Austin Signal

The start of 2026 brings a bevy of new laws across the state, with a focus on taxes. Other new legislation focuses on artificial intelligence and how sheriff’s offices will work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

New toll lanes have opened on 183 North, and the additional access could mean increased traffic on your drive home.

Looking to cut back on distractions in the new year? We’ve got some techniques that you can use to keep your focus strong in 2026.

The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

Jerry Quijano [00:00:09] It is 2026, and Austin and Texas have plenty of new to start the new year. The fresh calendar brings a bevy of new laws across the state, of particular focus, taxes. Do I have your attention now? Other new legislation focuses on artificial intelligence and how sheriff’s offices will work with immigration and customs enforcement. Plus, new toll lanes opened up today in North Austin, and the additional access could mean increased traffic on your drives home this year. We’ve got more coming up on today’s show.

KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:39] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.

Jerry Quijano [00:00:44] And perhaps you’re looking to cut back on distractions in the new year. We’ve got some techniques that you can use to keep your focus strong in 2026. You can start by staying right here with us. This is Austin Signal. Howdy out there, and thank you for joining us here on Austin Signal. It is January 2nd, the first Friday of 2026, and our first episode of the year. Maybe you had to head back into work today. Perhaps you’re still on vacation. Lucky you. Either way, we’re glad to have you here with us. Thanks for starting the new year here with Austin Signal, I’m your host Jerry Quijano. A quick headline to get us started, just in case you missed it amidst all the celebrations. Health insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas and health care provider Ascension Texas reached an agreement to keep Ascention facilities in network for the insurance company’s customers. The two organizations faced a January 1st deadline to agree on that contract. We have more about the deal over at KUT.org. Well, with 2026 upon us, the new year is bringing with it some new state laws. And to talk with us a bit about them, we are joined by the Texas Newsroom’s Capital Reporter, Blaise Gainey. Blaise, great to talk to you again. So 2025 is going to undoubtedly be remembered for many things. One of those things is gonna be the prominence of artificial intelligence. AI is seemingly everywhere these days. So tell us about the new Texas law that’s dealing with AI.

Blaise Gainey [00:02:28] Yeah, so this is actually Texas attempt to get ahead of things, even though I mean, like you said, it’s already out there, AI is everywhere, but it’s not very regulated. And so what Texas, this bill does in Texas is regulates AI to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control. I mean there’s a lot of good things AI can do, but there’s lot of bad things that it may be able to do. And so this actually puts in place some laws to make that people aren’t say using Miners faces on on in proper videos. This also includes just ways to make sure that people aren’t doing like financial crimes using AI. You know, there are so many things that can be done that the bill isn’t too specific. It’s sort of vague on those issues. But it’s enough where I believe prosecutors feel like if somebody was to, you know, harm somebody using AI that they could penalize that person in court.

Jerry Quijano [00:03:23] And it’s also created an AI council, I guess that’s going to be working with the state in the future as AI continues to develop.

Blaise Gainey [00:03:30] That’s correct, that’s what I was gonna say next is that this council, because AI, like you said, is ever-growing and it’s pretty new, this council will continue to suggest new laws and changes not only to regulate AI and sort of harness it and keep it in a bubble, but make sure that whatever new innovations come, that it’s for the betterment of people in Texas and not to the detriment of people.

Jerry Quijano [00:03:56] Okay, well another law that has some folks talking has to do with immigration and customs enforcement. Tell us, how is that going to be affecting Texas law enforcement?

Blaise Gainey [00:04:06] Yeah, so Texas law enforcement officers, specifically sheriff’s offices with jails, will have to work with ICE, enter into an agreement with ICE to essentially house people in their jails. And then send them off to ICE offices or, you know, wherever they would go next. But essentially, this is already an ongoing thing, but now it’s a requirement. And there are some cities, sanctuary cities are banned in Texas, but there are cities who may still be seen as that. This would basically say, we don’t want to have any sort of… You know, sheriff’s office is sort of helping people not be detained by ICE or not get caught up with ICE. And so in this way, Texas would essentially just be helping ICE by holding onto people, waiting until ICE can come and get them and then going into that. Then that person would then obviously be dealing with the federal government and whether or not they are a legal citizen.

