🟪 Austin public safety departments report overtime spending overruns (Community Impact)

🟪 Applications open for $23M in grants for Austin creatives (KVUE)

🟪 Austin Community College employees wanted raises to match inflation. Trustees approved 2% (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 35 sheltered, 334 tons of debris cleared in first month of Austin's renewed homeless encampment response (Community Impact)

🟪 Texas community colleges showing small signs of recovery after enrollment decline, report finds (Texas Tribune)

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.

✅ Austin public safety departments report overtime spending overruns (Community Impact)

As city leaders ready to review Austin's next fiscal year budget, new reporting from public safety departments shows their overtime costs are far exceeding departments' current allocations.

Austin Fire, the Austin Police Department and Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services make up the majority of the city general fund, the portion of Austin's overall $6.3 billion budget covering most public-facing services. Almost two-thirds of the $1.49 billion general fund is reserved for public safety in the current fiscal year 2025-26.

Overtime spending by APD, Austin Fire and ATCEMS was one of many areas of focus for City Council members as they reviewed Austin's FY 2025-26 budget. When approving the initial version of the spending plan last August, officials passed a resolution from council member Ryan Alter that called to publicize monthly overtime reports with the aim of better managing those hours.

“I was concerned that we would get to this year's budget and learn for the first time that a certain department, whether that's police, fire, EMS, or multiple, had overspent their overtime. We've seen that happen in the past," Alter said in an interview. "I wanted to make sure that we knew what was coming; we were able to, at a bare minimum, prepare for it. But hopefully mitigate it by having that insight."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Applications open for $23M in grants for Austin creatives (KVUE)

Applications are open for $23 million in grants for Austin’s creative community.

Austin’s Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment (ACME) department has launched the grants, supported by the city’s hotel occupancy tax revenue, as part of efforts to strengthen the local arts sector.

The funding includes four programs: the Austin Live Music Fund, Elevate, the Heritage Preservation Grant, and Thrive.

City officials said grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 will support individual artists, musicians and nonprofit arts organizations. Eligible uses include creative production, public programming, administrative needs, cultural events and digital arts projects.

Funded projects are expected to begin contracting in January 2027, with one- or two-year agreements depending on the program.

Applications close at 6:59 p.m. on Aug. 18, and applications are available here… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Community College employees wanted raises to match inflation. Trustees approved 2% (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin Community College faculty, staff and adjuncts had one message for their Board of Trustees at a meeting Monday night: Employees deserve a raise.

At the meeting, ACC trustees unanimously approved the college’s $583 million budget, balanced in part due to a decision not to put money into the college’s reserves as they typically do each budget cycle. The budget approval comes amid grim concerns about the college’s shrinking state and property tax revenue.

Trustees kept tuition flat for the 13th consecutive year, continued to fund ACC’s free tuition pilot and put $10.4 million toward infrastructure projects. But the board could not meet employees' requested 4% raise.

After a failed motion for an across-the-board 2.5% raise, trustees passed a 2% increase and one-time payment for all employees of $1,700. Board members chose to pull the $1,700 stipends from the $6 million the college would typically put into its reserves, but the boost is not a permanent addition to the budget.

The raise, however, is folded into the budget, spokesperson Sydney Pruitt said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 35 sheltered, 334 tons of debris cleared in first month of Austin's renewed homeless encampment response (Community Impact)

City crews conducted hundreds of site visits, cleared hundreds of thousands of pounds of debris and moved dozens of people into shelter over the first month of Austin's ramped-up homeless encampment management.

Earlier in the spring, Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations announced an expanded model for addressing the scores of known encampments in public places around the city.

Austin's renewed response came years after local voters reinstated a public camping ban, and followed shorter-term targeted encampment clearings by both the city and state agencies last year. The new model launched in May after AHSO Director David Gray reported local cleanup efforts weren't resulting in "sustainable progress" and were losing public trust.

The new approach has multiple departments responding to priority encampments, notifying people at those sites about city enforcement operations and attempting to connect them with resources like housing as the locations are cleared. It also involves return site visits to monitor site restoration and whether they're reoccupied… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas community colleges showing small signs of recovery after enrollment decline, report finds (Texas Tribune)

Texas community colleges have struggled with enrollment over the past 15 years as many high school graduates opted to go straight into the workforce, but a new report points to signs of the campuses pivoting to stay relevant.

More students are graduating from Texas high schools, yet the state’s junior college enrollment hasn’t kept pace with that growth. Along with those choosing the workforce, students are increasingly going to colleges out of state, researchers with the Federal Reserve of Dallas found.

Texas community colleges have made small but steady gains in enrollment since the pandemic, signaling some success with recovery, their report found. Now the state has about 700,000 students enrolled in those schools, which is still down from about 750,000 students 15 years ago, according to state data.

In recent years, administrators have dramatically expanded dual credit offerings that allow teens to take courses at the community college that also count toward their high school diploma. They’ve also increasingly offered short-term credentials that can appeal to young people who want some training but are not in a position to get an associate’s degree… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Gov. Abbott creates 'teacher-driven' commission to improve public education (KERA)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is creating a new commission meant to guide public education in the state. The Texas Classroom Commission will be made up of current and retired teachers and tasked with developing recommendations ahead of the 2027 legislative session for classroom instruction, teacher support and educational outcomes. “Texas teachers know what their students need to succeed," Abbott said in a statement announcing the new commission Tuesday. “The Texas Classroom Commission will bring together exemplary public school educators to identify innovative solutions that help students succeed, improve the learning environment in classrooms, and strengthen our schools."

Abbott named former Dallas and Richardson ISD math educator Courtney Boswell MacDonald to run the “teacher-led initiative.” She currently chairs the State Board for Educator Certification. Abbott said the goal of putting teachers at the center of shaping the future of public education will “ build on Texas’ success and ensure our state becomes the national leader in the education of our kids..” In a statement, Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy at the research policy group Texas 2036, called the commission a “critical opportunity to learn from and partner with educators” to get more students reading and doing math at grade level. Recent results from the state’s standardized STAAR tests showed high schoolers made gains across subjects, but reading scores for students in middle and elementary schools have stalled… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Platner may be finished, but voters’ hunger for change and willingness to take risks will remain (Associated Press)

With Graham Platner’s campaign teetering from an allegation of sexual assault, there’s no shortage of people arguing that the 41-year-old Maine oysterman and progressive political neophyte was always too risky for a key Senate race. However, it’s likely more candidates will follow his path in the future.

That’s because Platner’s starburst candidacy followed an increasingly familiar arc that’s shown no signs of abating in American politics — the outsider who defies the warnings of party veterans and captures the hearts of primary voters, even as liabilities pile up and complicate the odds of winning the general election.

With so many ways to raise money and draw attention, and so little faith in longstanding institutions, the country remains primed for new waves of anti-establishment campaigns, no matter how erratic.

“I think there’s going to be a lot more of this,” said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver… 🟪 (READ MORE)