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🟪 Austin's residential market maintains one of the nation's largest own-to-rent cost gaps (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Demand for electricians surges in Austin amid booming data center projects (KVUE)

🟪 Data center boom strains Texas homebuilders’ need for electricians (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Disaster declarations ripple through South Texas amid water crisis (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Lawmakers question Camp Mystic's owners about July flood (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 Talarico leads both Cornyn, Paxton in new poll of Texas’ U.S. Senate race (Texas Tribune)

🟪 White House says funds to pay TSA and other Homeland Security workers will ‘soon run out’ (Associated Press)

🟪 It's set to be Jerome Powell's last meeting as Fed chair — as a big change looms (NPR)

Public Safety Committee Special Called Meeting // Today at 11AM

AGENDA LINK

Item 1: Discussion and possible action regarding legislative initiatives, including amendments to the City's legislative agendas, relating to autonomous vehicles

Item 2: Briefing on incidents involving interactions between first responders and autonomous vehicles during emergency responses on City roadways

LIVESTREAM LINK

✅ Austin's residential market maintains one of the nation's largest own-to-rent cost gaps (Austin Business Journal)

Even as the Austin metro's home prices continued to fall in March, the average buyer's monthly expenses still outpace renters at one of the highest rates in the nation.

The cost difference clearly spells short-term savings for renters, but their path to homeownership may be less apparent.

A recent Realtor.com report showed Austin had the highest buy-to-rent difference at 126.3%. Monthly costs totaled $3,080 for buyers, as opposed to $1,361 for renters. Median home prices have been falling in the metro this year, but Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said the metro topped the cost gap list for three or four years.

Austin wasn't number one on Redfin's latest comparison report, but the cost difference was among the highest in the top 50 metros.

To afford the typical for-sale home, Redfin data showed an Austin-area buyer would have to make $129,868. A renter would have to make $62,721 for the typical unit... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Demand for electricians surges in Austin amid booming data center projects (KVUE)

Data centers are powering current demand for electricians in the Austin region as of late. 

"We've already got dozens of calls for our job listing page for electricians to work in data centers that have been up for days or weeks sometimes. We're expecting a lot more through the rest of this year," Cameron Dodd said. "We've got like 400 apprentices in our training program right now, and we're always taking applications from more trying to fill that gap."

Dodd works with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520. Dodd and Troy Defrates, Dean for the Design, Construction and Applied Technologies at Austin Community College, are noticing the charged up interest in the trade. 

"Folks are realizing that there's a lucrative long career, as an electrician, commercial, residential," Defrates said. 

There is a difference between the two. Commercial work, like what is done for data centers, is more complex than residential work… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin mayor proposes economic development policies (Austin Business Journal)

The city of Austin needs to take a more active role in economic development, Mayor Kirk Watson said. 

“The city government has been too passive in recent years, and it's time to play the prominent role that people expect us to play, and that other folks looking to be involved with Austin expect us to play,” Watson told the Austin Business Journal in an interview. 

To spur more economic development, Watson — along with Austin City Council Members Jose “Chito” Vela, Ryan Alter, Paige Ellis and Zohaib “Zo” Qadri — proposed a “progressive economic development policy” for the city. The details of the economic development policy were shared on the Austin City Council’s public message board on April 22. 

The new policy proposal includes a draft resolution and a six-page document outlining Austin’s strategy for economic development. It also names 10 target sectors for growth. While the policy proposal was unveiled April 22, it will still need full approval from City Council. Message board posts indicate it could be considered at a May 7 meeting… 🟪 (READ MORE)  

📝⏱️ Q2 2026 Survey: 5 minutes, 9 questions. Click here to share your input.

✅ Data center boom strains Texas homebuilders’ need for electricians (Texas Tribune)

Abilene builder Gene Lantrip is on the front lines of Texas’ population boom, but a new force is making it harder to finish construction on homes. Data centers are poaching the electricians he needs to install light switches and wiring that power his duplexes.

The state has added more than 2.6 million residents since 2020, bringing in a steady surge of workers and families who need homes. But Texas doesn’t have enough electricians to meet the demands of two competing priorities: building the housing to meet the needs of a growing state and becoming a global leader in AI.

The centers that drive AI technology require massive facilities to power and cool servers, making electricians critical from construction through long-term operations. Early industry projections show data centers projects will need thousands of licensed electricians, pulling from a limited labor pool.

“It’s taken us two months longer to build the houses than what it did before the data centers were coming in,” Lantrip, 69, said. “That’s the downside.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Lawmakers question Camp Mystic's owners about July flood (Texas Public Radio)

After 28 people died at the private Christian girls' summer camp during last July's deadly flooding in the Hill Country, lawmakers questioned the merits of Camp Mystic's application for an operating license on Tuesday.

"I would have thought, after coming out of July of '25, that every 'I', every 'T' — everything on that application would have been pristine with all answers," state Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, said at a joint hearing of two legislative committees tasked with investigating the flood.

State health officials informed the camp last week that it may not be able to open this summer due to "insufficient" emergency plans. The camp's owners, the Eastland family, testified on Tuesday that they are working on correcting "deficiencies" in the plans.

"I believe you were referring to the description of activities that was uploaded," Edward Eastland told Perry. "I believe that description of activities was something that we had used years prior. It was a PDF, and it had references to the Guadalupe River, and that was — that was a mistake."

Perry, one of the authors of the Heaven's 27 Camp Safety Act, also called into question the Eastlands' future as operators of the camp.

"Legally, y'all probably get to stay in existence," Perry said. "But I will tell you ... whatever statute tweaks, whatever laws we make or whatever rules we have to devise, y'all will not be an operator next session, next season — if I can have anything to say with that."