Jerry Quijano [00:05:06] Okay, well, more than half of the 33 bills that are going into law in the new year are related to taxes. Always a big topic of discussion here in the Lone Star State, obviously here in Austin in particular. We had a recent election on taxes. Property taxes are always a big topic of discussions. What should we know about those bills going into effect?

Blaise Gainey [00:05:26] You know, I mean, you kind of said it there. Property taxes is one of the main things that these taxes will impact. Some of the smaller ones have to do with like animal feed. You know everybody’s not buying pounds and pounds of animal feed, so that won’t affect too many people. But the property taxes one affects almost seven million Texans. There’s almost seven billion property owners in Texas. So this would allow them to get a big cut on their property tax. And not have to pay you know you hear about property taxes being so high this helps cut down that amount so people will get almost up to $200,000 of mostly the elderly and those with disabilities will get up to two hundred thousand dollars off of what they will be taxed on for their home. And then for everyone else, it’ll be around $150,000 of their home won’t be taxed. So that is a big advantage. Whether or not it shows up when people get their bills, we’ll have to wait and see, but the legislature is still looking even into 2027 to see what they can do to further cut down property taxes in the state.

Jerry Quijano [00:06:37] Okay, well we’ve got a rundown of these bills from the Texas Newsroom’s Capital Reporter, Blaise Gainey, as well as other members of the Texas newsroom over at KUT.org. You can catch up on what we talked about in a little extra as well. Again, we’ve been speaking with the Texas New Room’s Blaise Gehney. Blaise, thank you for your time. And thank you out there for being with us here on Austin Signal. The new year also brings the first toll lanes on a construction project that’s been in the works in Austin for half a decade. Those new lanes mean drivers now have access to more toll lanes that will get pricier as the roads get more congested. Here to tell us more about that is KUT’s transportation reporter Nathan Bernier. Happy New Year Nathan, good to see you. Good to see you.

Nathan Bernier [00:07:25] Good to see you too, Jerry. So tell us about this project. Where is it? So it’s one eighty. It’s called the one eighty three north mobility project. But you know, it’s the one eighty three North project. It’s US one eighty three from Mopac to SH forty five North. So it is about a nine mile stretch from, you know going northwest from MOPAC in one 23 And it has been in the works for years. Construction alone has taken almost five years. It’s a project by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority. They’re the tolling agency. And so they borrow the money. It’s not tax dollars per se. I mean, they’re basically borrowing the money to build it. And then they repay that with toll.

Jerry Quijano [00:08:04] That we yeah that you paid are when you drive on the roads

Nathan Bernier [00:08:07] Yeah, and so the northbound lanes open this morning, Friday morning, and it’s just sort of like, this is the second time in the Austrian area where we have dynamic tolling, which you alluded to, where the price goes up or down. The Mopac express lanes are already like that, and these will also go up or down based on demand with the goal of keeping traffic moving at least 45 miles an hour. The logic being that If the price is high, higher, fewer people will use the toll lanes. And so there’ll be fewer vehicles so that they’ll allow the speeds to pick up. Although I’ll say this, the head of the CTRMA, James Bass did mention during a recent meeting. He’s like, he prefaced it by saying, uh, I don’t know if I should say this. Which gets my ears perked up. Uh, and he said, he hears from people who don’t even use the toll lanes unless the price’s high, because then they figure there’s gotta be something wrong with the normal lanes, but whatever we got the, we We got the northbound lanes open. Uh, today and then the southbound lanes should open in the coming months and they’ll be connected. All they’ll all be by March. It should be done with all be tied in with the Mopac lanes.

Jerry Quijano [00:09:10] Okay good that was my next question if this project had been completed. This is going to be feeding into the toll lanes on Mopac as well. What is the expectation there? How is that going to affect prices? How is it going to effect demand for those toll lanes?

