🟪 Taxes, police and service cuts: Austin’s budget fight starts now (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Contractor approved for new Austin Light Rail trains in $39M deal (KVUE)

🟪 Texas agencies must cut spending by 3% under new order from Abbott, Patrick and Burrows (Texas Tribune)

🟪 ERCOT nowhere near meeting Texas goal for residential demand reduction (San Antonio Express-News)

🟪 In debate over AI data centers in Texas, it's "rural Texas is dying" vs. "preserve this land" (CBS News)

🟪 Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after 2 deadly shootings (Associated Press)

🟪 Bike lanes and speed cameras disappear from the DOT's list of proven safety measures (NPR)

🟪 Views of the U.S. have worsened while opinions of China have improved in many surveyed countries (Pew Research Center)

READ ON!

🏛️ Budget Meeting of the Austin City Council - Tomorrow, July 16 @10AM

💰 FY 2026/27 Proposed Budget

The City of Austin's proposed FY 2026/27 budget was released Friday night.

The $6.6 billion operating budget represents a $301 million increase over the current amended budget and calls for higher property taxes, increased utility rates and cuts to social services.

Review the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget documents here

🟪 TODAY at 10AM : City manager will present draft budget to mayor and council

🟪 Wednesday, July 22: Work session (social service contracts will be discussed at this meeting)

🟪 Tuesday, July 28: Work session

🟪 Thursday, July 30: Work session

🟪 Thursday, Aug. 6: Work session and bond discussion

🟪 Wednesday, Aug. 12 – Friday, Aug. 14: Final vote approving budget

🏛️ Austin City Council July 23rd Regular Meeting Agenda

✅ Taxes, police and service cuts: Austin’s budget fight starts now (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax and his staff will present their $6.6 billion budget proposal to the City Council on Thursday, opening a debate over a spending plan that would cut social service contracts, boost police spending and raise taxes and fees for residents.

The plan proposes closing a projected $26 million deficit through spending cuts, reallocations and additional revenue. It also boosts funding for some priority initiatives such as homelessness, parks and employee raises. Residents would pay more through higher utility and drainage fees and a 3.5% tax increase – the maximum allowed under state law without triggering a voter-approval election. Together, the increases are estimated to cost the average Austin homeowner nearly $346 a year, or about $29 a month.

But the proposal is a starting point. City Council members can make changes to the spending plan before adopting a final budget Aug. 12.

In the days since Broadnax released the plan, the American-Statesman asked community groups, union leaders and City Council members for their thoughts on the proposal… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Contractor approved for new Austin Light Rail trains in $39M deal (KVUE)

Austin is a step closer to having another light rail line after selecting a manufacturer for the project’s vehicles.

On Wednesday, the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) board approved a contract with Stadler to supply the 21 trains for the new Project Connect light rail. The light rail system will run from 38th Street to Oltorf Street in South Austin and then split off and run to southeast Austin.

ATP officials said they considered a number of factors when selecting Stadler for this part of Project Connect.

"As a part of the solicitation process, we asked them to propose a vehicle that was modern in its design, that it was going to be attractive to riders, but not only attractive but it was people-centered, intuitive for riders to be able to access and use and navigate," Brad Cummings with ATP said.

Each train can carry approximately 240 passengers, including seating areas and space for standing passengers. The design will also include ADA-compliant zones and flexible multi-purpose areas for bikes, luggage and strollers.

Stadler has provided about 13,000 rail trains around the world since 1942, including CapMetro's existing Red Line vehicles… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas agencies must cut spending by 3% under new order from Abbott, Patrick and Burrows (Texas Tribune)

Texas’ top elected officials on Wednesday instructed state agencies, appellate courts and universities to cut spending by 3% in their budget requests for the next two years “as a starting point for budget deliberations.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, issued the guidance, framing the move as a way to keep Texas fiscally conservative and create wiggle room to fund priorities such as property tax cuts.

K-12 public education funding and the state’s new private school voucher program are exempted from the 3% cut, according to the guidance, as is funding needed to maintain various social programs required by state law and to cover payroll growth in state pension systems and employee benefits… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ERCOT nowhere near meeting Texas goal for residential demand reduction (San Antonio Express-News)

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is far from meeting its goals for residential demand response, barely making a dent in the total reduction regulators had hoped the program would achieve. The statewide grid operator told the Public Utility Commission that it achieved only a sliver of the sought-after 20% reduction from customers who have given their utility the ability to reduce their usage during “rush hour” periods of peak demand.

