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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 'One-of-a-kind' partnership formed to inform residents, coordinate $20B Central Texas construction boom (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin retailers increase security and call for accountability as petty thefts spike (CBS Austin

🟪 Austin ISD school board adopts new budget with a nearly $20 million deficit (KUT)

🟪 Austin's ethics commission dismisses complaint against former city manager (KUT)

🟪 NHL expansion: Could Austin host a professional hockey team? (Austin American-Statesman)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of June 2025)

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

🏛️ City of Austin Seeks Proposals for Colony Park Displacement Mitigation Strategy RFP

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ 'One-of-a-kind' partnership formed to inform residents, coordinate $20B Central Texas construction boom (Community Impact)

For the first time, the transportation agencies responsible for tens of billions of dollars in projects across the region are partnering on a data and communication initiative to keep residents informed about significant impacts to their daily travel coming over the decade ahead.

“Nothing like this has been attempted, that I know of, at least it hasn’t gotten this far here in Central Texas. Getting these agencies working together in such a formal fashion and sharing data," said Brad Wheelis, regional communications director for the Texas Department of Transportation. "This is a one-of-a-kind program that we’ve started here in Central Texas."

In 2023, officials with multiple governments and mobility organizations began planning for improved construction coordination and public engagement related to dozens of high-impact projects around the area worth more than $20 billion.

Those considerations have led to the creation of the new Central Texas Construction Partnership Program, or CPP, between several local, regional and state entities. The CPP is meant to better inform the public about the extensive work that'll be taking place and ensure different agencies can effectively plan around each others' work… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin retailers increase security and call for accountability as petty thefts spike (CBS Austin)

In Austin, a growing number of retailers say they’re seeing more theft, and as a result, they’re dishing out more money paying for private security, saying they don’t feel there are meaningful consequences for low-level crimes.

Data from the Travis County Criminal Data Dashboard shows misdemeanor theft filings increased by 17% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year.

That includes theft cases where the value of stolen goods is under $2,500, incidents that typically involve shoplifting or small-scale property crime.

Spencer Murphy, who owns Strategic Security, says that the rise in filings tracks with what he’s seeing on the ground.

“We’ve had retailers, shopping centers, and other businesses calling us more because they’re seeing an uptick in crime,” Murphy said. “Our retail security work has nearly doubled in the last two months.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD school board adopts new budget with a nearly $20 million deficit (KUT)

The Austin ISD Board of Trustees on Thursday OK'd a 2025-26 budget that has a projected deficit of $19.7 million. The new fiscal year begins July 1. Austin ISD interim Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery told trustees that while they were asked to approve a deficit budget, the district will continue working on ways to reduce it. “We didn’t get where we wanted to this year having a balanced budget," she said, "but that is still something that we are going to work hard at, is making sure we have a balanced budget year over year over year."

The plan trustees approved includes roughly $1.6 billion for the district’s general fund, which is used to pay for things like salaries, school maintenance, transportation and utility bills. More than $715 million of that will also be used for Austin ISD’s recapture payment. The Texas Legislature created the recapture system in the early 1990s to redistribute money from districts with high property values to those with lower ones.

According to the state’s current school finance formulas, Austin ISD collects more in local property tax revenue than it needs to operate. That’s why it has to send a big chunk of its general fund revenue to the state. The budget's approval was coupled with a vote to change the school board’s policy on the district’s fund balance, which is the cash it has on hand to cover expenses such as payroll. Austin ISD has been required to maintain a 20% fund balance, giving it the ability to cover several months' worth of operating expenses without having to borrow money… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's ethics commission dismisses complaint against former city manager (KUT)

The city of Austin dismissed an ethics complaint last week against former interim City Manager Jesús Garza.

The Austin city auditor filed the complaint in November, claiming Garza broke ethics rules when he hired two former City Hall staffers to serve as consultants after the 2023 winter storm — paying them a total of more than $554,000.

Austin’s ethics rules require a contract brokered by the city manager to go to the City Council for a vote.

At an Ethics Review Commission meeting Wednesday, board member Adam Materne argued Garza broke the rules because there was no competitive bidding or council approval process.

“The idea that you can just say, 'I know who I want to do this, I can avoid my cap in the rules for how much I can spend on it, I can pick the people I want and I can put them in place with no review and I can even give them jobs that don't sound the same on paper as the job that I claiming I am paying the subcontract for,'" he said. "It's enough to look at it and say this feels weird.”

Ultimately, however, the commission dismissed the complaint because members felt there wasn't enough information that clearly pointed to a violation of the city's rules to proceed… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Downtown Austin Alliance appoints executive to be second in charge (Austin Business Journal)

The Downtown Austin Alliance has elevated one of its longtime executives to serve as second in charge of the nonprofit that advocates for and promotes downtown as a business and entertainment district.

Melissa Barry, who has been with the DAA for 16 years, was named to the newly created post of executive vice president, where she will assist Davon Barbour, president and CEO, and oversee implementation of the organization's strategic plan for the area. Barry previously worked as the DAA's chief program officer.

Barry's "vision and leadership have helped shape the downtown Austin we know today, and her deep knowledge of the city, coupled with her strategic mindset, make her the ideal second in command as we enter an exciting new chapter for the Downtown Austin Alliance,” Barbour said in a statement.

Her promotion marks the DAA's second big leadership move this year. Barbour, who most recently headed the Downtown Development District in New Orleans, took the helm of the DAA in February as successor to Dewitt Peart, who retired after a decade in the position.

