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🟪 As the only Texas district to trigger potential state takeover, Austin ISD’s future now in TEA’s hands (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Court battle continues over funding for Austin's light rail project (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Can Austin break the costly cycle of homelessness, jail and crisis? A new program aims to do that. (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Austin voters to weigh $295M parks bond after budget raises typical tax bill $285 (CBS Austin)

🟪 Texas cities eye property tax hikes, spending cuts amid yawning budget gaps (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Greg Abbott threatens Dallas, Houston airports’ grant funds over Islamic washing facilities (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers critical over new border wall Big Bend region construction (CBS News)

🟪 Meta heads to court in a landmark trial about kids and social media addiction (NPR)

READ ON!

Austin Gets Its First Nonstop to Paris 🛫 🇫🇷

Delta Air Lines announced Thursday it will launch Austin's first-ever nonstop service to Paris. Daily flights to Charles de Gaulle begin March 27, 2027. Tickets go on sale Saturday.

Paris becomes Austin's fourth European destination and the only one on a U.S. carrier, with onward connections to Rome, Barcelona, and Athens. Delta pointed to strong corporate and premium-cabin demand out of Central Texas, which says as much about the region's business base as its travel appetite.

Mayor Kirk Watson said the route will "create new opportunities for economic vitality and strengthen connections between local businesses and the French economy."

Bingham Group represents Delta Air Lines in Central Texas.

✅ As the only Texas district to trigger potential state takeover, Austin ISD’s future now in TEA’s hands (Texas Tribune)

Austin school district leaders are determined to turn around the two middle schools that triggered mandatory state intervention.

Whether they get the chance may no longer be up to them.

Burnet and Webb middle schools received their fifth consecutive F ratings from the Texas Education Agency, triggering a state law that requires the agency to intervene. What that intervention ultimately looks like remains unclear.

Under the new statewide ratings released Friday, it is the only Texas district to trigger a potential state takeover.

But the ratings also left the district with an argument that it is making progress. The district overall earned a B grade, up from a C last year, said Superintendent Matias Segura. And Dobie Middle School, which was teetering on its fifth failing score, earned a D this year.

The district has an opportunity to appeal any school rating this year. And it likely will do so, Segura said, but would not detail what action it might take or for which schools. TEA will finalize the accountability ratings in December… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Court battle continues over funding for Austin's light rail project (Austin Business Journal)

for the Austin light rail expansion is raging on, with rulings and subsequent appeals flying.

On Aug. 13, a hearing was held in a Travis County courtroom between ATP and its legal challengers. Travis County Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel made several rulings on the legal challenges facing the Austin light rail's buildout. Some helped ATP’s cause, and others helped that of ATP’s opponents. 

For the past few years, ATP, the entity tasked with building the Austin light rail, has been embroiled in a legal challenge related to how it can use revenue from local property taxes. Critics have questioned whether ATP can use revenue generated through the Project Connect property taxes — which were approved by Austin voters in 2020 — for debt service to support the buildout of the light rail.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion in 2023 that said ATP can't use tax revenue that's marked for maintenance and operations to fund debt service costs. A group of local taxpayers — led by local attorney and former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire — is challenging the local funding mechanism through a lawsuit. ATP has also filed a bond validation lawsuit that aims for the courts to certify that ATP can issue bonds for debt service costs and to help pay for construction of the light rail… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Can Austin break the costly cycle of homelessness, jail and crisis? A new program aims to do that. (Texas Tribune)

On a hot August afternoon, Marcus Martin walked out of the Travis County Correctional Complex in Southeast Austin after about six months behind bars, a broad smile stretched across his face. He’s been incarcerated before, but he believes this time is different.

Outside the facility, several people awaited his release in their vehicles, blasting the air conditioning, while another went inside to greet Martin, made sure he had all of his belongings and walked him through what came next.

The team waiting for him were not social workers, case managers or family, but sworn Austin Police Department officers assigned to a new program called No Wrong Door, a cross-agency effort aimed at helping people experiencing homelessness with complex mental health disorders who have frequent interactions with law enforcement and public health systems… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Cedar Park City Council establishes advisory task force for potential 2027 bond program (Community Impact)

Cedar Park City Council members voted to establish a Bond Advisory Task Force to identify projects for inclusion in a potential 2027 bond program at the Aug. 13 City Council meeting.

The formation of the task force is a step toward calling a bond election. City leaders have expressed interest in issuing bonds in order to pay for major capital projects. In order to do that, the city needs approval from the voters.

The bond advisory task force will work with city staff to determine the amount of the potential bonds and what projects they would fund, and then present a recommended bond program to City Council. City Council members will then vote to call a bond election, giving voters the opportunity to decide whether to approve the bond program…🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin voters to weigh $295M parks bond after budget raises typical tax bill $285 (CBS Austin)

Austin voters will face another decision on taxes this November as the city places a $295 million bond for parks and recreation improvements on the ballot, just days after the Austin City Council approved a $6.6 billion budget that includes a tax increase.

On Wednesday, the council passed the new budget, which puts more money toward public safety and other critical city services but comes with a 3.5% tax hike. City leaders say the new budget will cost the typical Austin tax-and-ratepayer about $285 more per year.

