🟪 Missed targets, full payment: Austin mayor calls nonprofit audit ‘troubling’ (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Travis County leaders hold off on Dog's Head tax financing vote (Community Impact)

🟪 Amazon revealed as Fortune 100 company behind massive Dog's Head project (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announces cancer diagnosis ahead of City Hall return (KUT)

🟪 Austin suburb's residents sue their city to force public vote on data center ban (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Texas district launches new legal challenge to school finance system (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 Halliburton lands contract in Iraq as companies seek solutions to avoid Strait of Hormuz (Houston Business Journal)

READ ON!

🏛️ COUNCIL MEETINGS:

🏛️ MEMO: Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget Adoption Timeline

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

🏛️ VIDEO: Austin City Council Work Session (7.21.26)

💰 Review the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget documents here

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce brought together three of the region's top sports executive last night at The Pershing for its Game Changers panel.

Austin Gamblers CEO JJ Gottsch moderated a conversation that covered everything from World Cup economics to baseball's looming labor fight.

Panelist highlights:

The evening's throughline: Austin has moved well past "college football town." Sports is now a serious economic and civic engine for the region.

✅ Missed targets, full payment: Austin mayor calls nonprofit audit ‘troubling’ (Austin American-Statesman)

Mayor Kirk Watson and several Austin City Council members raised concerns Monday about a recent city audit that found  nonprofit contractors missed nearly half of their performance targets but were still paid in full by the city. 

The audit, released July 15, examined 25 contracts worth about $30 million and found that 76% failed to meet at least one performance measure. Overall, contractors missed 44% of the measurable targets reviewed, including benchmarks for the number of residents served and whether services improved clients’ health or circumstances.

“Let's be candid — the findings are troubling,” Watson said during a meeting of the council’s Audit and Finance Committee. Watson said the findings could indicate that vulnerable residents did not receive services the city paid nonprofit organizations to provide.

The audit comes as the council considers cutting millions of dollars from social service contracts while attempting to close a projected $26 million budget shortfall.

Watson acknowledged that providers may have faced staffing shortages or circumstances beyond their control. He also said the city must take responsibility if it imposed unrealistic requirements or failed to manage contracts effectively. But “none of those possibilities supports a system in which expectations can be missed repeatedly without consistent review, without corrective action or without consequences,” Watson said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Travis County leaders hold off on Dog's Head tax financing vote (Community Impact)

Travis County leaders declined to take action on a financing plan in the Dog's Head that could use more than a half billion dollars of county tax revenue to support public infrastructure in the 4-square-mile area.

County Judge Andy Brown said officials need more time, information and assurances around plans there before a final vote. Austin City Council is now scheduled to consider the tax financing proposal July 23.

“It’s a very exciting possibility, and we would really like to support a project that reflects our values," he said. "Something that has guarantees for affordability, for community input, environmental protections, robust economic growth, great transportation access and more. And something that’s going to make Austin and Travis County residents, businesses, developers, migratory birds, proud."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Amazon revealed as Fortune 100 company behind massive Dog's Head project (Austin Business Journal)

The identity of the mysterious Fortune 100 company that could be headed to the sprawling Dog's Head region in Southeast Austin has been revealed.

Amazon.com Inc. is the company behind a proposed advanced manufacturing project in the area, Assistant City Manager Eric Johnson told the Austin City Council during a work session meeting on July 21.

Johnson said Amazon wants to use the facility for advanced robotic uses, and could potentially create as many as 500 jobs. Johnson said annual salaries for those positions could range from roughly $75,000 to $150,000. Austin is believed to be in competition with at least one other U.S. site for the project.

The Amazon project could move quickly, should the company choose Austin. The tech giant intends to open the advanced manufacturing facility in the fourth quarter of 2027, Johnson said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announces cancer diagnosis ahead of City Hall return (KUT)

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announced Tuesday she is battling breast cancer.

Fuentes, who has been on parental leave since May 4, said in a statement that she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer at 37 weeks pregnant. Fuentes said she felt a lump in her breast and immediately consulted with her doctor.

“By acting quickly, we caught the cancer before it spread,” she said. “It’s so important to trust your body. If something feels off, get it checked. Early detection saves lives.”

Fuentes said her daughter Vivienne was delivered safely on May 5 and is "healthy and growing fast!"

She encouraged women to "be proactive with their health" and consider getting a mammogram before the recommended age of 40.

Within 36 hours of delivering her daughter, Fuentes said she began cancer treatment. She said she will continue to receive medical care while resuming her duties on the Austin City Council… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin suburb's residents sue their city to force public vote on data center ban (Austin American-Statesman)

Taylor residents are suing their city in an attempt to force it to call an election on a resident-led initiative to temporarily ban data centers.

