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November 15, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

✅ ABOR report highlights striking disparities in housing affordability

✅ Austin council member back at City Hall after taking medical leave

✅ Texas legislators approve bill allowing police to arrest people who cross the border illegally

✅ House speaker moves past hard-right concerns in effort to avoid government shutdown

More stories below. Read on!

[BG PODCAST]

On this episode (223) Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia wrap up the week of November 6th in Austin politics.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

✅ Travis County judge signaling 3 Austin land code ordinances will be voided; and

✅ 2024 City Council Race Watch (Districts 2, 7, and 10)

LISTEN HERE

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

ABOR report highlights striking disparities in housing affordability (Austin Monitor)

A new report from one of the city’s leading real estate groups is bringing fresh, detailed data that shows how unaffordable housing has become for most local residents.

Austin Board of Realtors’ “The Truth About Austin’s Missing Housing” uses industry sales data to examine the overall state of housing affordability among different earning levels and racial groups, and also looks at the state of housing in all 10 City Council districts. It finds that while 50.2 percent of four-person households earn $93,000 or less each year – putting them at 80 percent of the local median family income or below – less than 5 percent of homes sold in the first half of 2023 were affordable to those households. That imbalance means there’s an overall 45.4 percent shortage of homes in Travis County, or 247,240 homes unavailable to potential buyers.

Among different racial groups at 80 percent or less of median family income, Black/African American households had a 58.3 percent shortage of housing compared to a 57.6 percent shortage for Hispanic/Latino households, 53.2 percent for the “other races” category, 38.4 percent for white households and 35 percent for Asian households.

Read the full report with detailed data breakdowns for each Council district here… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Constitutionality of state law that allows developers to deannex land challenged in court (Austin Business Journal)

As disagreements between cities and landowners over a new state law wage on, one Texas city is taking its complaints to court, and an Austin-area municipality is joining the fight.

This marks the latest pushback of Senate Bill 2038, which was passed earlier this year by the Texas Legislature and went into effect on Sept. 1 after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law. The law essentially allows landowners on the fringes of major cities to petition to be removed from an extraterritorial jurisdiction, freeing them up to develop with fewer regulations.

Many in the business community have said SB 2038 makes development easier in rapidly growing areas near big cities and helps to keep up with housing demand, although most agree deannexation should be a last resort. Opponents said the law is too friendly to developers and limits cities' power to effectively regulate land they might one day annex. Court and lawyer fees are starting to pile up as more landowners take advantage of the law – and disagreements continue to arise... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin council member back at City Hall after taking medical leave (KXAN)

An Austin City Council member returned to the dais Tuesday nearly two months after announcing she would take medical leave to focus on mental health treatment.

Natasha Harper-Madison, who represents District 1 in east Austin, appeared Tuesday to once again lead the housing and planning committee as chair. At least two of her fellow committee members made comments to welcome her back to the meeting, saying how good it was to see her there.

At the conclusion of the committee meeting, she expressed her “gratitude and appreciation” to the other council members as well as her staff. She said she made her “re-entry” to City Hall this week and promised to keep working on various issues into the new year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Citing civic climate goals, Austin council calls to promote remote working options (Community Impact)

Months after proposed return-to-office requirements for Austin employees were put on hold, elected officials are looking to cement long-term remote working policies tied to civic climate goals.

Austin’s mobility and climate plans are now in line for updates that would clearly encourage flexible work options for government staff and the reduction of local vehicle commutes.The proposed changes were formally requested in a resolution from council member Vanessa Fuentes, who said changing work practices link well with the relevant city initiatives.“Working from home has become an invaluable resource for combatting climate change, reducing traffic and increasing Austinites’ quality of life," Fuentes said in a statement. "By folding telework recommendations into our climate plans, we’re taking another step towards meeting our goals, while also recognizing the positive impact telework has on our city employees, working families and commuters.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

AISD expects another dip in enrollment (AXIOS Austin)

Austin ISD expects to see enrollment numbers dip again — even as the city's population booms.

Why it matters: Fewer students means less money for the district, per state formulas, and AISD has yet to rebound since the pandemic supercharged the downward trend.

By the numbers: A formal snapshot of enrollment numbers won't be submitted until January, but AISD's Department of Student Enrollment expects the figure to be around 73,000 for the 2023-2024 school year, according to figures provided to Axios… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas legislators approve bill allowing police to arrest people who cross the border illegally (Texas Tribune)

The Texas House of Representatives approved immigration bills Tuesday that would appropriate more than $1.5 billion for additional border barriers and make illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border a state crime.

Senate Bill 3 would allocate $1.54 billion for border barriers and to pay for state troopers to patrol Colony Ridge, a housing development near Houston that far-right publications claim is a magnet for undocumented immigrants.

During Tuesday’s debate in the House, lawmakers adopted an amendment to SB 3 introduced by state Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde, that would allow some of the money to be used to help local police and governments enforce the new state crime proposed in Senate Bill 4.