Councilmember Marc Duchen, who represents District 10, criticized the budget vote, saying, “It was about trust and it was not affordability. And I think this council damaged both.”

In November, Austinites will vote on the proposed $295 million bond. Most of that money — $260 million — would go toward maintenance and improvements at city parks, recreation centers and other public buildings. City officials say Austin parks have not seen a major bond investment in eight years… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas cities eye property tax hikes, spending cuts amid yawning budget gaps (Texas Tribune)

Texas cities have floated unusual proposals to slash their spending as they face yawning budget gaps, from laying off employees and charging non-residents higher zoo ticket prices, to asking voters to reconsider public funding to a new arena for the San Antonio Spurs.

These desperate maneuvers — some of which have not come to fruition — underscore how inflation, a slower economy and moves by state lawmakers have put Texas’ biggest cities in a tightening financial noose that will take big moves to get out of.

“This is going to be our new normal going forward,” Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said Tuesday during a briefing on the city’s upcoming budget.

In Dallas, the budget gap is $51 million. In Fort Worth, it’s $94 million. In San Antonio, the city faces a $158 million deficit over the next two years. Austin faces a structural deficit that could grow past $100 million by the start of the next decade… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Greg Abbott threatens Dallas, Houston airports’ grant funds over Islamic washing facilities (Texas Tribune)

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly used for Islamic prayer after Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday threatened to withdraw state and federal funding.

Abbott sent a letter to the North Texas airport’s CEO Christopher McLaughlin, as well as the mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, stating his office was in the process of reviewing all grant funds over facilities in their cities’ airports. He also sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to refer the airports for federal investigations.

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott said in a news release announcing the grant reviews. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘ICE tax’: Valley hardest hit in Texas from mass deportation campaign (MyRGV)

The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign led to a 5% quarterly drop in construction jobs in the Rio Grande Valley during the third quarter of last year — the highest construction jobs decline on record for the region — while the cost of housing and services across the state is rising because of the shrinking workforce. That’s according to a newly released report, “End the Ice Tax,” from America’s Voice, a nonprofit national organization that advocates for the enactment of changes to government policy that “secure freedom and opportunity for immigrants in America.” The report found that nearly one-fifth of ICE arrests in Texas took place in the Valley, where ICE has arrested more than 9,100 people during the surge. In Laredo, monthly arrests of workers and residents jumped from around half a dozen on average to more than 800 due to the mass deportation campaign, the report said.

“Business is down significantly,” South Texas Builders Association Board President Ronnie Cavazos is quoted as saying. “If we continue on this trajectory, we will see a lot of businesses fail.” Among U.S. states, California, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and New York rely most heavily on immigrants workers and are experiencing proportionate economic impacts, including higher costs for things like groceries, daycare and home construction, according to the report, which noted that regions of Texas are experiencing the same types of effects. America’s Voice stated that the government’s “mass deportation agenda is contributing to an increase in price and depressing economic activity.” “That decision isn’t theoretical,” the organization said. “It shows up at every kitchen table in the country, including the tables of families who’ve never thought twice about immigration. We call it the ICE tax. It’s the additional cost you pay when your government picks mass deportation over your wallet — higher prices at checkout, jobs that stall out because workers are gone, and Main Street businesses sitting quiet after a raid comes through.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers critical over new border wall Big Bend region construction (CBS News)

Construction is underway in the Big Bend region of Texas amid public concern, following months of rumors. Residents in the area first reported contractors with heavy machinery moving into the area in early August. Video and pictures taken by Terlingua resident Natalie Newman and shared widely on social media show bulldozers clearing brush in Big Bend National Park near Santa Elena Canyon, one of the park's most recognizable and visited spots. The crews are working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which says this video shows them doing survey and design work. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement that they are working to preserve the landscape and protect the access that visitors and local businesses depend on.

"Big Bend belongs to the American people, and our job is to keep it safe. So, let's be clear about what is - and is not - happening there. CBP is building one new access road, improving existing roads, installing detection technology, and placing vehicle barriers in limited, strategic locations. We are NOT building a 30-foot wall or stadium lighting through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area," Scott said. Even so, concerned residents gathered at Big Bend National Park last week to protest the Trump administration's actions. Also, last week, Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security, asking him to meet with Texas stakeholders before any additional construction takes place within Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Meta heads to court in a landmark trial about kids and social media addiction (NPR)

Meta will head into federal court on Tuesday to fend off accusations from a group of state attorneys general that it designed its social media platforms to hook children, lied to the public about the risks those platforms posed and gathered data on kids in violation of the law.

The case is the latest in a wave of suits against social media companies, meant to hold them accountable for the way they design their products. Legal experts compare it to landmark litigation against tobacco and opioid manufacturers that changed those companies' behaviors as well as the public discussion about the risks of cigarettes and prescription painkillers.

Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — are seeking up to $1.4 trillion in penalties and product changes under consumer protection laws that they allege were broken by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. They say Meta also violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by hoovering up data about children… 🟪 (READ MORE)