BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 21, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 206 // Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia discuss the recently released, City of Austin FY 23-24 Budget.
The discussion covers:
City of Austin released FY23-24 Budget on July 16th → assets.austintexas.gov/budget/23-24/…ed_Budget.pdf
KEY DATES
• July 26 → Work Session focused on General Fund with Public Comment being heard on Budget
• August 1 → Work Session focused on Enterprise Fund with Public Hearing regarding maximum tax rate.
• August 10 → Work Session focused on Budget Amendments and Budget IFCs
• August 16 - 18 → Council will vote on Budget
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
The Request for Qualifications (RFQ ) for the City Manager Search Firm was released Monday by the City Procurement office. Responses are due on August 15th by 2PM. RFQ LINK HERE.
Per Mayor Kirk Watson’s office (posted on the Council Message Board), “The City Manager Search Committee will meet to discuss proposals and conduct interviews with respondents in late August and early September. The City Manager Search Committee’s goal is to provide a recommendation for a Search Firm to be considered by the full Council at our Council Meeting on October 5th.”
Along with Mayor Watson, the Search Committee is composed of Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis (District 8), and Council Members Leslie Pool (District 7), Chito Vela (District 4), and Vanessa Fuentes (District 2).
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council green lights change to reduce land size needed to build a home in Austin (KUT)
The size of land Austinites need to build a home on is about to get smaller — as part of an effort to encourage developers to build smaller and cheaper houses.
Austin City Council on Thursday approved a resolution that will start the process. The initiative would reduce the size of land required to build a home, or what is referred to in the land code as "minimum lot size," by more than half.
Land codes dictate what and where you can build and how high and wide a structure can be.
Austin’s land code has for a long time required one home be built on land that is at least 5,750 square feet. Thursday’s vote reduces that minimum to 2,500 square feet and allows up to three units per lot.
Council Member Leslie Pool, who represents parts of North Austin, spearheaded the move and said the change is an opportunity to diversify home-buying options for middle-income families… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin City Council hears over 5 hours of public comment on homeless shelter, affordable housing (FOX 7)
Austin City Council’s almost 200 item agenda resulted in over five hours of public comment. The main items spoken about were a temporary homeless shelter and an idea of turning single family lots into smaller, more affordable homes.
Over 100 people spoke at the podium to give their say during public comment on the council's extensive agenda. One of the main items up for debate: council member Leslie Pool's item 126, to turn single family lots into more affordable, smaller homes… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Breaking down Austin's experiment on Barton Springs Road (KUT)
Austin is set to embark on a year-long experiment along a bustling half-mile stretch of Barton Springs Road, an area best known for local restaurants like Chuy's, Baby Acapulco, Juiceland, Juliet Italian Kitchen and Green Mesquite BBQ.
The city hopes to enhance safety by reducing the number of car lanes from two to one in each direction between South Lamar Boulevard and Azie Morton Road. The construction likely won't be done until late October or early November. Then, the clock will start ticking on the 12-month trial period… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas Democrats have had interesting, sometimes wacky Senate primary contests (Dallas Morning News)
Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 1994, but that hasn’t stopped them from having interesting, sometimes wacky, primary contests. In some instances, primary elections have had a negative impact on the results of general elections. Since Democrats haven’t won in so long, it’s hard to determine whether the family fights have helped or hindered their effort. Republicans have an advantage in general elections, because the electorate contains more GOP voters. That means Democrats have to run near perfect, unified campaigns to win, and sometimes primaries get in the way of that effort. Still, primaries can identify stars, even if the result against Republicans is a loss. Democrats hope the contested Senate primary between Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio and others produces excitement and unity.
Sen. John Cornyn, first elected in 2002, is one of the most successful Texas politicians in history. Even so, Democrats targeted him in the 2020 elections, when Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump were on the presidential ballot. The Democratic primary was heavily contested. The candidates included former Air Force combat pilot MJ Hegar, state Sen. Royce West of Dallas, labor activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez and former Houston council member Amanda Edwards. Hegar and West advanced to a runoff, which created friction in the party. Hegar, who had considerable national support, beat West, who afterward revealed the nominee had not called to ask for his support. Believing that national Democrats had put their thumb on the scale to help Hegar, West refused to endorse her, which could have hurt efforts to unify the party against Cornyn. Hegar’s outreach to Black and Latino voters was lackluster, and the spat with West was damaging. Cornyn won by nearly 10 percentage points… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Rep. Four Price declines to run for eighth term in Texas House (Texas tribune)
State Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection after seven terms in the House.
“From day one, I have worked hard to serve my constituents and improve our community,” Price said in a statement, calling his time in the Texas House the “privilege of a lifetime.”
“I’ve given this decision considerable thought and believe the time is right to complete my service as a House member,” he added.
First elected in 2010, Price represents House District 87, a solidly Republican seat in the Texas Panhandle.