SB 4 would make it a state misdemeanor to illegally cross the border from Mexico into Texas, empower Texas peace officers to arrest undocumented immigrants and require that a state judge order the person to leave the U.S. to Mexico in lieu of prosecution... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas Republicans divided on funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown (Texas Tribune)

Thirteen Texas Republicans voted against their party’s bill Tuesday to keep the government funded through the year, though the bill was able to garner support from Democrats and pass in the U.S. House.

The measure, known as a continuing resolution, would keep the government funded at current spending levels until early next year as Congress works on appropriations legislation to finance the government for the whole fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson presented the legislation over the weekend.

U.S. Reps. John Carter, Michael Cloud, Pat Fallon, Tony Gonzales, Lance Gooden, Wesley Hunt, Morgan Luttrell, Nathaniel Moran, Chip Roy, Keith Self, Beth Van Duyne, Randy Weber and Roger Williams voted against the bill — just over half the state’s GOP delegation.

The bill passed 336-95, with 93 Republicans and two Democrats voting against it. All Texas Democrats supported the bill… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

House speaker moves past hard-right concerns in effort to avoid government shutdown (Washington Post)

In an effort to avert a government shutdown Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has opted to expedite his stopgap funding proposal for floor consideration Tuesday after it became clear Republicans could not pass it through their narrow and divisive ranks. Hard-right Republicans were planning to sink a critical procedural hurdle, known as a rule vote, that would have blocked passage of the bill because they were angry that Johnson rejected their request to attach spending cuts, border security provisions or funding for Israel to the proposal. Rather than face an embarrassing defeat — Republicans could lose only three votes if all Democrats voted against the proposal — GOP leaders decided late Monday to instead work to pass the package by suspending the House rules.

Using the procedural maneuver, however, requires two-thirds support from the House, meaning Republicans will need help from Democrats to pass the legislation. Once passed by the House, it is expected to clear the Senate, where both Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed the two-tiered plan Monday. Johnson’s decision to circumvent the far right’s concerns comes after he spent weeks engaging with Republicans across the ideologically fractured conference and producing a compromise proposal that left no faction completely satisfied. The speaker adopted hard-liners’ demand to fund some government departments until mid-January and the rest through early February, and paired the two-tiered deadline with centrists’ request to reject the far right’s push for spending cuts and instead extend existing funding levels until early next year.

“My hope was that he was going to listen to everybody and put something out that was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but probably something achievable, to go force pressure on the Senate Democrats,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), who was a proponent of the two-tier approach Johnson adopted but also wanted spending cuts.

“I think the Democrat leaders are better playing this game than we are.” Rejecting demands from the far right, including some in the House Freedom Caucus, incensed many of those members, who got the impression that Johnson would adopt their requests after they praised his first decision as speaker to pass $14 billion in aid to Israel by rescinding appropriated funds to the Internal Revenue Service to pay for it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Videos show ex-Trump lawyers telling Georgia prosecutors about efforts to overturn 2020 election (ABC News)

As part of a plea deal, one of former President Donald Trump's attorneys has told prosecutors in Georgia that she was informed in the wake of the 2020 election that Donald Trump was "not going to leave" the White House -- despite the fact that he had already lost the election and most of his subsequent challenges.

The revelation, along with others, came during a confidential interview the attorney, Jenna Ellis, had with Fulton County investigators. ABC News has obtained portions of videos of the proffer sessions of both Ellis and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who aided Trump's efforts to overturn the election. The videos for the first time reveal details of what they have told law enforcement since agreeing to cooperate last month in the district attorney's election interference case.

Ellis, in her proffer session, informed prosecutors that senior Trump White House official Dan Scavino told her "the boss" would refuse to leave the White House despite losing the election, and alluded to two other instances she said were "relevant" to prosecutors -- but appeared to be prevented from disclosing those in the video portions obtained by ABC News due to attorney-client privilege, which hindered portions of her proffer. Powell, meanwhile, explained to prosecutors her plans for seizing voting machines nationwide and claimed that she frequently communicated with Trump during her efforts to overturn the 2020 election -- though both now claim she was never his attorney. In the session, Powell reiterated the false assertion that Trump won the election -- but acknowledged in the video that she didn't know much about election law to begin with.

"Did I know anything about election law? No," she told Fulton County prosecutors. "But I understand fraud from having been a prosecutor for 10 years, and knew generally what the fraud suit should be if the evidence showed what I thought it showed."... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

The UN Security Council is trying for a fifth time to adopt a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war (Associated Press)

After four failed attempts, the U.N. Security Council is trying for a fifth time to come up with a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, but it remains to be seen whether serious divisions can be overcome to produce a consensus on wording.

The current draft under negotiation would demand “immediate extended humanitarian pauses” throughout the Gaza Strip to provide civilians with desperately needed aid. It also would demand that “all parties” comply with international humanitarian law that requires protection for civilians, calls for special protections for children, and bans hostage-taking.

But the draft, proposed by council member Malta and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, makes no mention of a ceasefire. It also doesn’t refer to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed around 1,200 people and took some 240 others hostage. Nor does it cite Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes and ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza that the Gaza health ministry says has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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