Austin officials are continuing to evaluate the city's social services spending through a reset process that could lead to broad changes by fiscal year 2027-28.

The details: Facing projected budgeting shortfalls, city leaders and finance staff previously anticipated cutting nearly $17 million of social services funding, but the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27 budget was eventually modified to avoid some of the deeper proposed reductions.

An ongoing review of Austin's annual social services spending is underway, driven by considerations like funding constraints and a desire for more oversight. The evaluation has so far involved:

• An assessment of more than 130 grants and contracts.

• A recommendation to modify several agreements.

• The identification of more than two dozen contracts with compliance or performance issues.

What's next: No immediate cuts are being rolled out, but the city anticipates restructuring some spending and re-soliciting most social services contracts in 2027.

Austin Transit Partnership voted to renew its current downtown Austin office lease, as well as expand into larger space next door, during its Sept. 21 meeting.

Remember this? In April, the ATP board postponed voting on a $32 million contract to lease 51,600 square feet of office space at the 100 Congress building, as well as another $15 million contract for building finish-out and improvements.

The update: The board approved a $13.5 million agreement to lease office space for 48 months at 203 Colorado St.—the agency's current office—as well as space next door at 201 Colorado St. The combined office space will total 54,000 square feet and allow for co-location of the agency's contractors, consultants and other partners including CapMetro and the city of Austin

What else? Additional Austin Light Rail contracts were approved during the meeting, including $122 million for design and construction services for the first portion of Phase 1B, and $44 million for design and construction services for the light rail operations and maintenance facility.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality must stop issuing new permits for data centers, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sept. 21.

The overview: His order expands an existing pause on data center development in the state amid consistent public criticism of the booming industry. Abbott, who is running for a fourth term as governor, has recently moved to slow the growth of data centers after calling Texas “the epicenter of AI development" last year.

The context: Hundreds of proposed data centers are currently being audited by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state power grid.

Some developers may be able to get around the ERCOT pause by building in-house power infrastructure that is not connected to the grid, experts have said.

However, any construction project impacting at least 1 acre of land requires permits from TCEQ.

What they're saying: "As Texas faces increasing pressure on our water supplies and electric grid, we need to ensure that data centers operate efficiently and sustainably," said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas.

Republican candidate Chris Gober and Democratic candidate Caitlin Rourk will face off in the Nov. 3 election for U.S. House District 10.

Digging Deeper: Texas' 10th Congressional District covers the northwestern portion of the greater Houston area, northern Austin, north Austin suburbs including Pflugerville and west Austin suburbs such as Lakeway and Bee Cave.

The district has been represented by Michael McCaul since 2005, but McCaul is not seeking reelection after his current term.

Community Impact reached out to the candidates running in the general election for the U.S. House District 10 race. Candidates were asked to keep responses under 50 words, answer the questions provided and avoid attacking opponents.

What's next: Voter registration ends Oct. 5.

Early voting in several local and state races runs from Oct. 19-30, and Election Day is Nov. 3.