🟪 Texas AG Ken Paxton is investigating APD's new policy on cooperating with ICE (KUT)

🟪 Austin breaks ground on $1.5B wastewater plant expansion (Community Impact)

🟪 DAA sees smaller budget this yearn (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Hays County considers potential review division for high-intensity developments (Community Impact)

🟪 San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones warns of tighter budget in State of the City (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 Houston to consider repealing ordinance limiting its ICE cooperation amid state funding threat, investigation (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas lawmakers held a hearing on data centers. Here are 4 key takeaways (KUT)

🟪 What a United-American merger would mean, from antitrust hurdles to airfare (CNBC)

READ ON!

🇸🇬 Monday night. Bingham Group was invited to attend the official opening of Enterprise Singapore Overseas Centre in Austin, the organization's fourth office, and first non-coastal U.S. presence., the others being New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

As Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said:

"We are recognizing the role we ought to be playing in this global economy. In many ways, we are maturing into that role, and it's opportunities like this that help us with that.

Council’s Audit and Finance Committee meets today at 9:30AM

The meet will include staff briefings on:

Agenda Link

Livestream on ATXN 1

✅ Texas AG Ken Paxton is investigating APD's new policy on cooperating with ICE (KUT)

The Austin Police Department says Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into its cooperation with immigration authorities.

APD defended its newly tweaked policies for how officers work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on certain arrest warrants for undocumented residents, and said Monday night that it would cooperate with the attorney general's investigation.

In a joint statement with APD, the city said its policy is "consistent" with state law.

"It creates mechanisms that allow officers to provide reasonable or necessary assistance to ICE, while taking into consideration other legal constraints and our need to balance limited police resources in real-world situations," a spokesperson for the city said.

KUT reached out the attorney general's office for a comment on the investigation but has not yet heard back.

The police department changed its policy in March to reduce ICE intervention in local policing. The guidelines require officers to clear any call to ICE with a supervisor when a person is suspected of being in the country without authorization and has a non-criminal warrant, known as an administrative warrant… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin breaks ground on $1.5B wastewater plant expansion (Community Impact)

City officials marked the groundbreaking of the expansion of Austin's largest wastewater plant at an April 14 ceremony.

“This is needed generational investment to expand and modernize the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, and it fulfills our responsibility as a city to provide basic but critical services for today, tomorrow and the next 50 years," Mayor Kirk Watson said.

The more than $1 billion expansion will boost the plant's wastewater treatment capacity by 33%, from 75 million gallons daily to 100 MGD by the early 2030s. Hundreds of millions of dollars more are also being spent to improve and modernize other parts of the facility, which will remain operational throughout several years of construction.

“This project will be complete in advance of when flows are expected to exceed the plant’s rated capacity in 2032," Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson said. "By expanding the treatment capacity to 100 MGD, we will not only be meeting increasing needs, we will also be able to implement treatment upgrades to meet more stringent regulatory limits on effluent water quality."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ DAA sees smaller budget this yearn (Austin Business Journal)

The budget for the Downtown Austin Alliance is shrinking this year as downtown Austin faces a challenging period.

The DAA reported that its budget for this fiscal year is $14.4 million, which is a roughly 17% decline from the previous year’s budget of $16.9 million. The main driver for the smaller budget is a decline in the Downtown Public Improvement District revenue that is collected from properties within the district and directly managed by the DAA. 

Davon Barbour, the president and CEO of DAA, said the reduction in the association’s overall budget is reflective of a challenging period facing downtown Austin. The development pipeline has slowed down and the area continues to deal with high office vacancy rates that have been elevated ever since the pandemic. Barbour said the smaller budget isn’t shocking, and he doesn't expect to see the DAA’s budget decline long-term.

“I think what we're seeing is just a correction in the marketplace,” Barbour said. “There's nearly $50 million of public infrastructure underway that will prime the pump for new development.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hays County considers potential review division for high-intensity developments (Community Impact)

Discussions surrounding water conservation, availability and use by developments continue in Hays County as the Commissioners Court discussed the proposed creation of a division within the Development Services Department to review projects that require significant resources.

Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra placed an item on the court’s April 14 agenda to consider the creation of a High Intensity Development Review Division.

