BG Reads 11.21.2024

BG Reads - November 21, 2024

November 21, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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November 21, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 I-35 caps plan reconsidered as cost estimates soar by 61% (KUT)

🟪 Council will consider new parks funding and management strategies (Austin Monitor)

🟪 ‘A game changer:’ UT System announces free tuition for qualifying Texas families (Dallas Morning News)

🟪  Freeman Martin selected to lead the Texas Department of Public Safety (Texas Tribune

🟪 Federal Reserve’s likely slowdown in rate cuts could disappoint borrowers (Associated Press)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.

You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.

We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin. 

The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”

🟪 The Austin Council has three (2) regular meetings left in 2024:

  • November 21

  • December 12

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ I-35 caps plan reconsidered as cost estimates soar by 61% (KUT)

Austin’s transformational plan to cover parts of Interstate 35 with parks and public spaces, intended to bridge the divide between east and west neighborhoods, is facing a financial reckoning as estimated costs soar and city staff warn the project could drain cash from other priorities.

Refined plans show the estimated price tag of the full 26-acre build ballooning from $868 million to $1.4 billion — an increase of 61%. These designs outline more detail than earlier schematics and were completed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). $15 million in city funds paid for the updated plans.

Much of the cost increase was driven by inflation and increasing the size of a cap next to the Hancock Center, said Heather Ashley-Nguyen, a TxDOT highway engineer overseeing the I-35 expansion in Austin. She spoke to city council members at a public work session on Tuesday.

The city has not conducted an independent audit of the TxDOT estimates.

The $1.4 billion price tag does not include the city's recurring maintenance and operations expenses. Those are projected to total $47 million per year, a decrease of $2 million from earlier estimates... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Council will consider new parks funding and management strategies (Austin Monitor)

On Thursday, City Council is slated to approve a resolution from Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool that directs the city manager to explore new parks funding strategies; to consider a regional approach to parks funding, acquisition and maintenance; and to provide an annual report on the city’s Parkland Dedication Fund.

The draft resolution lists potential funding strategies for Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) staff to examine, including park and public improvement districts, public-private partnerships, the expansion of the Community PARKnership Program and new park user fees. The resolution directs City Manager T.C. Broadnax to convene a team involving PARD, the city attorney’s office and other departments to explore these strategies for supplementing the department’s existing budget from the city’s General Fund.

The resolution also recommends enlisting parks funding consultants, as well as comparing funding strategies to other parks management systems in Texas. If it is approved, the city manager will be required to gather public input during at least two Parks and Recreation Board meetings and to provide an annual report listing PARD’s land assets and maintenance costs, as well as provide a status update on the Parkland Dedication Fund. The city manager will also work with Travis County and other regional partners to consider a regional parks acquisition and maintenance strategy… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ City of Austin makes $108M real estate purchase (Austin Business Journal)

The city of Austin has shelled out a hefty chunk of change — $107.6 million — to buy two office buildings along South MoPac Expressway in Southwest Austin.

It bought the two properties, called One Barton Skyway and Two Barton Skyway, from Philadelphia-based commercial real estate firm Brandywine Realty Trust, according to an announcement.

The city approved the purchase in late October, with plans to use the buildings as a consolidated public safety headquarters for the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department and Austin-Travis County Medical Emergency Services.

The city has said the aim of the consolidated headquarters is to improve efficiency and allow for more effective communication and coordination between departments. The current headquarters for the various agencies are spread throughout the city and range from 54 to 64 years old. They're also in need of extensive and costly improvements, according to the city... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ 2024 Austinite of the Year uses sports to boost Austin's profile (Austin Business Journal)

Chris Del Conte doesn't view his job as merely to help the University of Texas field winning sports teams. Equally important, he said, is to create a good first impression for Austin and a "front porch" for the city.

Those efforts have earned Chris Del Conte — vice president and Lois and Richard Folger Athletics Director for the University of Texas — recognition as the 2024 Austinite of the Year from the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

The decision to award Del Conte the honor was made by Rudy Garza, the chamber's current board chair, who cited the positive impact of Del Conte and UT athletics on the local business community.

"In my discussion with Chris, it was clear that his commitment to our community expands way beyond athletics, but also includes service to the community (and) improving the quality of life for Austinites," Garza said in a statement.

Last year, former Austin Community College Chancellor Richard Rhodes was named Austinite of the Year.

Del Conte called the recognition flattering and said it's a reflection of the collective work the University of Texas and its partners in the community have accomplished. 

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Texas offers Starr County ranch to Trump for mass deportation plans (Texas Tribune)

The Texas General Land Office is offering President-elect Donald Trump a 1,400-acre Starr County ranch as a site to build detention centers for his promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a letter the office sent him Tuesday.

Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said in the Tuesday letter that her office is “fully prepared” to enter an agreement with any federal agencies involved in deporting individuals from the country “to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history.”

The state recently bought the land along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley and announced plans to build a border wall on it. The previous owner had not let the state construct a wall there and had “actively blocked law enforcement from accessing the property,” according to the letter the GLO sent Trump.

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ ‘A game changer:’ UT System announces free tuition for qualifying Texas families (Dallas Morning News)

Students whose families make less than $100,000 annually will get free tuition and waived fees at any of the academic universities in the University of Texas System, the board of regents announced Wednesday. The initiative is an expansion of the Promise Plus Program, a needs-based financial aid program approved by the board in 2022.

