Work program of the Government Finance Officers Association, a nonprofit member organization that represents public finance officials in the United States and Canada.
The PAW initiative helps local governments inventory and determine the market value of their assets, a process that allows participants to identify underutilized properties.
“Every local government holds immense amounts of property, structures, and other assets that they may not know how to fully utilize, or in some cases, may not even realize they own," GFOA'S Ben McAdams said. "PAW is a process where we help them understand exactly what they have, what it’s worth, and how that value can be leveraged for any number of local priorities.,"
The identified assets, sometimes called “urban wealth funds," are then placed under "professional management with clear oversight from local city government," according to a city press release. Local governments in some cities are exploring use of such funds to bring in revenue without raising taxes and to create community benefits such as affordable housing, clean energy, infrastructure, and criminal justice innovations.
This is the second year of the PAW program; the first round included Chattanooga, Tennessee; Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; Cleveland, Ohio; Harris County, Texas; and Lancaster, California.Austin joins Evanston, Illinois; Mt. Vernon, New York; and Sugar Land, Texas in the second cohort.
Austin’s involvement in PAW will last about six months.
