🟪 CapMetro employees threaten to go on strike (Austin Chronicle)

🟪 City of Austin Announces Public Works LLC as the Recommended Awardee to Conduct Sweeping Efficiency Audit (City of Austin)

🟪 National CRE association rebrands, local chapter plots regional push (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Gov. Abbott appoints Don Huffines to be Texas comptroller (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas Stock Exchange to launch trading on Monday, in test of upstart’s challenge to Wall Street (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump administration won’t renew USMCA, raising risks of higher prices and lost jobs for Texas (Texas Public Radio)

READ ON!

As Austin (MSA) continues to grow, more and more development is happening beyond the famed Austin City Limits. This Monthly LinkedGlenn event series highlights a single fast growing Austin suburb and July's stop is all about Hutto.... Hippos, Co-Op, Data Centers, Industrial, Retail, Downtown Redevelopment, Rooftops, Transportation and so much more...All things growth.

Full event details and ticket information here.

✅ CapMetro employees threaten to go on strike (Austin Chronicle)

After a 10-month negotiation process, CapMetro workers and transit subcontractor Keolis are still at odds over desired wages, time off, and better training. After rejecting the company’s most recent offer, the union representing CapMetro workers, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, announced Tuesday, June 30, that 99.5% of its members have voted to authorize a strike.

Brent Payne, president for ATU Local 1091, said that a strike is now “highly likely.”

The disputes between the union and Keolis have resulted in months-long negotiations about how to move forward. In May, the union asked workers to not take overtime shifts after Keolis stalled negotiations. Though the contract was “maybe 60%” complete, Payne said that the offer did not meet all of the employees’ requests, resulting in the workers declining the deal.

“The best and final that they gave us still didn’t have benefits for my UT shuttle operators. They work full-time hours, meaning they work 40-hour workweeks, but they do not give them any kind of benefits,” Payne said. “We’re not close on a couple of issues.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City of Austin Announces Public Works LLC as the Recommended Awardee to Conduct Sweeping Efficiency Audit (City of Austin)

The City of Austin announced today that Public Works LLC is the recommended awardee in the solicitation to conduct an independent comprehensive efficiency assessment of all City departments, with the final award subject to City Council approval. 

Public Works is considered a national leader in government efficiency reviews and has conducted numerous organizational evaluations of entire state governments, state agencies, and other entities including several of the largest city and county governments in the country. Their work includes efficiency assessments for the City of Chicago, Baltimore County, Broward County, Travis County, as well as six entire state governments and two U.S. territories.  

“Public Works is focused on finding meaningful and sustainable ways to make government work better,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. “The professionals at Public Works understand that this assessment is more than an audit and performance review — it will be transformative and comprehensive, importantly, it will also be an ongoing independent examination on how Austin’s government can operate better.”  

In February 2026, Austin City Council approved an ordinance to initiate a program of recurring independent comprehensive efficiency assessments to the City of Austin’s operations, service delivery and resource utilization. The assessment — which will occur on a repeating schedule with at least three years between cycles — is designed to provide meaningful efficiency improvements that align with Austin’s values and is focused on delivering quality City services to all residents for the best value… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ National CRE association rebrands, local chapter plots regional push (Austin Business Journal)

The National Association for Industrial and Office Parks — known as NAIOP — changed its name on July 1. It has rebranded to the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and its local Austin-area chapter will now be known as CREDA CTX.

The name change is intended to more fully represent the work CREDA’s members do, including multifamily housing, retail destinations, logistics and fulfillment facilities, office buildings, mixed-use developments, data centers and more, according to an announcement.

Locally, CREDA CTX serves 23 Central Texas counties, including Travis, Hays, Williamson, Bastrop and Caldwell. With the rebrand, it will increase its focus on regional growth, chapter leadership said.

The chapter has plenty to offer members, such as its Developing Leaders program for students and young professionals, networking opportunities and spearheading efforts to enact local and state policy change, said J.D. Lewis, chapter president and executive managing director at HPI Real Estate Services & Investments… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Kerr County has new flood sirens, but the activation plan is a 'work in progress' (KUT)

After more than 100 people were swept away by floodwaters in Kerr County last July, Texas leaders were clear: The area known as “Flash Flood Alley” needs a flood warning system.

“There should have been sirens here,” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News last July. He added that if local officials couldn’t afford it, “then the state will step up, and we need to have these in place by next summer.”

Almost a year after the tragedy, half a dozen sirens are now located on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Sitting atop 50-foot poles, they are clustered in the western portion of the county near some popular youth camps, including Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors and the co-owner died during last year’s floods.

But local officials have repeatedly evaded questions about how they plan to activate the sirens or take any other emergency measures in the event of another catastrophe… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hays County no longer considering Kyle Vista Park or city of Kyle for Eastside Campus (Community Impact)

On June 23, the Hays County Commissioners Court voted to no longer consider Kyle Vista Park as a potential location for the approximately $65 million Eastside Campus administrative facility.

In addition to no longer considering the location, the commissioners voted to terminate a September 2025 memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the city of Kyle in relation to the potential lease of the Kyle Vista Park property.