Nathan Bernier [00:09:25] Question because during the same meeting I was talking about, the chief financial officer of the CTRMA, Jose Hernandez, said once that direct connector opens from 183 North into the Mopac express lanes, he said, I think there’s going to be more demand. And it makes sense. Once this is done, you’ll be able to ride toll lanes continuously from Liberty Hill to downtown Austin because there’s the 183A toll lanes. Now those are not dynamically toll, it’s just fixed rate, but that’s what. This at the northern end, the 183 North project will connect to a lot of numbers here. But, and so, yeah, I mean, you’re just, you’re like feeding all of this traffic in for people who want to skip the line, going right into the Mopac lanes. And we’ve seen tolls on the MOPAC lanes top $18 to ride both segments. So maybe we’ll top 20 in 2026, who knows? So I have to keep an eye on that. Yeah.

Jerry Quijano [00:10:14] Yeah maybe and that brings me to my next question. I know that the Mopac lanes are always very busy but it seems as though with more people coming here they get busier and busier. Do we have any information about how busy last year was for the MOPAC toll lanes? How much revenue they brought in?

Nathan Bernier [00:10:30] Just like you say, man, they keep getting busier and busier. October had the most revenue ever for the Mopac express lanes as almost $3 million just for the month of October. And that was an increase over the previous October 2024 of more than 30%. Now there’s a number of factors at play here. But I mean, the fact of the matter is you could just see it when you ride these toll lanes, the prices go up and up and I say 18 bucks. It does top $18 sometimes. It doesn’t stay there always for very long. So the prices are updated every five minutes and it takes a lot of things to happen for it to get that high. But I mean, the CTRMA would say, look, yes, sometimes the toll prices are high, but it’s providing people a choice. They like to use the word choice a lot. A choice, if they absolutely need to get somewhere fast, they have the choice to spend the 18 bucks. And they’ll get there faster than they would otherwise. So it’s an option. You don’t have to do it. And they say it gets more people out of the general purpose lanes. And that’s one more thing I’ll say about this new 183 North project is they did add a fourth general purpose lane in each direction. In other words, a fourth non-told lane. Now that’s what the CTRMA says. The country argument is, the more you expand the highways and make it easier for people to live further out, Mm-hmm is gonna make living further out more attractive. So that’s going to allow people to afford, you know, how is this the whole induced demand argument? Basically, if you build it, they will come and eventually the highways just fill up because you’re providing the incentive for people to do that. So there’s a lot of moving parts here, but certainly arguments on both sides.

Jerry Quijano [00:12:14] All right, well, you can take a look at these toll lanes for yourself by going to KUT.org. You can find more from Nathan’s story and more of his reporting there at KUT dot org. He is KUT’s transportation reporter, Nathan Bernier. Nathan, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Jerry. And thank you for spending this first Friday of 2026 here with community powered public radio. This is Austin Signal here on KUT News and we’ll be back after this break. This is Austin Signal, I’m Jerry Keehunel. Thank you for being with us. Well, it is officially that time of year when people start making resolutions and setting goals for self-improvement. And whether it’s doing more reading, getting in shape, or learning a new skill, following through can be a challenge all its own. One of the biggest issues, distraction. It’s easier than ever to fall down a rabbit hole, scrolling social media, gaming, or streaming some shows. So what to do if your goal is to focus more on other things? Of the tech standards, Angela Kocherga sat down with Nir Ayal for those answers. He’s the author of Indistractable, How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

Angela Kocherga [00:13:44] Well, your book lays out several techniques for staying focused and productive, and you start with making the claim that the root cause of all distraction is the desire to escape discomfort. Explain what you mean and how is that relevant to the broader goal of productivity.

