Austin will consider a maximum tax rate of 46.5 cents per $100 of property value — a 14.4 percent revenue increase that could trigger an election — to facilitate a possible tax swap with the Austin school district.

The City Council approved the maximum rate in a 6-4 vote Wednesday, despite council members Ellen Troxclair and Jimmy Flannigan saying they both intended to lead a citywide fight against it.

Posting that rate now doesn’t commit Austin to adopting it, but allows it as the highest option for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins Oct.1, while city leaders spend the next month mulling whether a tax swap with the school district could help lower area taxes overall.

Such a swap would involve the city upping its taxes, the school district lowering its taxes and the city taking over paying for some district functions. The point would be to keep more dollars local, and to send less school district taxes back to the state to fund schools in low-income areas.

"Part of being creative and innovative is that we consider new ideas," Mayor Steve Adler said.

For the full details on the plan, click here to visit MyStatesman.com.