🟪 Austin unveils $6.63B proposed budget, plan would add $350 to typical household annual costs (Community Impact)

🟪 Data suggests Austin's housing market is fairly balanced (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin's Saronic picks Brownsville for $3.2 billion shipyard, plans 10,000 jobs (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Camp Mystic moves flood lawsuit to federal court, citing bankruptcy (KUT

🟪 SA eyes Austin in convention center expansion race (San Antonio Business Journal)

🟪 Trump overturns pause of ICE vehicle stops implemented after Maine, Texas shootings (CBS News)

🟪 Trump uses primetime address to raise doubts about US elections ahead of midterms (Associated Press)

READ ON!

WEDNESDAY // Bingham Group was proud to serve as the presenting sponsor of LinkedGlenn's Building Beyond Austin: Hutto Edition.

If you are not paying attention to Hutto, you should be. Located about 30 miles northeast of Austin, the city ranks 13th fastest-growing in the United States among cities with at least 20,000 residents and has grown more than 76% since 2020.

Samsung's $17 billion semiconductor facility in neighboring Taylor is pulling suppliers into the corridor, and Hutto's EDC controls 400 acres of shovel-ready industrial land with infrastructure already in the ground.

My message to crowd: Bingham Group works at the intersection of politics, policy, and procurement throughout Central Texas. We help firms see around corners to advance their business objectives. If that's of interest, let’s have a conversation (y’all too).

Hutto Mayor Mike Snyder set the stage with a look at Hutto's vision for balanced growth, prioritizing commercial and industrial development alongside the residential boom the city has experienced.

Caught up with Glenn Hart aka Linkedglenn with a guest appearance from Williamson County Judge Steven Snell.

🏛️ PRESS RELEASE: Austin's $6.6 billion proposed budget focused on fiscal sustainability to enable high-priority community needs

🏛️ MEMO: Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget Adoption Timeline

🏛️ VIDEO: Budget Meeting of the Austin City Council (7.16.26)

💰 Review the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget documents here

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

🟪 Thursday, July 23: Austin City Council July 23rd Regular Meeting (Agenda)

🟪 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 unveils $6.63B proposed budget, plan would add $350 to typical household annual costs (Community Impact)

Austin leaders are reviewing the city's proposed $6.63 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27, a nearly 5% larger spending plan that would raise the typical household's costs about $350.

Additionally, officials proposed millions of dollars in cuts to social services to offset some of those cost drivers.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax framed the budget as maintaining long-term fiscal stability while withstanding local revenue challenges.

"Like the community members we serve, we must live within our means," he wrote in his budget message. "We achieved a balanced budget in part by identifying reductions and reallocations in the City’s General Fund through this thoughtful, strategic and focused process."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Data suggests Austin's housing market is fairly balanced (Austin Business Journal)

Despite some national causes for dampened consumer confidence last month, Unlock MLS's June and mid-year housing reports signal signs for optimism about the local housing market, said market research adviser Vaike O'Grady.

“There continues to be demand in Austin, and it’s solid demand,” O’Grady said. “The excitement is there … even if there are some other things going on in the world that make people a little bit queasy.”

Among the most notable June data points was 4.4 months’ worth of inventory, down one month from June 2025 and “solidly in balanced market territory,” she said. The metro also saw a 13.2% year-over-year bump in pending sales and a significant 14.8% fall in active listings.

A recent Redfin report still labeled Austin as one of the nation’s strongest buyer’s markets with a seller-to-buyer ratio of 101.3% last month, but O’Grady said the data suggests the Austin area is moving away from last year’s oversupply bump. And one thing is clear: It's nowhere near the undersupply rut seen during the pandemic's homebuying craze… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's Saronic picks Brownsville for $3.2 billion shipyard, plans 10,000 jobs (Austin American-Statesman)

Saronic Technologies Inc. has picked South Texas as the site of its $3.2 billion Port Alpha, the high-tech shipyard where it plans to build more of the drone boats that have been in the news for autonomous Navy missions in the Strait of Hormuz.

The fast-growing Austin startup said the Port of Brownsville site, which could employ 10,000 people in the next decade, will start at 800 acres and could grow to as much as 4,000 acres.

Construction is set to begin this year and the first phase will be operational in 2028, Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas said Thursday in a news conference with Gov. Greg Abbott.

Mavrookas said Saronic is planning to move from groundbreaking to production at a record pace. 

“That’s our goal,” he said. “And then the build-out will continue over the next 10 years.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Camp Mystic moves flood lawsuit to federal court, citing bankruptcy (KUT)

Camp Mystic's owners have successfully moved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by six families from Texas state court to federal court, arguing the case is tied to the camp's ongoing bankruptcy. The move adds another layer of uncertainty to five lawsuits filed by families which accuse camp operators of failing to protect their children during last year's catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country.

In a notice filed Monday, the camp's owners argued the lawsuit is connected to its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and should therefore be handled in federal court. The case, originally filed in Travis County state court, centers on the deaths of six girls at Camp Mystic during the July 2025 flood.