Nir Ayal [00:14:00] Absolutely, so we tend to blame the pings, dings, and rings, all the things in our outside environment, our phone, our kids, the boss, the news, all the thing that are outside environment. But in actuality, studies have found that those external triggers, those things that are out in our environment, they only account for about 10% of our distractions. So the question then is, what’s the other 90%? It turns out that 90% of distractions. Begin from within. These are called internal triggers and they are uncomfortable emotional states that we seek to escape. So boredom, loneliness, fatigue, uncertainty, anxiety, that is the source of 90% of our distractions. So if you’re fighting distraction, it doesn’t matter if the distraction is too much news, too much booze, too much football, too many Facebook, you are always going to get distraction unless you understand that most distraction begins from within

Angela Kocherga [00:14:50] Oh, that’s fascinating and surprising that the dings and pings are just a small percentage. Well, in the book, you talk about something you call the 10-minute rule. Tell us about that.

Nir Ayal [00:15:01] Yeah, so I use this every single day and it’s really helped me as an author. I’ve been a professional author now for over two decades and all I wanna do every time I write is to do something else. I want to check the news, I wanna look at stock prices, I wanna at sports scores, I wanna to do everything but the writing. It’s really hard. So this rule that I’ve come across, it’s called the 10-minute rule. Now the idea behind the 10 minute rule is that you’re allowing yourself to give into that distraction. You can do anything you want. You’re an adult, you can do what you want but you want to do it in 10 minutes, and if 10 minutes is too long, make it the two minute rule, make it five minute rule. The idea here is that you’re teaching your brain that you are not a slave, you’re not addicted to these distractions, you are just simply doing something with your mind at that moment. So the idea here, is that you’re gonna restrict yourself, you’re going to tell yourself to not do something, because in fact that can backfire and make you want it more. Instead you’re just gonna say, I choose to give in to that distraction in 10 minute. So many times while I’m writing, I’ll just set an alarm. And I’ll say, okay, for 10 minutes. And then I can continue that task for just 10 more minutes. And then what I’m doing is I’m showing myself that I have the agency, I have this self-efficacy to then change the 10 minute rule to the 12 minute rule, to the 15 minute rule to the 20 minute rule. And that’s how you’re teaching your brain to expect that you can actually delay that distraction for a little bit longer.

Angela Kocherga [00:16:20] Mmm. Well, you’re a big advocate of time boxing, setting aside specific chunks of time to accomplish tasks. How do you do that in your own schedule?

Nir Ayal [00:16:30] So this has absolutely changed my life because of this principle that I oftentimes repeat, which is you cannot call something a distraction unless you know what it distracted you from. Okay, I’ll say it again. You can’t call something in distraction unless you what it distracts you from, so people complain all the time, and I used to complain all of the time about how I was distracted because of my daughter, I was distracting because of the news, I was distract because of what my job required of me, that I was constantly distracted, but then when you looked at my calendar, like a lot of people, it was blank. There’s nothing on my schedule. So you can’t say you got distracted unless you know what it distracted you from. So you’ve got to put down in your calendar how you want to spend your time because we tend to vilify the distraction itself, the phone, the television, whatever it might be that might be taking us off track. But none of those things are inherently bad. What’s bad about those things is that when we use them without intent. And so the antidote for this impulsiveness because at the end of the day, distraction. Is simply a dysfunction of impulsivity, because we haven’t learned how to deal with those impulses. So if you plan ahead, there is no distraction you can’t overcome.

Angela Kocherga [00:17:37] Well, putting away our phones is common advice for staying productive, but it’s not always feasible. What are some ways we can use technology to help us stay on track?

Nir Ayal [00:17:47] So one of the best things you can do is actually schedule it. I see this a lot of times with parents and I give them what they think is the most unconventional advice that if you want to get your kids to use their phones less, make time for it. And so this goes back to the idea of time boxing because what happens with a lot of us, not just kids, is that we ruminate. We think, when can I check, when can check, when check, especially with kids, when can play that game, when can contact my friends, when can use these technologies. And so one of best things you can is to simply. Plan time for it, not just for the productive time, not just the homework time or clean up the house time, but time to play games. If that’s important to you, if that’s part of your value system, part of the person you want to become, is spending time online, there’s nothing wrong with it, but do it on your schedule and according to your values, not the tech companies.