Barry, a certified planner, said she's looking forward to assisting Barbour at a pivotal time for downtown… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin nonprofit sets $10M fundraising goal to build affordable housing for creatives (Austin Business Journal)

An Austin nonprofit aims to raise $10 million to develop affordable housing projects for the city’s musicians and others in its creative class.

The Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation is launching the capital campaign for a new initiative called Pathways to Ownership, with the goal of funding three affordable housing projects throughout Austin.

The organization plans to use $7 million for land acquisition costs and the other $3 million for construction and growth efforts. If successful, the campaign will add 300 affordable units to the city — 100 per location, although details aren't finalized, said Sean Garretson, CNRC president and planning and development manager of Pegasus Planning and Development… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ NHL expansion: Could Austin host a professional hockey team? (Austin American-Statesman)

When considering expansion, the NHL has fielded interest from four cities: Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis and New Orleans. However, a group from Austin recently threw its hat into the ring as another potential location, according to a report from Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday that a formal expansion process has not been initiated by the league and there are no pending applications. But conversation of growth beyond its 32 clubs could rise in the coming months with the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement pending ratification. The NHL has not yet responded to a request for comment on Austin's potential as an expansion team.

Seravalli reported that industry focus has been on Atlanta’s third bid for NHL hockey. Theoretically, two teams would be added if the NHL decided to expand, one in the East and one in the West, with Austin possibly making sense as a western counter to Atlanta. Bettman reiterated Friday that any bid must check four boxes to be considered: a cohesive and well-heeled ownership; an NHL-ready arena; a burgeoning market and whether that market makes the NHL better.

By population, Austin is four times larger than Salt Lake City, which was awarded the Utah Mammoth by the NHL in 2024. And there is already hockey interest in the Austin market; the Dallas Stars' American Hockey League team, the Texas Stars, play their games at the H-E-B Center in suburban Cedar Park.

Any potential NHL team in Austin would compete with the University of Texas sports in the fall and spring, as the NHL regular season generally runs from early October through early April, and Austin FC's Major League Soccer season runs from late February through mid-October. Another potential team could arise if the city's petition for an MLB team is successful … 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Will who knows Trump best become the key to Texas attorney general race? (San Antonio Express-News)

If next year's GOP primary comes down to who has the best ties to the Trump administration, Aaron Reitz likes his chances in the race for attorney general. While he doesn’t have the campaigning history of state Sens. Mayes Middleton or Joan Huffman, who have also entered the race, Reitz told me he is convinced he can one-up them when it comes to working with the White House and current U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “What Texans want out of their next AG is someone who can really deeply integrate, at least for the first two years of his term as AG, with the Trump administration,” said Reitz, who just left his fledgling post as assistant attorney general with the U.S. Justice Department under Bondi.

“When I’m the next AG you’re going to see very tight coordination with the Trump administration.” Reitz, 38, said his opponents are surely going to say they are allies of Trump as well, but he thinks he has a better case to make.

“Frankly, that’s what no one else can credibly bring to the table,” Reitz said. The other two candidates certainly aren’t ceding that territory to Reitz. Middleton, 47, has pictures on his campaign website of him with Trump and declares he is “a steadfast ally of President Trump and a proven champion of the America First movement.” Huffman is leaning into her legal experience, which includes having been a prosecutor and, later, district court judge before becoming a state senator.

“You want an experienced attorney, not someone who’s never seen the inside of a courtroom or is simply a young politician climbing the political ladder,” Huffman, 68, said in announcing her campaign last week. But Reitz said he's not afraid to put his record up against Huffman's or Middleton's. He said when campaign finance reports come out next month, they’ll show he raised more than $1.7 million in just a couple of weeks on the campaign trail.

“My opponents, on the other hand, are career politicians with experience doing what career politicians do best: all talk, no action, and self-congratulatory photo ops,” he said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump says he will move aggressively to undo nationwide blocks on his agenda (Washington Post)

An emboldened Trump administration plans to aggressively challenge blocks on the president’s top priorities, from immigration to education, following a major Supreme Court ruling that limits the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions. Government attorneys will press judges to pare back the dozens of sweeping rulings thwarting the president’s agenda “as soon as possible,” said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Priorities for the administration include injunctions related to the Education Department and the U.S. DOGE Service, as well as an order halting the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the official said, detailing efforts to implement plans President Donald Trump announced Friday.

“Thanks to this decision, we can now promptly file to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis,” Trump said at a news conference, during which he thanked by name members of the conservative high court majority he helped build. Trump on Friday cast the narrowing of judicial power as a consequential, needed correction in his battle with a court system that has restrained his authority. Scholars and plaintiffs in the lawsuits over Trump’s orders agreed that the high court ruling could profoundly reshape legal battles over executive power that have defined Trump’s second term — even as other legal experts said the effects would be more muted. Some predicted it would embolden Trump to push his expansive view of presidential power.

“The Supreme Court has fundamentally reset the relationship between the federal courts and the executive branch,” Notre Dame Law School professor Samuel Bray, who has studied nationwide injunctions, said in a statement. “Since the Obama administration, almost every major presidential initiative has been frozen by federal district courts issuing ‘universal injunctions.’” Nationwide injunctions put a freeze on an action until a court can make a decision on its legality. They have became a go-to tool for critics of presidential actions in recent times, sometimes delaying for years the implementation of an executive order the court ultimately approves… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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