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🟪 Travis County taking its time on critical Dog's Head vote (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin's pursuit of an NHL team is about to ramp up (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin ISD reverses secondary hub stop model for middle school (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin issues $663M in bonds to fund new convention center (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Trump calls Texas’ data center opposition a “mistake” (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Elon Musk, Greg Abbott confirm $17B Terafab plant for College Station (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 How North Texas council meetings became heated political spectacles (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 Joby Aviation to bring air taxi manufacturing, testing to North Texas (Community Impact)

READ ON!

💰 Review the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget documents here

🏛️ MEMO: Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget Adoption Timeline

🏛️ MEMO: Austin Staff Recommends $5.35 Million Reduction to Social Service Grants for FY27

🎙️ The BG Podcast is taking a two-part look at the future of the Austin–San Antonio megaregion.

Episode 269 features my conversation with former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros about the case for greater regional cooperation in the Austin San Antonio megaregion.

Episode 270 continues the discussion with A.J. Rodriguez, CEO of the Central Texas Alliance. We discuss how the new organization plans to build consensus across 13 counties, develop a shared regional agenda and strengthen Central Texas’ voice at the state and federal levels.

Listen on:

✅ Travis County taking its time on critical Dog's Head vote (Austin Business Journal)

Travis County officials plan to take their time considering whether the county should participate in a taxing plan that would support Endeavor Real Estate Group's development of the massive Dog’s Head area. 

The Dog’s Head is a 2,645-acre site along the Colorado River near Austin’s airport. The site is called the Dog’s Head because the shape of the Colorado River makes it look like a dog’s head from an aerial view. Most of the Dog’s Head site has been used for mining and industrial purposes.

Endeavor has pitched the Dog’s Head as a massive development opportunity for Austin that could eventually hold millions of square feet of commercial real estate and over 12,000 residential units. But for Endeavor’s vision of the Dog’s Head to become a reality, the site needs an estimated $5.6 billion worth of infrastructure work.

That's why Endeavor is seeking for both the city of Austin and Travis County to participate in a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ. A TIRZ is a funding mechanism that local governments can use to pay for infrastructure and create a dedicated fund for improvement projects in a certain area. It works by creating a baseline of taxable value for an area of land, and increases in the land’s taxable value are put into a TIRZ fund for that area. The Austin City Council in July approved the city’s participation in the Dog’s Head TIRZ.

The Travis County Commissioners Court is in no rush to vote on the Dog’s Head TIRZ. Travis County Judge Andy Brown told the Austin Business Journal that no decision has been made on when Commissioners could vote on participating in the Dog’s Head TIRZ… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's pursuit of an NHL team is about to ramp up (Austin Business Journal)

Austin's impending pursuit of a National Hockey League team remains at "ground zero," stakeholders said, but there are at least signs that it's about to soon ramp up.

About two months after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the surprise revelation that the league signed an exclusive term sheet with the Friedkin Family and Houston-based Pursuit Sports to consider Houston and Austin for a new franchise, those involved maintained the latter is not just a throw-in to sweeten a deal with the franchise owner's hometown.

That's because in recent weeks, representatives from Pursuit Sports have started initial conversations with local officials. Additionally, sources said Pursuit Sports has inked a local office lease, although it remains unclear where. Its CEO, David Beeston, is said to be soon spending extended time in Austin.

"I'm really pleased that the Friedkin group and Pursuit Sports are giving us a shot in this," Visit Austin CEO Tom Noonan said, adding the group had an initial call with Beeston. Noonan's team offered to serve as a connector as they roll out the welcome mat to court the city's first big four sports franchise… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD reverses secondary hub stop model for middle school (Community Impact)

Four days after launching its new Bus Stop Finder tool, Austin ISD reversed part of its transportation overhaul, announcing Aug. 7 it will restore neighborhood-level bus stops for middle school students.

What's changing

Middle schoolers who were set to be picked up at centralized "hub stops" alongside high schoolers this fall will instead return to stops closer to home. The district said updated middle school stops will appear in the Bus Stop Finder tool on a rolling basis over the next few days, with all stops finalized and public by Aug. 13.

High school students are not affected by the reversal. Their hub-stop assignments, which include elementary schools, libraries and community centers up to three miles from home, remain in place. The district has posted slides showing pickup and drop-off locations at each high school hub… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin issues $663M in bonds to fund new convention center (Austin Business Journal)

The city of Austin has issued $663 million in bonds to the market, a key step in financing the redevelopment of the Austin Convention Center. 

On Aug. 4, the city of Austin issued two sets of bonds that will be used to pay for the $1.6 billion convention center, according to a city spokesperson. The redevelopment of the Austin Convention Center has long been planned. The old building was torn down in 2025, and the new and larger center is scheduled to open by the spring of 2029. 

Austin issued $540.55 million of senior lien special tax revenue bonds, as well as another $122.45 million worth of junior lien special tax revenue bonds. Approximately $1.25 billion of the total price tag for the project is coming through bond financing. 

An Austin spokesperson said the sale of these bonds should close by the end of August. 

They won’t be the only bonds issued by the city to support the Austin Convention Center. The Austin City Council approved the issuance of $1.35 billion — more than the planned amount — for the redevelopment project. A spokesperson said the city should issue another set of bonds in 2027… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump calls Texas’ data center opposition a “mistake” (Texas Tribune)

President Donald Trump this week criticized Texas for being anti-data centers, just days after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott paused industry-wide approvals until the companies provide the state with more information on things like power and water use.