The reality was a 2.5% average reduction — just 10% of what the commission sought. Grid experts have said such programs can cut costs by reducing the need for construction of new generation and transmission infrastructure as demand soars.

The demand response effort fell short despite efforts like CPS Energy’s WiFi Thermostat Rewards and Austin Energy's Power Partners programs to reduce residential demand. It comes as ERCOT, which is projecting demand growth to quadruple by 2032, braces for an influx in demand driven by industry and residential growth and increasingly severe weather. The goal of a 20% reduction was set in 2023 by state lawmakers as part of legislation aiming to increase grid reliability while reducing costs for consumers.

In January 2025, the grid operator began tracking demand response participation and its deployment during peak demand periods to evaluate the programs' statewide effectiveness. Ramya Ramaswamy, the PUC's director of energy efficiency, told commissioners that ERCOT's failure to meet the demand reduction goal was due to the relatively short study period, the novelty of such programs in many parts of the state, overlapping initiatives and the effects of lower wholesale market prices. She also emphasized the need to “take a comprehensive look at demand response as a whole, of which residential demand response is a portion."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ In debate over AI data centers in Texas, it's "rural Texas is dying" vs. "preserve this land" (CBS News)

Opposition seems to be growing - particularly against data centers that will be built to support the increasing demand for artificial intelligence. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he wants to prohibit AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods. State Representative Shelley Luther agrees with the Governor, while Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian disagrees. Rep. Luther lives near Sherman and says that others who live in the area aren't thrilled with the idea of data centers moving in.

"I think it's huge for the governor to come out and say that we need to protect, really, the Republicans that live in these rural areas [who] are his voters, and we're pretty easy going," said Luther. "We don't ask for much, but when people try to come into our property rights, it's frustrating."

"Honestly, a huge eyesore for those of us that live in this rural area because of the beauty. Green land, rolling, rolling hills. I don't think that we should tear that up for data centers," Luther added.

"Steaks don't come from H-E-B. It's like what I like to say. They've got to come from somewhere in rural Texas. You've got to preserve this land and not put a big industrial footprint on it. The Texas Legislature is who needs to step in, make the laws. I think Governor Abbott's letter to the PUC chairman was a big move to say, 'Hey, let's take a pause.' And he knows that they shouldn't just come in and take our water, electricity."

When asked about the political stakes if the governor didn't do this, Luther responded, "Well, I think that Governor Abbott is very good at reading and polling what's going on in Texas, and he wants to do what conservatives want him to do. And so he wouldn't have put that statement out if he wasn't feeling the pressure. I don't think." Luther told CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink about the freedoms of living in rural Texas. For people living in unincorporated counties and unincorporated areas of counties, there is no zoning.

"The reason why we moved out here is to have complete liberty of whatever we wanted to do," said Luther. She mentions her ability to have animals, including kangaroos, on her property as an example of this. Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian told Jack Fink he disagrees with the Governor's idea of prohibiting AI data centers in rural Texas. "Rural Texas is dying," said Christian. "In the United States of America, rural America is decaying, going away."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after 2 deadly shootings (Associated Press)

Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday. The policy change came after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.

The suspension of vehicle stops allows room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops. DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country.

It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired. That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bike lanes and speed cameras disappear from the DOT's list of proven safety measures (NPR)

The Department of Transportation is doubling down on its campaign against "DEI bike lanes," as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called them in a social media post earlier this month.

The Federal Highway Administration has quietly stripped bike lanes, speed cameras and several other best practices from a list of "Proven Safety Countermeasures," as they're known, that have been shown to reduce crashes and save lives.

The FHWA says the changes to its website, which have not been previously reported, are part of a broader review of safety countermeasures to ensure they align with current DOT policies and the administration's priorities. But critics say the Trump administration is undermining safety strategies that have already been proven to work… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Views of the U.S. have worsened while opinions of China have improved in many surveyed countries (Pew Research Center)

Across 24 countries Pew Research Center surveyed this spring, more people have a positive view of the United States than of China. However, this gap is closing, as views of the U.S. have become more negative while views of China have turned more positive.

In the sections below, we compare international public opinion of the two superpowers, their leaders, their economies and more. All findings are based on surveys of more than 28,000 adults conducted Jan. 8-April 26, 2025… 🟪 (READ MORE)