🟪 $122M hole ahead: Austin warns of service cuts without tax hike (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Austin’s aging bridges need $90 million for significant repairs or replacements (KUT)

🟪 San Marcos council advances increased data center restrictions (Community Impact)

🟪 ERCOT forecasts quadruple growth in electric demand, warns estimate is likely overinflated (Community Impact)

🟪 Houston City Council approves gutting policy limiting ICE cooperation, civil rights groups say (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Houston to vote on changes to ICE policy. Civil rights groups say the amendments would gut it. (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Key moments from Kevin Warsh’s congressional testimony (Wall Street Journal)

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✅ $122M hole ahead: Austin warns of service cuts without tax hike (Austin American-Statesman)

Austinites should brace for deep cuts to city services next year as city leaders work to balance a deficit driven by declining tax revenues and other factors.

That was a key takeaway from a Tuesday presentation to City Council by city budget staff that outlined Austin’s financial outlook over the next five years.

Absent significant spending cuts and modest property tax increases, Austin Budget Director Kerri Lang said the city is projected to face a $26 million deficit next year — a gap that could grow to $122 million by 2031. Last year, the city faced a $33.4 million shortfall, which prompted council to ask voters to approve a property tax rate increase. 

Proposition Q failed by a wide margin, an outcome that has haunted city leaders as they face another difficult budget cycle.

Preliminary projections show that if City Council adopts a 3.5% property tax increase — the maximum allowed under state law without voter approval — the typical homeowner would pay about $155 more per $100,000 of property value. Under that scenario, the city’s deficit would shrink to about $1.3 million, which Lang said could be closed through a series of spending cuts developed over the past year… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin’s aging bridges need $90 million for significant repairs or replacements (KUT)

hree dozen Austin bridges need to be replaced or significantly repaired within the next five years, a job that would cost $90 million. But with the city facing a widening budget deficit, when or how that work gets funded remains unclear.

The city has more than 1,300 bridges. Of those, two major bridges — defined as at least 20 feet wide — need to be replaced, while seven need significant work. Another 26 smaller structures need significant rehabilitation or replacement.

The $90 million price tag is only one piece of a much larger need, according to a recent report by the Austin Transportation and Public Works Department. After that work is funded, the city will need $30 million in capital funding each year to build and repair Austin’s aging bridges.

Without more money, the city may have to resort to closing some bridges or imposing load restrictions on others, the report states.

Bonds and grants are the biggest source of funding for bridge construction. The transportation department turns to $1.8 million in city money for routine maintenance.

The April bridge status update comes as Austin faces a budget deficit that could force millions in cuts to housing, education and job programs. The city’s recently released five-year financial forecast projects a $26.4 million shortfall for 2027 that is expected to get worse through 2031… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ San Marcos council advances increased data center restrictions (Community Impact)

The San Marcos City Council is in the process of updating its Land Development Code and Design Manual, in part to address new types of development. The council voted on multiple amendments, not yet finalized, to increase restrictions on the development of data centers at an April 21 meeting.

City staff proposed an update to the Land Use Matrix to add data centers to the system as an individual line item, according to agenda documents.

Currently, the development type falls under the Light Industrial land use distinction and is permitted in Light Industrial- and Heavy Industrial-zoned areas, and is conditional upon Planning and Zoning Commission approval in CD-5- and CM-zoned areas.

Mayor Jane Hughson proposed an amendment to the Land Use Matrix that would only permit data center development in High Industrial-zoned areas on a conditional basis, requiring council approval,

“I don't want to cut them out forever, but I want a conditional use, and I want it to come to us,” Hughson said. “We may still say no to everyone that comes through, but I want to leave the option.”

The City Council approved Hughson’s amendment. Place 6 council member Amanda Rodriguez then proposed a new amendment that would not permit the development of data centers in any zoning district within city limits… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Tesla profits rose in the first quarter as Musk teases debut of new Roadster (Associated Press)

Tesla’s profit rose in the first quarter as its car sales rebounded from a sharp slump in 2025.

The electric vehicle maker run by billionaire Elon Musk said it earned $477 million in the quarter, up 17% from a year ago. Earnings per share totaled 13 cents. Adjusted for certain items, per share earnings were 41 cents, topping Wall Street estimates of 36 cents.

Revenue rose to $22.39 billion, led by a 16% increase in automotive revenues.