“I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers,” Trump said in a nearly hourlong sit-down interview with Punchbowl News released Friday. “I think it’s a mistake. And I’m not taking positions, I just think it’s a mistake, because there are other communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community.”

Abbott’s spokesperson in a statement Friday defended the policy move as necessary because less than 10% of data centers responded to the state’s requests for them to report their power and water usage… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ How North Texas council meetings became heated political spectacles (Dallas Morning News)

In McKinney, the faces of those turned away Tuesday from City Hall by the fire marshal pressed against the glass doors of the council chambers, peering in to catch a glimpse. Listening to the council meeting on their phones, they banged on the glass in reaction to the more than four hours of public comment before the council unanimously approved the site plan for a proposed mosque just before midnight. The lobby, overflow room and parking lot had filled before Mayor Bill Cox hit the gavel. The item had been placed on the meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically for “non-controversial or housekeeping items required by law.” But the meeting became about much more than the placement of buildings, turning into a rowdy disagreement over American values, identity and Islam.

It’s been a familiar scene over the long, hot summer at city halls across North Texas. Once sleepy local meetings about zoning and contracts have erupted into crowded, angry spectacles, galvanized on social media. As the demographics of the suburbs change, some meetings have become proxy wars for cultural and social issues that cities cannot directly address. Other meetings, centered on local issues with national resonance, have brought attention to city governance this summer. North Texans packed City Halls and county buildings to protest data centers and defend voting access as midterm elections approach.

Now local leaders are tightening meeting rules and removing disruptive speakers while wrestling with how to restore order without stifling dissent. Former McKinney Mayor George Fuller, who served for eight years up until last summer, views the meeting conduct as “very sad political theater.” He said Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting and took to X to alert his followers about the proposed mosque, “should be ashamed” for using the forum to score points with voters. “There were residents there with very legitimate concerns, traffic and whatnot, and their comments and their voices were diluted by all these people coming in from outside our community to spread their bigotry and racism and fear,” he said. “That undermines our local community's voice.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Elon Musk, Greg Abbott confirm $17B Terafab plant for College Station (Houston Chronicle)

It’s official: SpaceX and Tesla are building a massive $16.8 billion chipmaking facility outside of College Station in Grimes County. SpaceX has been working on this deal for months and has already negotiated tens of millions of dollars in incentives with Grimes County, local school districts and the state for the advanced semiconductor facility, called Terafab.

The facility is expected to span 100 million square feet and employ more than 3,000 people. The initial phase of development is expected to cost $16.8 billion, SpaceX said Thursday, lower than the company’s prior estimates of $55 billion. Terafab will build chips for self-driving vehicles, humanoid robots and space-based data centers, according to the company’s update. Both SpaceX and Tesla are based in Texas.

“We’re now embarking on the most epic chip-building effort,” Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, said in a statement. “The Terafab is bringing cutting-edge manufacturing to America, creating thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State and enabling us to produce AI chips at scale for use on Earth and in space.” The new facility is part of SpaceX’s rapid expansion across the state – it launches rockets outside of Brownsville, tests engines in McGregor and builds components for its broadband internet satellites in Bastrop.

The company says it has created more than 56,000 direct and indirect jobs, $28 billion in estimated economic impact since 2024 and hundreds of millions in indirect tax revenue since 2024. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the project is receiving a $30 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant from the state. Anderson-Shiro CISD and Iola ISD gave their final approval for tax breaks for the project earlier this week, and Grimes County previously approved waiving property taxes… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Joby Aviation to bring air taxi manufacturing, testing to North Texas (Community Impact)

Joby Aviation, Inc. signed a lease for a 45,000-square-foot space at the Alliance Air Trade Center, part of Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, for the manufacturing and testing of air taxis.

The lease is the first in North Texas by an electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVOTL, aircraft manufacturer. Joby, based out of Santa Cruz, California, is a leading developer of eVOTL aircraft design for commercial passenger transportation, according to an Aug. 6 news release.

Joby will try to validate operations for electric air taxi service in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and support future electric air taxi operations across Dallas-Fort Worth, according to its website.

In March, Joby launched its all-electric flight experience in San Francisco. According to a press release, the company has logged more than 50,000 miles across its fleet and the company is ready to scale its presence across the United States… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, Netanyahu says (NBC News)

Israel will not accept the 15-point plan for Gaza set out by President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. “I want to clarify this: Israel rejects the 15-point document. I have heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say that.’ So here I am saying it again,” he told a Cabinet meeting, referring to the peace plan set out by Trump last year.

“The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed,” he added. Trump, who last month touted a breakthrough in his Gaza peace plan, said that Hamas has agreed to lay down arms. However, the Board of Peace’s proposal calls for a phased withdrawal of Israel’s troops from Gaza alongside the disarmament of Hamas. Netanyahu said that Israeli forces are not going anywhere until Hamas completely disarms first.

“When I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons. We are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one,” Netanyahu said Sunday. Hamas had last month said that it would disarm but only after Israel withdraws completely and stops all hostilities. The group also said that laying down its heavy weapons would come later in the process, conditional on the establishment of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu, meanwhile, reaffirmed that “as long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state.”

The leader is currently facing a domestic political battle for survival ahead of elections set for October, with the status of the Gaza and Iran conflicts likely to prove pivotal. The explicit rejection of the peace plan, frequently touted by Trump as a key foreign policy achievement, also comes after months of growing tensions between the White House and Israel’s leadership over Iran. The White House did not immediately comment on the remarks… 🟪 (READ MORE)