On Monday, lawmakers heard hours of testimony from investigators who described an attitude of complacency and a lack of emergency preparedness at the camp… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Disaster declarations ripple through South Texas amid water crisis (Texas Tribune)

At least six small cities and towns in the Coastal Bend region of Texas issued disaster declarations in the last two weeks, begging not to be forgotten amid a spiraling water crisis.

All attention lies on the city of Corpus Christi as it grapples with the growing likelihood of an unprecedented disaster. But Corpus Christi, the eighth-largest city in Texas, doesn’t just provide water to its own industries and residents. It supplies the entire seven-county region, including 20 other municipalities.

“Everyone is like, ‘What the heck is going on and what do we do?” said Elida Castillo, mayor of the small town of Taft, which issued a disaster declaration on April 21. “I’m just trying to figure out what we could do.”

Castillo recently organized a town hall meeting on the water crisis for the 3,000 residents of Taft, but officials from Corpus Christi didn’t show up. She hasn’t heard much from county or state officials either. She is getting a sense that nobody knows what to do, and she isn’t alone.

Amy Hardberger, director of the Center for Water Law and Policy at the Texas Tech School of Law in Lubbock, said most Americans can’t wrap their minds around the grave implications of empty reservoirs. Those who can feel deeply unsettled by what is happening in Corpus Christi.

“It’s not my goal for other people to be panicked,” she said. “But many of us are very scared.”

If Corpus Christi becomes the first modern American city to run out of water, it would take most surrounding communities with it. Up the coast of Corpus Christi Bay, the cities of Ingleside and Aransas Pass, with a combined 19,000 residents, issued disaster declarations on April 22… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Talarico leads both Cornyn, Paxton in new poll of Texas’ U.S. Senate race (Texas Tribune)

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is leading both of his prospective Republican opponents in a new poll of Texas’ U.S. Senate race — though the result is within the margin of error in either scenario, suggesting a close contest in November.

The poll, conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research from April 17 to 20, found Talarico leading Sen. John Cornyn by three percentage points, 44% to 41%. The Austin Democrat leads Attorney General Ken Paxton by a margin of five percentage points, 46% to 41%. The survey included 1,865 likely general election voters and had a margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points.

TPOR is a nonpartisan public opinion research group directed by Democratic strategist Luke Warford. No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, and in recent cycles, polls have routinely offered rosy projections for the minority party that are not borne out in November… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ White House says funds to pay TSA and other Homeland Security workers will ‘soon run out’ (Associated Press)

The White House is warning Congress that funding to pay Department of Homeland Security personnel will “soon run out,” sparking new threats of airport disruptions and national security concerns as the House slow-walks legislation to end what has been the longest-ever lapse in agency funding.

In a memo late Tuesday to lawmakers, the Office of Management and Budget said money that President Donald Trump tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other workers through executive actions will be exhausted by May. It called on the House to quickly approve the budget resolution senators approved in an all-night session last week that would pave the way for full funding for the department.

“DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk,” the memo said.

The pressure from the Trump administration could help House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose narrow Republican majority has been stalled out, tangled in internal party disputes on a range of pending issues, including the Homeland Security funding. They have left the chamber at a virtual standstill… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ New DHS chief’s call for quieter immigration enforcement alarms MAGA base (Washington Post)

A month into his tenure, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is facing mounting pressure from conservative groups that fear the Trump administration is going soft on its mass deportation agenda amid a public backlash over aggressive enforcement tactics. Mullin has vowed to restore confidence in the Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In a recent cable news appearance, he expressed a desire to conduct enforcement in a “more quiet way.”

Organizations such as the Mass Deportation Coalition, formed in March and led by the Heritage Foundation, interpret that approach as a potential betrayal of one of the president’s core campaign promises. The coalition recently published a lengthy report concluding that the administration had deported 350,000 immigrants in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, far fewer than the 650,000 deportations that Trump officials have cited.

The numbers “don’t represent a victory in quantity,” said the report, which offered 21 recommendations to vastly expand operations. “What remains is a policy choice: to carry out a program of mass deportation, in keeping with the campaign promise, or not,” the report said. Mike Howell, president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, said Mullin’s comments thus far appear aimed at “assuaging left-wing concerns.” “There’s not a lot of recommitting to the cause” of mass deportations, Howell said in an interview. “It makes you wonder.”

DHS remains mired in a partial shutdown, and Trump is facing the lowest approval ratings of his second term, with the public souring on his handling of immigration, the economy and the war in Iran. Mullin has consistently struck a moderate message, saying his goal is to keep DHS from being the lead story on the news each night. That rhetoric reflects guidance given to Mullin by the White House, according to one federal official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ It's set to be Jerome Powell's last meeting as Fed chair — as a big change looms (NPR)

Change is coming to the Federal Reserve — even as interest rates are expected to hold steady.

The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark rate unchanged Wednesday, at what is likely Jerome Powell's last policy meeting as Fed chairman. His replacement may soon be in place, ushering in a change at the helm of the central bank after Powell's more than eight-year tenure.

A key Senate committee is set to vote Wednesday on President Trump's nominee to replace Powell, Kevin Warsh. That would set the stage for a confirmation vote by the full Senate in time for Warsh to take over as Fed chairman when Powell's term expires next month.

That timing was uncertain just a few days ago. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had threatened to block a vote to protest the Justice Department's investigation of the Fed, which was widely seen as part of a White House pressure campaign to force the central bank to lower interest rates.

That roadblock was cleared on Friday, when federal prosecutors agreed to drop their probe.

"With the assurances from the Department of Justice that the case is completely and fully settled," Tillis told NBC's Meet the Press, "I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh. I think he's going to be a great Fed chair."… 🟪 (READ MORE)