They were among 25 campers and two counselors killed when floodwaters swept through the century-old summer camp for girls near Hunt. Camp owner and executive director Dick Eastland was also killed. More than 130 people died across the Texas Hill Country. The camp's filing came just two days before a status hearing on the case. Wednesday's hearing was canceled after the case was moved to federal court, according to Kyle Findley, an attorney representing the six families. In a statement, Findley accused Camp Mystic's owners of trying to keep the cases out of a public state courtroom.

"These families aren't asking for anything extraordinary — they're asking for a public trial, in Texas state court, in front of a jury as is their right in this country," Findley said. Findley pointed to the camp's earlier effort to force some families into private arbitration, which would have moved the disputes out of court and avoided jury trials in five cases scheduled for next year. He also criticized the timing of the camp's bankruptcy filing and its latest move to federal court… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ SA eyes Austin in convention center expansion race (San Antonio Business Journal)

As San Antonio pursues an expansion plan for the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, industry leaders warn that the city must keep a close watch on what’s happening some 70 miles to the north.

One of the challenges San Antonio faces is determining how and where to expand its convention facilities. There could be more clarity on that front within a matter of months, resulting from the findings in a new feasibility study.

“We are working on that right now,” San Antonio Assistant City Manager Alex Lopez said. “We hope to have it completed this fall.”

Austin has begun construction on a new $1.6 billion facility to replace its older convention center. The new facility, set to open in 2029, will be significantly larger than the older one, spanning roughly 620,000 square feet… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ California Forever loses $3.2 billion shipyard contract as defense startup picks Texas (San Francisco Chronicle)

California Forever's bid to recruit a major industrial tenant for a planned waterfront shipbuilding facility in Solano County has slipped away, a significant blow to the ambitious but heavily scrutinized billionaire-backed plan to build an entire new city on thousands of acres of farmland. 

Defense startup Saronic Technologies, which designs and builds autonomous water crafts, has chosen Texas - where the company has been considering the Port of Brownsville - over Solano County for its $3.2 billion Port Alpha automated shipyard, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.

The announcement strips California Forever of the prominent prospective tenant it had presented as proof that its controversial development could become a cornerstone of the nation's shipbuilding revival. The setback comes at a pivotal moment for the larger project to create a new city, though its supporters say the search for a major commercial tenant is far from over.  

The Chronicle reached out to multiple representatives of California Forever, Saronic and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office for comment Wednesday evening, but did not hear back before publication. 

Joshua Arce, executive director for the California Alliance of Jobs, which represents thousands of union construction workers across the state, confirmed that "10,000 permanent jobs and thousands of union construction jobs" that would have accompanied Saronic's Port Alpha shipyard in California are headed to Texas instead. He said "state leaders failed to act with the urgency this project demanded.

"While Texas moved quickly and aggressively, California could not provide the clear, expedited approval process needed to compete," Arce said in a statement to the Chronicle. "This is an enormous loss for Solano County, California workers and our state's manufacturing economy."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump overturns pause of ICE vehicle stops implemented after Maine, Texas shootings (CBS News)

President Trump overturned a suspension of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement traffic stops that multiple law enforcement sources said had been implemented after fatal shootings in Texas and Maine over the last week. ICE agents had been instructed to immediately suspend most vehicle stops during immigration enforcement operations nationwide, except in cases involving serious criminal targets.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, however, Mr. Trump wrote that "we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands." But he told ICE to "be judicious, fair and smart."

The White House confirmed to CBS News that the president's Truth Social post was intended to overturn Tuesday's memo from DHS temporarily suspending vehicle stops by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO. Later Wednesday, ICE sources confirmed to CBS News the agency's deportation officers can again make vehicle stops.

A law enforcement official and a DHS official said that ICE field offices issued verbal clarifications to personnel, and agents were told that traffic stops are "not off the table" and remain "a tool in the toolkit." DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote on X that he and the president are "on the same page." "We want our [ICE] officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible," Mullin said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump uses primetime address to raise doubts about US elections ahead of midterms (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms.

Trump’s amplification of debunked theories about the election six years ago and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker moments in American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.

Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces escalating strikes on Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in sight, and an immigration crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its sometimes deadly tactics.

His address Thursday hinged on contradictions.

A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.

Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from Republicans… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Kalshi says it's not a sportsbook even as World Cup bets surge (NPR)

The World Cup has been a sports betting bonanza for Kalshi.

Since the soccer tournament started, Kalshi says it has set new trading records, taking in more than $25 billion in sports wagers.

Compare that to the $4 billion analysts are expecting online sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel to log in bets across all 104 matches.

The disparity is fueling skepticism from sportsbook advocates over Kalshi's position that it is not a sports gambling app.

To the sports betting industry, Kalshi and other prediction market operators have found a legal backdoor to grow sports betting without paying state gaming taxes. Additionally, Kalshi's app has effectively lowered the sports betting age from 21 to 18 and entered states where betting on sports is illegal, like California and Texas, thanks to the Trump administration's endorsement of Kalshi's argument that it is something other than a sports gambling site… 🟪 (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)