BG Reads 10.16.2024

View this email in your browser

Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

www.binghamgp.com

October 16, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Project Connect trial to resume after Paxton appeal rejected (Austin Monitor)

🟪 We fact-checked Austin mayoral candidates’ answers to questions about housing (KUT)

🟪 Austin leaders rally in support of Prop A to pay for Austin ISD teacher raise (CBS Austin)

Read On!

LINK TO THIS WEEK’S CITY OF AUSTIN HEARINGS + AGENDA

>>> See also, Austin City Council Regular Meeting Agenda (10.24.2024) <<<

• Item Highlight, #47: Discussion and possible action to ratify a proposed five-year Meet and Confer Agreement with the Austin Police Association relating to wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment for police officers of the Austin Police Department.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 Actions taken by the City Council during its October 10th meeting

🟪 The Austin Council has four (4) regular meetings left in 2024

🟪 City of Austin Org Chart (as of 8.22.2024)

🟪 League of Women Voters Austin Area Candidate Forums

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 2 - Video (9.26.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 4 - Video (9.19.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 6 - Video (9.5.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 7 - Video (9.5.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 10 - Video (9.30.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: Mayor - Video (10.3.2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Project Connect trial to resume after Paxton appeal rejected (Austin Monitor)

A little over a year ago, a group of prominent Austin citizens supported by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against the Austin Transit Partnership over Project Connect, the 2020 transit overhaul that was originally designed to yield 20.2 miles of light rail, subway and new rapid bus routes. In 2022, because of changes in cost estimates due to design tweaks and inflation, ATP had to pare the project down to a now 9.8-mile line, with no subway and no lines to the airport. 

Those changes were the central conceit of the lawsuit – filed by Travis County Commissioner Margaret Gómez, former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, and burger restaurant Dirty Martin’s, among others – in November 2023. The plaintiffs claimed that, since voters didn’t in fact approve the design as it stands now, the city can’t use property taxes to pay for it. Paxton supported by issuing several opinions saying ATP can’t legally issue bonds as a nonprofit or use city “maintenance and operations” taxes to finance debt. 

A joint trial bringing together that suit and one filed by ATP in February to validate the funding structure was scheduled for June 17, but Paxton stalled it by filing an interlocutory appeal the same day. On Oct. 8, the 15th Court of Appeals dismissed Paxton’s appeal – which argued that ATP didn’t have jurisdiction to bring forth a bond validation lawsuit – meaning the trial will now go forward.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mayor Kirk Watson wrote, “The decision by the Fifteenth Court of Appeals exposes Ken Paxton’s jurisdictional challenge as a blatant delay tactic. I want this case to go to trial because the facts and the law are on our side, which is exactly why Ken Paxton wants to keep it tangled up in the legal weeds.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

We fact-checked Austin mayoral candidates’ answers to questions about housing (KUT)

Five people are running to be Austin’s next mayor. The candidates include a former City Council member, a business owner, two nonprofit leaders and the current mayor.

Last month, the candidates met for a debate hosted by the UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs and KLRU, Austin’s PBS station. As KUT’s housing reporter, I was paying close attention to two questions moderators asked about housing.

The candidates’ answers were lengthy, so I pulled major points, added context and fact-checked responses (where appropriate). Click here to watch the full forum… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin leaders rally in support of Prop A to pay for Austin ISD teacher raise (CBS Austin)

Austin community leaders are calling on voters to support a pay raise for Austin ISD teachers and staff. Proposition A is on the November 5th ballot and would generate an additional $41 million a year for Austin ISD. If voters approve Prop A, taxes on an average-value home would go up about $35 a month.

“The vast majority of school districts in Texas are facing a financial crisis,” said U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett who represents the 37th Congressional District.

The school district’s $954 million-dollar operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year came with a $78 million deficit. Voters are being asked to shrink that deficit when they go to the polls from $78 million to $41 million. The higher tax rate would also pay for $17 million in raises for teachers and staff... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Ted Cruz and Colin Allred meet in the only debate in the Texas Senate race (Associated Press)

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred met for their only debate Tuesday night, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. Senate.

Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that the former 2016 presidential contender is in another competitive race to keep his seat.

From start to finish in the hourlong debate, Cruz sought to link Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris at nearly every opportunity and painted the three-term Dallas congressman as out of step in a state where voters have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Personal information for more than 115,000 Texans leaked in DPS data breach (Texas Public Radio)

The Texas Department of Public Safety reported on Monday more than 115,000 customer's information has been leaked in a data breach, according to the Texas Office of the Attorney General.