Angela Kocherga [00:18:32] And as you said, schedule it. So at this point, the internet and digital devices are not new. Do you think we’ve gotten better at managing all the push notifications and digital distractions?

Nir Ayal [00:18:44] I think we have, actually, if you compare from when I first started doing this research and publishing this work, I had to convince people that this was a problem. Today, we all know it’s a problem, and so part of what the companies who make these products, as much as we want to paint them as the bad guys, and they certainly have special responsibilities, they’ve actually put in tools into the very products to help us use them less. I mean, I can’t name any other products that do this that actually help the people who use them use them less, right? The casinos don’t tell you, you’ve had enough you should go away They don’t do that, but yet these tech companies, every product these days, whether you have an iPhone, whether you an Android device, it comes with tools built right into them. Apple Screen Time, Google Wellbeing, it’s built into the device to help us use them less. And so we need to frankly stop complaining and use these tools that come on our phones for free to help control all of these devices so that we use them as opposed to them using us.

Angela Kocherga [00:19:39] Well, you have a new book coming out soon called Beyond Belief. What’s that book about?

Nir Ayal [00:19:44] Yeah, so thanks for asking. So this book tackles this challenge that I found. I wrote Indistractable a few years ago and I do these office hours where anybody can call me and ask me anything they like about the book. And it’s a great way to kind of get feedback from my readers. And every once in a while I would get this call that someone would say, hey, I read your book, Indistructable. I really enjoyed it, but it didn’t work. I’d say, oh, wow, it didn’t work, tell me more. You know, what was happening here? I spent five years on it, did tons of research. There’s 30 pages of citations to peer-reviewed studies. Tell me more, how did step one go for you? Well, you know, I didn’t do step one. And so what I realized is that, you now, I thought, well, what’s wrong with these people? And then I realized, wait a minute, I’m one of these people. I have tons of books with gurus telling me advice that I haven’t followed and haven’t listened to and haven’t implemented. And the real question is why. And what I realize when I dug deeper into the research is that it’s not good enough to just know what to do. Why? Because we’re missing the belief. That the missing part, that motivation is not a straight line between. Doing the behavior and getting the reward, it’s actually a triangle. That you have the behavior, you have benefit, and then you have belief. And the belief is what holds it all together. And so that’s what Beyond Belief is all about.

Angela Kocherga [00:20:55] We’ve been speaking with Nir Eyal. He’s the author of Indistractable, How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir, thank you for sharing your insight.

Nir Ayal [00:21:04] My pleasure, thank you.

Jerry Quijano [00:21:11] Whoa, here at Austin Signal, we love us some music, especially Austin music, and thanks to our sister station KUTX, we get an inside look at some of the great shows and some of the great bands on the scene here in town. Perhaps you added a new song to your playlist after hearing some of them share their favorite songs of 2025 right here on the show. Well, it’s because of all this love for Austin music that KUTx has partnered up with the Austin Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment Division, or… ACME for short, to celebrate January 2026’s Love Austin Music Month. Far out, right? So what does that actually mean? Well, it’s all about showing the love, baby. Showing the love to your favorite Austin bands and to the organizations that support them and help them keep them going. Maybe one of your New Year’s resolutions is to get out more or to see more live music. There’s no better time to start than Love Austin music month. Especially with free week approaching next weekend. We’re gonna have more about that on next week’s shows. You can find some of the other ways to get involved with Love Austin Music Month at kutx.org. And don’t forget to get out there and spread some love. That is it for our first episode of 2026. Thank you for marking the occasion with us and spending the Friday here. We hope 2026 is everything you want it to be. And just a little bit more. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer, Rayna Sevilla is our technical director, and Jimmy Mass is our baby new year. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back Monday afternoon at one o’clock here on KUT, and we will talk to you then. Have a great weekend.

This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.