Still, profits and revenue are far below their peak when its cars were grabbing market share. Now that is in reverse as European and Chinese rivals steal its customers. The company last year lost its crown as the world’s largest EV maker to China’s BYD.

Musk has repeatedly shrugged off its car troubles, emphasizing that Tesla’s future lies less in car sales than getting people to t ake rides in them a s self-driving taxis. The company said robotaxi miles doubled in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year. They are currently running in San Francisco and three Texas cities, including Austin where Tesla is headquartered… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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✅ ERCOT forecasts quadruple growth in electric demand, warns estimate is likely overinflated (Community Impact)

Demand on the Texas power grid could more than quadruple in the next six years, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced April 15.

The state grid operator projected that peak electric demand could hit 367,790 megawatts by 2032—more than four times the current demand record of 85,508 megawatts, which was set during an August 2023 heat wave. Much of this forecasted growth is due to data centers, according to ERCOT documents.

However, ERCOT leaders warned that the growth forecast is “preliminary” and needs adjustments.

During an April 17 meeting, ERCOT officials told the Public Utility Commission of Texas that they plan to issue a revised forecast in the coming weeks… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Houston City Council approves gutting policy limiting ICE cooperation, civil rights groups say (Texas Tribune)

Texas’ largest city has voted 13-4 to amend an ordinance that limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, as it faces a major funding threat from Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Civil rights groups have called the proposed changes a “backdoor attempt” at repealing the ordinance, which the City Council approved 12-5 earlier this month. But under questions from council members Wednesday, the city’s attorney Arturo Michel said the amendment makes no major changes to the original measure. The mayor’s staff and the governor’s public safety office had negotiated the new language, Michel said, as some council members called the revision the “Abbott amendment.” 

Andrew Mahaleris, the governor’s spokesperson, called the amendment approval “a step in the right direction.”

“Governor Abbott expects any policy HPD ultimately adopts to comply with the City’s certification that it would fully cooperate with [the Department of Homeland Security],” Mahaleris said in a statement. “Governor Abbott will continue to use every necessary tool to protect Texans.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Key moments from Kevin Warsh’s congressional testimony (Wall Street Journal)

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, fielded questions at his confirmation hearing Tuesday about his commitment to an independent monetary policy, his pre-nomination argument that AI-driven productivity gains would give the central bank room to cut interest rates and his plans to divest more than $100 million in financial holdings he has declined to fully disclose. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) used her opening statement to brand Warsh as both a “sock puppet” for Trump and an opportunist whose views on rates have tracked the availability of the Fed chairmanship rather than the state of the economy.

When her questioning turn came, she tried to force Warsh to prove she was wrong. He mostly declined to play. “Independence takes courage. Let’s check out your independence and your courage,” she said before asking if Trump lost the 2020 election. Warsh wouldn’t answer directly. “I’m just asking you a factual question,” she said. “I need to measure your independence and your courage.”

After Warren tried a third time, Warsh pivoted, pointing to how the Fed had sowed the seeds of a “huge inflation problem” that year. Warren’s point was that a Fed chair who can’t bring himself to state plain facts that might displease the president who nominated him isn’t going to stand up to that president when it matters. It was a theme Democrats returned to throughout the hearing. Asked by committee chairman Tim Scott (R., S.C.) about how he would address affordability, Warsh provided a stiff indictment of the institution he hopes to lead.

“The Fed missed its mark,” he said. “The fatal policy error” of 2021 and 2022 “is still a legacy that we’re dealing with.” What he said is needed now is “a regime change in the conduct of policy,” which he said includes a new inflation framework, new tools and a new approach to communicating its messages.

It was just the opening salvo of a sustained critique that ran through the hearing. Warsh described the institution as one that has “lost its way,” that “wandered outside of its remit” and that is “in the business of politics” because of its own choices. He mocked “FedNow,” a real-time payments network the central bank launched several years ago, by calling it “Fed Yesterday.” He was no gentler on the culture. Warsh said he preferred “messier meetings” where “people don’t show up with rehearsed scripts,” a critique aimed squarely at how the Federal Open Market Committee now operates. He complained that “too many Fed officials past and present opine in advance about where they think interest rates should be,” a shot at the forward-guidance practice that has defined Fed communication for more than a decade… 🟪 (READ MORE)