It's always refreshing to hear when taxes go down … especially property taxes.

The Austin City Council approved Tuesday a cut in property taxes for 2003. The cut amounts to about a 3 percent decrease.

In times of tightening budgets at the state, local and federal level, Austin officials have apparently made plans to help alleviate the responsibility that all city property owners face each year.

If anyone will be pleased at this announcement, it will be those who live on fixed incomes. With increasing health costs and inflation, those residents will take any break they can get.

Consequently we applaud the council on being sensitive to residents' wallets.