Hays County and the city of Kyle previously entered into a memorandum of understanding to combine three county projects on one site: the Hays County Eastside Campus, a regional animal shelter and Kyle Vista Park… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Gov. Abbott appoints Don Huffines to be Texas comptroller (Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday appointed Don Huffines, a former Republican state senator, to be comptroller of public accounts for the rest of the year, after the agency’s acting head, Kelly Hancock, steps down at the end of the month.

Hancock submitted his resignation letter to the governor on Wednesday. Huffines is currently running to serve a full term and defeated Hancock for the GOP nomination in March. He faces state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, in the November general election.

“Don Huffines brings the right mix of business experience and conservative principles to this vital office,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the appointment. “His private-sector experience and dedication to limited government make him exceptionally qualified to lead the state’s finances and protect every taxpayer dollar with integrity and accountability.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Stock Exchange to launch trading on Monday, in test of upstart’s challenge to Wall Street (Texas Tribune)

The Texas Stock Exchange will commence trading on Monday, kickstarting the first real test of one of the most well-funded new exchanges to launch in decades.

The Texas Stock Exchange, a Dallas-based startup, will initiate a phased rollout to take place over the course of July. On Monday, the public can start trading as thousands of stocks come online over the course of the month. By the third quarter, exchange officials hope to have Exchange-Traded Products, or ETPs, listed on the exchange and corporate listings available during the fourth quarter of this year, according to a statement from the exchange.

Both Texas state government and stock exchange officials hope the Texas Stock Exchange, or TXSE, launch will solidify Dallas’ attempt to become a national financial hub and boost the Texas economy by growing the financial services industry in the state and making money for any Texas companies and investors that are doing business through the exchange… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ "Weird" and "ironic": Detained San Antonio mariachi records national anthem for ICE (San Antonio Express-News)

A San Antonio mariachi musician who was brought to the U.S. at age four and is facing possible deportation under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" Thursday for a July Fourth observance at the federal detention center in South Texas where he is being held. Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro, 20, said he agreed to be recorded singing the national anthem even though he considered the request "weird" and "ironic."

“They can treat us this way and lock us up and chain us up like animals, but still request for us to sing a song that speaks about a land that is free,” he said in a phone interview from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, 55 miles southwest of San Antonio. Hebert was taken into custody June 25 after police pulled him over for speeding in China Grove, a small city 12 miles east of San Antonio. When he showed the officer a Mexican driver's license, local police contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents interviewed Hebert and determined he was in the country illegally.

His performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" grew out of an effort to mark Independence Day for detainees at the ICE facility. The center held a contest in which detainees created Fourth of July-themed handkerchief arrangements. Winners received a goodie bag with Cokes, chips and cookies. Staff members at the facility also wanted someone to sing the national anthem, and Hebert said one of them asked him if he would do it. Many of his fellow detainees do not know English, much less the anthem, so he agreed, he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Hebert stood beside a poster of the American flag and a display of detainees' red-white-and-blue handkerchief arrangements and belted out "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to his wife, Marisol Pantoja, who spoke to him by phone afterward and received a detailed account… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump administration won’t renew USMCA, raising risks of higher prices and lost jobs for Texas (Texas Public Radio)

The Trump administration has served notice that it will not renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in its current form, increasing the likelihood that the free trade agreement will be allowed to lapse in ten years' time — potentially leading to higher prices, lower foreign investment and lost jobs for Texas in the interim.

"The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the agreement's shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, announcing the decision. "However, the agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the agreement's termination. As previously announced, the United States will meet with Mexico the week of July 20 for a third round of bilateral negotiations related to the USMCA joint review."

When Trump negotiated the USMCA during his first term as president, to serve as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he called it the "fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law." In its current form, the USMCA is set to expire on July 1, 2036… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘The battle line has been drawn’ around Virginia’s data centers (NOTUS)

For decades, the world’s densest cluster of data centers has grown in Northern Virginia with little scrutiny and generous incentives. That changed this spring, when state lawmakers seriously considered taking away a key tax exemption that saved the state’s data centers $1.9 billion last year and doesn’t expire until 2035. For a while, it looked like Virginia would have its first-ever state government shutdown over whether to sunset the incentive early.

Policymakers ultimately reached a compromise to avert a shutdown — and send a warning shot to the industry — by signing off on a budget Monday containing the first-ever statewide tax on data center energy consumption. Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger praised the initiative. “Virginia has a responsibility to make sure the data center industry is paying their fair share for the energy they use,” she said in a Monday evening address. “But this is only the beginning.”

Even activists and lawmakers who have been pushing for years to rein in Northern Virginia’s data center industry were surprised by how quickly cracks appeared in the foundation of what felt like a stable relationship. Northern Virginia is home to more than 300 data centers. About 200 more are expected to go up in the coming years. Loudoun County, specifically, has the world’s highest concentration of data centers, relying on the industry for almost half its property tax revenue.

But Virginia voters have quickly soured on the issue. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll of more than 1,100 found just 35% would be comfortable with a new data center going up in their community, putting pressure on politicians to effectively choose between the interests of their constituents and those of the data center operators whose business they depend on. “The battle line has been drawn around that question in Virginia,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on political corruption and utilities in the state. “And folks are lining up on either side of it.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)