[foota]

Maybe not to run, but the capital investment is probably higher. As well as things like subways, which there isn't one of in Austin.

[abernard1]

Education, healthcare, and public employees are almost always the largest expenses.

For instance, in CA, only about $100M a year out of the $100 billion a year budget is spent on transportation [1].

Because of prop 98 in CA, a minimum of 40% of the budget has to go to education [2].

In NY, it's only 4% spent on transportation [3].

[1] https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/California%27s_state_budg...

[2] https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_98,_Mandatory...

[3] https://openbudget.ny.gov/overview.html

[criddell]

Austin is building a subway.

If NYC is less expensive to manage per capita, I'm guessing that's reflected in a lower taxation rate. Don't they have a lot of room to raise taxes?