The suit in the 3rd Court of Appeals comes after the Taylor City Council this month declined to take action on the residents’ petition, which called for suspension of approvals until the city creates a new zoning designation specifically for data centers. The water- and electricity-hungry developments are facing increasing pushback across the state. 

City officials said state law does not allow them to change zoning by popular vote. But leaders of the petition — which garnered more than 1,400 signatures — are asking the Austin court to force the city to take action, arguing in part that its failure to do so in their July 9 meeting violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

“This is not about whether data centers belong in Taylor — it’s about whether our city charter means what it says,” said Jose Orta, a resident and community organizer. “We believe the charter required the council to act. They  didn’t. Now we’re asking the courts to compel them to do their job and call an election as required by the Taylor city charter.”

The suit aims to force the city to place the petition’s proposal on the ballot by November. 

It came after residents packed Taylor City Hall on July 9, expecting the City Council to act on their petition. The drive for signatures came after residents learned that an 87-acre tract that had been deeded to the city for a public park in 1999 is now being slated as the site for a data center… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas district launches new legal challenge to school finance system (Houston Chronicle)

Texas’ byzantine school finance system will face legal scrutiny for the first time in a decade after a rural school board voted to sue the state. The Midland Independent School District board unanimously greenlit the lawsuit Tuesday night, arguing that the state’s restrictive funding rules unfairly strip the local board of its power to levy property taxes. The suit, which will be filed in Travis County, sets up the first significant challenge to the system since 2016 and, if successful, could force the state Legislature to rework the system to allow districts to keep more of their local taxes. It comes as lawmakers have struggled in recent years to address voter anger over rising property taxes, with Gov. Greg Abbott going as far as calling for abolishing school taxes entirely for homeowners.

Josh Guinn, the Midland ISD board president who proposed the suit, said he did not know yet whether other districts would join. But the board must act to protect its power, he said. “I think Midland has paid its fair share in property taxes to the state, and it’s time to challenge it,” Guinn said in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. Asked by a fellow board member if the suit was connected to Abbott’s property tax push, Guinn said no.

“I’ve never met the man,” he said. The state’s “Robinhood” system, created to collect and redistribute excess taxes from property-rich districts, has faced legal challenges from school districts about once a decade since the 1980s. The most recent lawsuit, which was joined by over two-thirds of Texas’ 1,200 school districts, was rejected by the state Supreme Court in 2016. Several previous challenges were more successful, forcing overhauls of tweaks to the state formula… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas foster care agency cancels troubled provider’s contract (Texas Tribune)

Four months after two children’s deaths and other staffing problems at Dallas-based foster care provider EMPOWER forced the state to place it into receivership, the agency’s commissioner took action on Tuesday and abruptly canceled the private company’s contract.

In a letter sent to Texas Family Initiative — EMPOWER’s parent entity — Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Audrey O’Neill notified the company that “EMPOWER has failed to perform satisfactorily under its Community-Based Care contract after continuous quality improvement plans, corrective action plans, and other remedial measures.”

In a separate letter sent to judges, attorneys and advocates, O’Neill said the action came “following an extensive assessment” and was done with “one priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Halliburton lands contract in Iraq as companies seek solutions to avoid Strait of Hormuz (Houston Business Journal)

Houston-based Halliburton Co. has been awarded a contract by Basra Oil Co. in Iraq as Houston companies flock to the region. Last week, the prime minister of Iraq, Ali Al-Zubair, visited several oil headquarters in Houston, including those of Chevron Corp. and ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce then hosted on July 17 the signing of about $60 billion worth of memorandums of understanding and other agreements for projects in Iraq.

At the time, Halliburton signed a commemorative agreement for field management services as well as engineering and construction management at the Bin Umar field. On July 20, the company shared more details, saying it will provide integrated field management services plus engineering, procurement and construction management to the development of both the Bin Umar and Sindbad oil and gas fields in southern Iraq.

“We are honored by the trust Basra Oil Co. has placed in Halliburton to support the development of the Bin Umar and Sindbad fields,” Zaid Khadra, Halliburton’s vice president of the Middle East North Africa, said in a July 20 news release. "We will work alongside BOC as a technical and project management provider to integrate workflows, digital solutions, and execution expertise to maximize asset value.

We look forward to collaboration with BOC to advance Iraq’s production, infrastructure, and associated gas development objectives." Iraq hopes the development of these fields will strengthen energy security and reduce reliance on gas imports. The Middle East is looking for ways to become less dependent on the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed on and off since the beginning of the Iran war at the end of February… 🟪 (READ MORE)