If approved, the item would have increased the responsibility of a current position within the Development Services Department to include evaluating developments that demand significant water, power, land or infrastructure systems, according to Becerra.

“We're only setting up the mechanism to process what we know is coming,” Becerra said. “We have large industrial users coming. ... We need to weave in water availability studies in addition to proper oversight of those availability studies and the power that is going to be used [by developments].”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones warns of tighter budget in State of the City (Texas Public Radio)

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones says the city is heading into a tighter budget year.

In her first State of the City address Tuesday before the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, she pointed to a smaller bond package and broader financial uncertainty.

“The state of our city is the choice between status quo, business as usual or something better,” she said. “Big choices are before us.”

She said those choices will mean tough decisions about spending and priorities.

“Fund no-fail missions, those folks that keep us safe, we must fund their activities," she said. "Minimize cost to the most vulnerable and minimize short-term cuts that have long-term impacts as best able.”

Jones said that includes protecting public safety and health services, along with priorities like early childhood education and care, which she said are critical to workforce participation. She said the city recently released reports outlining gaps in access and ways to address them.

She also noted efforts to boost civic participation, including shifting city elections to November to increase voter turnout.

She pointed to housing access as a priority, especially for veterans. Federal housing vouchers help cover rent for low-income veterans, but landlords in Texas are not required to accept them… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Houston to consider repealing ordinance limiting its ICE cooperation amid state funding threat, investigation (Texas Tribune)

Houston will consider walking back a new ordinance limiting cooperation between local police and federal immigration agents, as the city faces an investigation and threats of funding cuts from Republican state leaders.

In March, Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz and Mayor John Whitmire announced a new rule directing local law enforcement to wait 30 minutes for federal agents to arrive at the scene, if they encounter people with administrative immigration warrants during situations like traffic stops. But on April 8, the city council voted overwhelmingly for an ordinance to stop that practice, while also requiring the Houston Police Department to deliver quarterly reports on its coordination with ICE. 

Two days later, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office launched an investigation, alleging the ordinance violates Senate Bill 4, which bans cities from adopting policies that “materially limit” immigration enforcement. It says that the requirements would have a “chilling effect” on Houston police’s cooperation with federal agents, though the measure’s backers said the ordinance only undoes a previous city policy that went beyond what state law mandates on the city’s engagement with ICE… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas lawmakers held a hearing on data centers. Here are 4 key takeaways (KUT)

Data centers are popping up around Texas like fire ant hills after a rainstorm. Or maybe like bluebonnets in the spring. Either way, they seem to be everywhere — and more are coming.

Their arrival could strain the power grid, raise energy costs and siphon already scarce water resources. Lawmakers and regulators need to prepare for the disruption. But how? Last week, some of the state’s biggest data center developers and operators visited Austin to respond to that question.

As representatives of industry, their answers, predictably, downplayed costs and touted the benefits of the data center boom.

But the hearing, conducted by the House Committee on State Affairs, contained some fascinating information and gave an early look into how state leaders may tackle this major issue in the 2027 legislative session.

Here are four key takeaways… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What a United-American merger would mean, from antitrust hurdles to airfare (CNBC)

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly floated the idea of a potential tie-up with rival American Airlines to the Trump administration earlier this year, a suggestion that if acted upon, would create the world’s largest airline.

While the Trump administration has appeared more open to mega deals than its predecessors, such a merger would face heavy regulatory scrutiny with the top four airlines (those two carriers, plus Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines) already dominating about 80% of domestic capacity. If they combined, American and United would have a roughly 40% domestic share, according to airline data firm OAG.

“This would be the biggest of all time. I can’t even see the slightest chance that a court would allow it,” said George Hay, a law professor at Cornell University… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Why Congress is fighting over a central tool of American surveillance (NPR)

A key tool of the U.S. spy community will expire this month without action from Congress. The government says the intel gathered through the provision — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA 702 — underpins a majority of the articles in the president's daily intelligence briefing and is a key asset in international counterterrorism and the fight against trafficking.

But a number of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are concerned that FISA 702 allows for the federal government to spy on the communications of American citizens without a warrant, violating their constitutional right to privacy.

The looming fight to bolster the law's civil liberties protections is likely to be bruising — and the provision's advocates claim it could jeopardize national security… 🟪 (READ MORE)