BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 7, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 210 // Welcome to Episode 210! Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia CEO A.J. Bingham review the week (of 7.31.2023) in Austin politics and more.
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[city of austin]
Austin City Council FY24 Budget Priorities:
[AUSTIN METRO]
‘We are feeling overpoliced’: State troopers join patrols in AustiN (New York times)
Scores of state highway troopers, usually found on roadways across Texas in their distinctive cowboy hats and black-and-white patrol vehicles, have descended on Austin, the state capital.
At first, they were welcomed by the city’s Democratic leaders, part of a plan to address violent crime and make up for a shortage of more than 300 officers in the Austin Police Department.
But in a booming city known for its progressive politics, the partnership between the local police, steeped in the language of reform, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, under the direction of Republican state leaders, soon began to raise concern… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Equity Action slams budget proposal as ‘throwback to the ’90s’ (Austin monitor)
Some community advocates are decrying interim City Manager Jesús Garza’s budget proposal as a “throwback to the ’90s.”
Garza released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2023-24 in July. The $5.5 million budget represents what Garza calls a “Back to Basics” approach to city government that focuses on core city services and reorganizes the city’s departmental structure in a bid for “long-term stability.”
On July 25, Equity Action, a coalition of community groups pushing its own budget proposal, slammed Garza’s plan as “a throwback to the ’90s, a time when the word ‘equity’ was not on the public radar and discriminatory ‘law and order’ policies were the No. 1 priority.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Nearly 25% of Manor teachers are from abroad (Austin American-Statesman)
Manor has about 400 teachers; of those, almost a quarter — 89 this school year — are in the district as part of a foreign work program, most of them on the J-1 visa.
The program gives foreign teachers a chance to learn new techniques in the United States and brings a heightened level of cultural diversity to Manor students’ classroom experience. For district administrators, foreign teachers help fill gaps in the workforce amid record teacher shortages.
Manor launched the program in 2021, said Alejandro Góngora, who oversees the district's foreign exchange program.
In the 2021-22 school year, the district hired only about 32 teachers through the program, but more have since signed on, he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Some child care providers expect to shutter after Texas lawmakers leave $2.3 billion proposal off final budget (texas Tribune)
This year, the Texas Legislature passed on a chance to step in and fund child care providers now staring at this looming economic cliff. A $2.3 billion House proposal for child care was left out of the final budget. Texas child care providers say they were counting on help from the state. They had hoped to use state money to help raise the average wage of staff and educators from $12 per hour to at least $15 per hour.
The record budget surplus ended up going towards different state priorities, including $12.3 billion in new money to property tax cuts.
Lawmakers did add $35 million in child care money to the next budget cycle at the request of the state workforce commission — a required state match before Texas can access an additional $52 million in federal money. That money will not support the child care workforce directly but will instead serve as financial aid for families to afford child care. Families qualify for a subsidy if their income is below 85% of the state’s median income.
Texas historically hasn’t invested in child care, according to Cody Summerville, the executive director of Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. Instead, the state has allocated the minimum amount of money to child care required to draw down more federal dollars… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dan Patrick defended himself against free speech critics. Does his case hold up? (Texas monthly)
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick published an opinion column in the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday explaining his side of a story that’s been attracting national attention. Joy Alonzo, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Texas A&M, was speaking on the opioid crisis as a guest lecturer at the University of Texas Medical Branch back in March when she allegedly made a negative remark about the lieutenant governor. In the audience that day was a student who was the daughter of Texas land commissioner Dawn Buckingham, a Republican ally of Patrick. Buckingham’s daughter told her about the remark. Buckingham then relayed it to the notoriously thin-skinned lieutenant governor. He reached out to Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp to request that he “look into” Alonzo’s lecture. The professor was “placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her,” as Sharp put it in a text message to Patrick that was obtained by the Texas Tribune. In his article for the Chronicle, Patrick waved away critics who accused him of attempting to suppress free speech and offered a defense of his decision to contact the chancellor. He has no issue with legitimate policy critique, he claimed, as “that is part of being an elected official.” Rather, he said, “If what I heard was correct, it was a false and inappropriate personal attack on me.”
Patrick, curiously, did not report in his article what was allegedly said. But on Wednesday, Buckingham tweeted that Alonzo told the class “Your lieutenant governor says those kids deserve to die” when discussing teens who died of fentanyl overdoses in Hays County. Representatives for Texas A&M did not make Alonzo available for an interview and did not respond to a question about the specific remark that spurred the investigation, but Alonzo issued a statement to the Texas Tribune, provided by the university, that her comments had been “mischaracterized and misconstrued.” The school’s internal investigation of her remarks could not confirm she’d violated any rules, and Alonzo has kept her job… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texans in Congress take bipartisan path to boost semiconductors, a crucial industry to the state (Texas Tribune)
Texas officials want their state to be the center of the global semiconductor revolution, and members of Congress from across the political spectrum are pushing to make it happen.
A new measure led by a diverse group of Texans — including Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and one of his 2024 challengers, Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred — are seeking to streamline environmental review requirements for new investments in the state’s semiconductor industry, a move that industry backers say would drastically increase competitiveness. Cruz and his Senate partners recently added the measure into the upper chamber’s annual defense bill.
“This language will help Texas, already the nation’s leading chip producer, continue to grow this burgeoning industry and bring more jobs to the Lone Star State while boosting America’s economic and national security,” Cruz said in a statement.
The move follows the CHIPS and Science Act signed into law last year, also shepherded by a coterie of Texans eager to boost the industry in the state. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was a key leader on the legislation, which created federal grants to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Ozempic and Wegovy maker courts prominent Black leaders to get Medicare's favor (NPR)
Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has turned to influential Black Americans in pursuit of what would be a lucrative victory: having Medicare cover a new class of weight loss drugs, including the company's highly sought Wegovy, which can cost patients more than $1,000 a month.
During a conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last fall — a jampacked gathering featuring prominent Black lawmakers and President Joe Biden — Novo Nordisk sponsored a panel discussion on obesity for which it selected the moderator and panelists, company spokesperson Nicole Ferreira said. The foundation is a nonprofit affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
A Real-Estate Haven Turns Perilous With Roughly $1 Trillion Coming Due (Wall Street Journal)
Apartment buildings, long considered a real-estate haven, are emerging as the next major trouble spot in the beleaguered commercial-property world.
Investors bid up the prices of multifamily buildings for years, attracted by steadily rising rents and the prospect of outsize returns. Many took on too much debt, expecting they could raise rents fast enough to pay it down.
Unlike office buildings and malls, which have been hit hard by remote work and e-commerce, rental apartments have low vacancy rates. The apartment sector’s main problem isn’t a lack of demand—rents have soared since 2020—it is interest rates.
The sudden surge in debt costs last year now threatens to wipe out many multifamily owners across the country. Apartment-building values fell 14% for the year ended in June after rising 25% the previous year, according to data company CoStar. That drop is roughly the same as the fall in office values... (LINK TO FULL STORY)