Austin workers were paid more than $143 million in overtime last year, according to city payroll data obtained by KUT News.
The payouts are nothing new, but show the city has relied more and more on overtime spending over the last few years, particularly for police, fire and emergency medical services.
That spending could come under a harsher focus this year as the city vows to cut its spending after the failure of Proposition Q — and as it gears up to ask voters to OK bond funding to pay for services.
Emergency services make up the bulk of overtime spending
Five departments regularly round out the top payments by the city to its employees…