The AG's website said 115,071 Texans have been affected.

Leaked information includes, names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and government-issued ID numbers…

🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Gov. Cooper and FEMA officials condemn misinformation and vow to continue offering assistance in Western North Carolina (NPR)

Gov. Roy Cooper and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell condemned the misinformation spread online about the government’s response to Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina during a press conference Tuesday morning.

“I’ve directed the department of public safety to coordinate law enforcement assistance for FEMA to help ensure their safety and security so people can get the help they desperately need,” Cooper said.

The governor gave an update on fatalities, ongoing search and rescue missions and utility repairs.

According to the governor, a task force is searching for 92 unaccounted for people. The state count on fatalities is at 95 people.

The governor noted that 77,000 people have been approved for individual assistance from FEMA. Almost $100 million has been paid out and almost 5,000 people are being temporarily housed by FEMA… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Storms be damned, Florida keeps building in high-risk areas (Wall Street Journal)

Driving through the mess left behind by the twin hurricanes that slammed Florida, it doesn’t take long to pass a construction site for another batch of new homes. Among them is La Linda Estates, which is being built in a high-risk flood zone on a barrier island near where Milton made landfall. 

Florida built 77,000 new properties in high-risk flood areas since 2019, the most in the nation, according to an analysis by climate-modeling firm First Street Foundation for The Wall Street Journal. 

The building binge is putting the real-estate industry, and the banks that finance it, on a collision course with insurers. 

The new construction is one reason insurance bills for Milton and Helene are expected to be between $40 billion and $75 billion, according to ratings firm Morningstar DBRS. Big payouts from natural disasters are driving insurers to raise raises and pull back on coverage. 

Nationally, 290,000 new properties were built in high-risk flood areas from 2019 through 2023, almost one in five of the 1.6 million built in total in that period, the First Street analysis found. 

Other states with heavy new construction in areas at high risk of flooding include Texas, with 63,000 properties since 2019, California with 21,000 properties, and North Carolina with 11,000, the First Street analysis found... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

How Wall St. is subtly shaping the Harris economic agenda (New York Times)

When two of Vice President Kamala Harris’s closest advisers arrived in New York last month, they were seeking advice.

The Democratic nominee was preparing to give her most far-reaching economic speech, and Tony West, Ms. Harris’s brother-in-law, and Brian Nelson, a longtime confidant, wanted to know how the city’s powerful financiers thought she should approach it.

Over two days, the pair held meetings across Wall Street, including at the offices of Lazard, an investment bank, and the elite law firm Paul, Weiss. Among the ideas the attendees pitched was to provide more lucrative tax breaks for companies that allowed their workers to become part owners, according to two people at the meetings.

The campaign had already been discussing such an idea with an executive at KKR, the private equity firm. A few days later, Ms. Harris endorsed the idea during her speech in Pittsburgh. “We will reform our tax laws to make it easier for businesses to let workers share in their company’s success,” she said.

The line, while just a piece of a much broader speech, was emblematic of Ms. Harris’s approach to economic policy since she took the helm of the Democratic Party in July. As part of a bid to cut into former President Donald J. Trump’s polling lead on the economy, her campaign has carefully courted business leaders, organizing a steady stream of meetings and calls in which corporate executives and donors offer their thoughts on tax policy, financial regulation and other issues.

The private feedback has, in sometimes subtle ways, shaped Ms. Harris’s economic agenda over the course of her accelerated campaign. At several points, she has sprinkled language into broader speeches that business executives say reflects their views. And, in at least one instance, Ms. Harris made a specific policy commitment — to pare back a tax increase on capital gains — after extended talks with her corporate allies.

They describe a Democratic campaign that is far more open to corporate input than the one President Biden had led for much of the election cycle. Ms. Harris’s team does not take all of the advice it is given.

Some pleas for a more robust endorsement of big business have been ignored, for example, while some of the meetings have devolved into executives’ raising specific tax problems their companies face.

The friendlier corporate ties have nevertheless raised questions about whether Ms. Harris’s overtures are campaign-season coalition building — or a sign that she will take a more centrist tack if she wins the White House. On some issues, like a proposed tax on the ultrawealthy, her campaign has been studiously ambiguous, fueling uncertainty about what kind of an economic leader she would be.

🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

_________________________

We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.

Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.

⬇️

Was this email forwarded to you? Click Here to Sign Up!

Copyright (C) " target="_blank">unsubscribe