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Austin's planned consolidation of city technology staff is facing pushback from some employees concerned about the shift's cost, and possible risks like reduced service response times and lost expertise.

The details: The citywide technology services reorganization was announced by City Manager T.C. Broadnax to align Austin with systems in comparable cities. The project started last May and will include centralizing IT employees across all city departments under Austin Technology Services, or ATS.

As that work continues, members of the city and county employees' union AFSCME Local 1624 are asking Austin to halt the initiative and find other ways to roll out structural improvements. Labor representatives questioned the program's eventual outcomes, and claim several Austin department heads had previously outlined significant risks to city operations, service reliability and security if specialized technology workers are removed from their current teams.

Travis County is looking to provide guaranteed child care availability for low-income families and expand child care options for parents working during nontraditional hours.

The big picture: The $75 million Raising Travis County initiative—approved by voters in November 2024—is expected to support several programs aimed at increasing affordable child care for around 9,800 children, according to previous Community Impact reporting. The county has awarded nearly $29 million in annual funding to the Workforce Solutions Capital Area nonprofit, local school districts and other community organizations, according to county documents.

The update: Travis County is planning to pay child care providers to reserve a certain number of slots for children from low-income families, said Cathy McHorse, a consultant for the Raising Travis County initiative, at a Feb. 24 Travis County Commissioners Court meeting. The model, known as contracted slots, is anticipated to increase the supply of child care for infants and toddlers ages up to 3 years old, she said.

Over 2.3 million Democrats and nearly 2.2 million Republicans voted in the March 3 election, according to unofficial election results from the secretary of state. Totaling nearly 4.5 million voters, this is “the highest voter turnout for a primary in Texas history,” the secretary of state’s office said.

By the numbers: Nearly one-fourth of Texas’ 18.7 million registered voters participated in the primaries, shattering turnout rates from recent years. Less than one-fifth of registered voters cast ballots in the 2024 presidential and 2022 midterm primaries, state election records show.

Texas’ previous primary turnout record was set in 2008, when 4.2 million voters cast ballots in high-profile presidential primaries.

Zooming in: Election data shows the most people cast votes in the high-profile U.S. Senate races that topped the ticket, with the total numbers of votes steadily decreasing down the ballot in both primaries.

There is “some certainty” that voter enthusiasm will extend to the November midterm election, Republican data analyst Ross Hunt told Community Impact during early voting.