According to a report by KXAN, the “No on Prop J” political action committee running ads opposing Proposition J is now under investigation by the City of Austin’s ethics commission for illegally concealing a major donation from the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA), an influential land-development lobby group.

Thanks to this hidden contribution, RECA is the single-largest donor to the No on Prop J PAC.

Proposition J is an initiative on this year’s ballot that gives local residents the right to vote on big changes to Austin’s land-development laws. It is supported by the Austin NAACP, the Austin Neighborhoods Council (ANC), the Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS), PODER, the La Raza Roundtable, Community Not Commodity (CNC), and Austin City Council Members Leslie Pool, Ora Houston, Alison Alter, and Kathie Tovo.

Proposition J’s supporters opposed the controversial CodeNEXT rezoning scheme and believe the ballot initiative is necessary to prevent the “next” CodeNEXT. For more information on Proposition J, visit LetUsVoteAustin.org.

The City of Austin’s investigation was prompted by an ethics complaint alleging that the No on Prop J PAC concealed RECA as its largest donor until October 30th, when the PAC filed its 8-day financial report. According to that financial report, RECA made a $10,000 contribution to the PAC on October 22nd, but that contribution was not disclosed on the group’s previous ATX-1 report, as required by law.

Ironically, the No on Prop J PAC has been falsely accusing Proposition J’s supporters of using “dark money” to fund their campaign.

“Austin voters were kept in the dark about the identity of the land developers and realtors opposing Proposition J during the early-voting period,” said Community Not Commodity President Fred Lewis, who filed the complaint. “RECA’s contribution makes up about half of this PAC’s funds, so it is difficult to believe this was an oversight. This is the oldest dirty trick in the books.”

According to Lewis’s complaint, the No on Prop J PAC’s failure to report the money it received from RECA appears to be intentional, “since sophisticated political insiders are heavily involved in the PAC, such as Mark Yznaga (political consultant) and John Michael Cortez (political aide).”

This Election Day, let’s put a stop to the real dark money in this race. Let’s show Austin’s profit-driven real-estate industry that we are more interested in community values than land values. Let’s prevent the “next” CodeNEXT.

Let’s have a say and vote YES on PROP J!

Paid Political Advertisement by Community Not Commodity, Austin, Texas.