BG Note | News - What We're Reading (January 18, 2018)
[Austin Metro]
In just two months, Adler amasses $283k campaign war chest (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
Mayor Steve Adler has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for his 2018 re-election bid, according to a campaign finance report filed Wednesday — a big early war chest in a city that caps individual donations at just $350. The donations, from more than 1,100 individual donors in the last two months of 2017, totaled $283,164, according to the report. They came mostly in the final weeks of December, after Adler formally began fundraising for re-election. His campaign touted the number of individual donors as a “record number of contributors.” Adler’s opponent, former City Council Member Laura Morrison, who did not begin fundraising until this month, did not need to file a report for 2017. She said she expects Adler to outspend her in the race...
Environmental Commission recommends Hooters PUD (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
Unable to wait for the codification of the new South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan and its associated environmental standards, eager builders came to the Environmental Commission on Jan. 3 in pursuit of a planned unit development on the site of Austin’s only Hooters restaurant...
Expo Center trimmed from PSV’s list of Austin MLS stadium sites (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
The Travis County Exposition Center has been ruled out as a possible Major League Soccer stadium site by Precourt Sports Ventures, owners of Columbus Crew SC.
PSV officials told the American-Statesman they toured the Expo Center and researched it, but that the location, roughly 10 miles from downtown, did not fit their needs for an urban-core facility with existing infrastructure and entertainment options.
The Expo Center was one of five city-owned stadium sites identified by city staff as potential locations for Precourt Sports, exploring a move to Austin for the 2019 MLS season, to build a privately financed stadium...
Workman out-raises opponents in western Travis County primary (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
State Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, eclipsed his primary challengers in campaign finance reports posted this week, raising almost $129,000 in the second half of 2017, spending slightly more than $78,000 and having about $135,000 in cash on hand. Challenger Jay Wiley raised nearly $77,000, spent $17,364 and had $73,746 on hand. Fellow GOP challenger Patty Vredevelt’s report was not available Wednesday afternoon. In the Democratic primary for that Texas House district, which includes a western portion of Austin, Lago Vista, Lakeway and Bee Cave, Vikki Goodwin raised nearly $30,000, spent $14,434 and had $76,870 on hand for the reporting period...
Austin entrepreneur Kopser leads money chase in S.A. congressional district (San Antonio Express-News) LINK TO STORY
Joseph Kopser, an Austin entrepreneur running for San Antonio Republican Lamar Smith’s open congressional seat, is raising money at a rate more than five times greater than any Democratic rival, his report to the Federal Election Commission will show. Kopser will report this month that he raised more than $260,000 in the last quarter of 2017 and has $330,000 on hand, giving him what he sees as a significant advantage in reaching voters in the runup to the March 6 primary and beyond. “We are the only campaign with the message and the machinery to be able to compete in this gerrymandered district and win the general election,” he said...
[STATE]
Here's how much Texas statewide officials have to spend on their re-election bids (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
Candidates running for most statewide offices or the Texas Legislature faced a Tuesday deadline to disclose how much their campaigns had raised and spent during the second half of last year. Here's how candidates fared financially in some of the banner races ahead of the March 6 primary: Governor: Gov. Greg Abbott's already massive war chest grew to $43.3 million after he reported raising over $9 million between July and December. That's orders of magnitude above the fundraising reported by the group of mostly unknown Democrats who have lined up to challenge him...
Nearly a year after FBI raid, Texas Sen. Carlos Uresti heads to trial to face 11 felony charges (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
After hundreds of legal filings and three separate trial delays, Democratic state Sen. Carlos Uresti will finally get his day in court next week to face felony charges of fraud and money laundering. Jury selection begins Thursday in the criminal case against Uresti, a two-decade veteran of the Texas Legislature charged with 11 felonies. The case is rooted in the San Antonio lawmaker’s ties to FourWinds Logistics, a now-bankrupt frac sand company alleged to have perpetrated a Ponzi scheme against its investors. Uresti — a personal injury lawyer who took notes on a yellow legal pad alongside his three defense attorneys at a pretrial hearing Wednesday — performed legal services for FourWinds and was a 1-percent owner of the company...
[NATION]
Apple wants to pump $350 billion into U.S. economy, build new corporate campus (The Austin Business Journal) LINK TO STORY
Apple Inc. is gearing up to build another corporate campus in a yet-to-be-announced American city and increase its workforce across the U.S. by 20,000 employees over the next five years, the iPhone maker said Wednesday.
The news was packaged with Apple’s announcement that it plans to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy between now and the end of 2023.
Austin is home to more than 6,000 Apple employees, so it's already a major corporate hub for the California-based tech giant. It stands to reason some of those billions could land in the Texas capital; CEO Tim Cook said during an August visit that the company will continue to grow here...
Apple, Capitalizing on New Tax Law, Plans to Bring Billions in Cash Back to U.S. (New York Times) LINK TO STORY
Apple, which had long deferred paying taxes on its foreign earnings and had become synonymous with hoarding money overseas, unveiled plans on Wednesday that would bring back the vast majority of the $252 billion in cash that it held abroad and said it would make a sizable investment in the United States. With the moves, Apple took advantage of the new tax code that President Trump signed into law last month. A provision allows for a one-time repatriation of corporate cash held abroad at a lower tax rate than what would have been paid under the previous tax plan. Apple, which has 94 percent of its total cash of $269 billion outside the United States, said it would make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on the repatriated cash...