Price is the fourth House member to announce their retirement since the end of the regular session — Reps. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown; Tracy King, D-Uvalde; and Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, who’s running for Congress… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Stadium saviors? Spurs-Missions sports district could boost struggling downtown. (San AntoniO Express-News)
The owners of San Antonio’s only major league sports team and its Double A baseball franchise have an opportunity to breathe new life into a downtown that can use any help it gets. The Spurs are eyeing a replacement for the 21-year-old AT&T Center on the East Side, where the NBA team’s lease with Bexar County runs through 2032. Meanwhile, the Missions’ new owners would like to take their Texas League baseball team’s action to the urban core from Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium on the West Side. Bringing both teams downtown could be a welcome boost to a central business district showing ongoing fatigue as it continues struggling to fully shake off the symptoms of COVID-19.
The convention and meeting trade is rebounding slowly, as hotel occupancy rates remain soft. Many employers are leaving the center city while others still let their employees work remotely, at least part of the week, resulting in fewer people buying lunch or coffee from restaurants and shops that are also grappling with construction. Empty storefronts and homeless people slumped in doorways dot many blocks. USAA left its offices at One Riverwalk Place and 300 Convent St. last year, vacating about 565,000 square feet and reassigning 500 employees to its Northwest Side headquarters. Smaller businesses such as Easy Expunctions and Codeup have also departed for the suburbs, while others such as Argo Group International Holdings Ltd. have reduced their footprints. There are some encouraging signs downtown that could beckon the Spurs and Missions. Tourists are returning, packing into hotels and River Walk barges, and the University of Texas at San Antonio is expanding its downtown campus. Developers — some with an eye toward those students and faculty members — are making big bets on demand for living in the central business district. Weston Urban is building a 32-story high-rise with 354 apartments at 300 N. Main Ave. and plans to build another 250 or so units on a block bounded by Commerce, Laredo, Calder and Dolorosa streets, where it would also renovate the former Continental Hotel and Arana buildings. The firm — co-founded by Graham Weston and Randy Smith, who are part of the group that recently bought the Missions — also plans to turn offices at the Municipal Plaza building into housing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Texas Women Denied Abortions Testify About Impact of State Bans (Wall Street Journal)
For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women provided hours of testimony in front of a judge about the emotional and physical impact of being denied an abortion because of a state ban.
Three women, part of a group challenging abortion restrictions in Texas, took the witness stand in Austin and recounted stories of suffering harrowing complications during wanted pregnancies and being told by physicians their options were limited by the state’s criminal and civil abortion bans. The women said they were forced to wait until their conditions deteriorated, travel out of state, or carry nonviable fetuses to term.
The plaintiffs argue that inconsistent and nonmedical language in Texas’ abortion statutes has created confusion for physicians about when abortions are permitted in medical emergencies, putting women’s life and liberty at risk in violation of the state’s constitution. They are asking state District Judge Jessica Mangrum to immediately block enforcement of the law in such situations and are ultimately looking to the courts to create a standard under which doctors can use their medical judgment to determine whether a patient’s life or health is at risk if an abortion isn’t performed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Republicans Are at War With College Towns. And They’re Losing. (POLITICO)
Name the flagship university — Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, among others — and the story tends to be the same. If the surrounding county was a reliable source of Democratic votes in the past, it’s a landslide county now. There are exceptions to the rule, particularly in the states with the most conservative voting habits. But even in reliably red places like South Carolina, Montana and Texas, you’ll find at least one college-oriented county producing ever larger Democratic margins.
There’s no single factor driving the college town trend. In some places, it’s an influx of left-leaning, highly educated newcomers, drawn to growing, cutting-edge industries advanced by university research or the vibrant quality of life. In others, it’s rising levels of student engagement on growing campuses. Often, it’s a combination of both.
What’s clear is that these places are altering the political calculus across the national map. Combine university counties with heavily Democratic big cities and increasingly blue suburbs, and pretty soon you have a state that’s out of the Republican Party’s reach.
None of this has gone unnoticed by the GOP, which is responding in ways that reach beyond traditional tensions between conservative lawmakers and liberal universities — such as targeting students’ voting rights, creating additional barriers to voter access or redrawing maps to dilute or limit the power of college communities. But there are limits to what those efforts can accomplish. They aren’t geared toward growing the GOP vote, merely toward suppressing Democratic totals. And they aren’t addressing the structural problems created by the rising tide of college-town votes — students are only part of the overall phenomenon… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[WORLD]
By pulling out of the Ukrainian grain deal, Russia risks alienating its few remaining partners (Associated Press)
By pulling out of a landmark deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a gamble that could badly damage Moscow’s relations with many of its partners that have stayed neutral or even been supportive of the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor.
Putin’s declared goal in halting the Black Sea Grain Initiative was to win relief from Western sanctions on Russia’s agricultural exports. His longer-term goal could be to erode Western resolve over Ukraine and get more concessions from the U.S. and its allies as the war grinds toward the 17-month mark.
The Kremlin doubled down on terminating the grain deal by attacking Ukrainian ports and declaring wide areas of the Black Sea unsafe for shipping.
But with the West showing little willingness to yield any ground, Putin’s actions not only threaten global food security but also could backfire against Russia’s own interests, potentially causing concern in China, straining Moscow’s relations with key partner Turkey and hurting its ties with African countries… (LINK TO FULL STORY)