The UT System expects that more than 7 million Texas families will meet the income requirements for the new program, officials said. Starting in fall 2025, eligible students accepted into UT academic universities, such as UT Dallas and UT Arlington, will have 100% of their tuition and fees paid for. To qualify, students must be Texas residents and full-time undergraduate students.

UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken said this program is a “game changer” that will make “enormous, real difference” to improve college access for all Texans. Chairman Kevin P. Eltife said the move is important for families across the state who hadn’t previously thought about college as a possibility.

“This is so meaningful,” he said. “There are so many people out there that don’t think they have the opportunity to go on to higher education. They think it’s out of their reach.” The system has about 256,000 students across 14 universities and health centers. Eltife said being in a position where students can attend a UT institution without going into debt “is very important to all of us.” “As long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable, accessible education to all who choose to attend a UT institution,” Eltife added.

Milliken said UT Rio Grande Valley already had a similar financial aid program that inspired the board to consider expanding it to all academic campuses. “This is one of the most aggressive financial aid programs in the country now,” Milliken said, emphasizing this program is intended to be permanent, “so we can promise to Texans that this will be in place for their siblings, their children, etc.” To pay for the new initiative, the regents will provide the universities with $35 million from endowment distributions, the Available University Fund and other resources… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ How Trump's plans for mass deportations would affect Houston's economy: 'Prices are going to go up' (Houston Chronicle)

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on promises to deport millions of immigrants when he takes office in January, a monumental undertaking that would put tremendous strain on national finances and likely require cooperation from state and local authorities.

The American Immigration Council, a national immigration research and advocacy group, has estimated that a one-time mass deportation operation — a logistically unlikely scenario given the roughly 11 million immigrants believed to be living in the United States illegally — would cost at least $315 billion. If the government deported about a million people a year over the course of the next decade, as some GOP leaders have suggested, the AIC estimated those costs would balloon to nearly $1 trillion.

While the brunt of those direct costs would be born by the federal government, a mass deportation would undoubtedly send shock waves through the economy in the Houston area, which is believed to be home to nearly 600,000 immigrants living here illegally, and leave over 300,000 children without at least one of their parents.

Immigrants living in the Houston area illegally made up about 10% of all workers in 2019, according to the Migration Policy Institute, but are significantly over-represented in certain industries, such as construction. The Houston area construction industry is believed to be employing over 100,000 immigrants living here illegally, comprising nearly one-third of the industry's total workforce, according to a recent AIC report published in partnership with several Houston and Texas trade groups. Immigrants of all legal statuses together make up over half the area's construction workers.

If workers here illegally were to be deported, contractors would likely find it difficult to fill the vacated positions, as fewer American-born young people opt for jobs in blue-collar trades, according to a 2017 study by the National Association of Home Builders.

The ensuing labor shortage would likely stall work, drive up housing costs and lengthen building times on public and private projects. In a statement published alongside the AIC report, Greater Houston Builders Association President Matthew Reibenstein said: "The future of housing attainability in our region depends on a consistent and reliable flow of entrepreneurs and workers," referring to immigrants of all legal statuses… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Freeman Martin selected to lead the Texas Department of Public Safety (Texas Tribune)

Freeman Martin, a senior official at the Texas Department of Public Safety, will serve as the agency’s new executive director beginning next month after the retirement of current DPS director Steve McCraw.

Martin, who began at DPS as a highway patrol trooper in 1990, was named to the top agency post by the Public Safety Commission on Wednesday.

His tenure will begin Dec. 1.

“I just can’t imagine a better choice that we have made than Freeman Martin today,” Public Safety Commissioner Nelda Luce Blair said. “We have a lot of confidence in you going forward, Freeman.”

Martin was named to the job after McCraw, who led the agency for 15 years, announced his retirement in August… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ House Ethics Committee is deadlocked on whether to release Gaetz report (NPR)

The U.S. House Committee on Ethics is deadlocked on whether to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general has been plagued by controversy.

After meeting behind closed doors for about two hours Wednesday, panel Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters "there was not an agreement by the committee to release the report."

Ranking Member Susan Wild, D-Pa., said shortly after that there was "no consensus" on the issue, and that the committee will revisit the matter in a meeting on Dec. 5.

"I will say that a vote was taken," Wild said. "As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans — five Dems, five Republicans — which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side ... that did not happen in today's vote."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Federal Reserve’s likely slowdown in rate cuts could disappoint borrowers (Associated Press)

Just a few weeks ago, the path ahead for the Federal Reserve looked straightforward: With inflation cooling and the job market slowing, the Fed appeared on track to steadily cut interest rates.

In September, its officials predicted that they would reduce their benchmark rate four times next year, on top of three rate cuts this year.

Yet that outlook has swiftly changed. Several surprisingly strong economic reports, combined with President-elect Donald Trump’s policy proposals, have led to a decidedly more cautious tone from the Fed that could mean fewer cuts and higher interest rates than had been expected.

Fewer rate cuts would likely mean continued high mortgage rates and other borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Auto loans would remain expensive. Small businesses would still face high loan rates.

In a speech last week in Dallas, Chair Jerome Powell made clear that the Fed isn’t necessarily inclined to cut rates each time it meets every six weeks... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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