BG Reads 12.30.2024

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December 30, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Mike Siegel plans to balance ‘big goals and broad ambitions’ with pragmatism during his first year on Council (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Lawsuit to stop Austin from collecting property taxes for Project Connect dismissed (KVUE)

🟪 Austin reports impacts of HOME development program's first 6 months (Community Impact)

🟪  Billions of dollars in Austin transportation projects to advance in 2025 (KXAN

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 Review: The 2025 Austin Council Meeting Calendar 

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Mike Siegel plans to balance ‘big goals and broad ambitions’ with pragmatism during his first year on Council (Austin Monitor)

After winning a close runoff election on Dec. 15, incoming District 7 City Council Member Mike Siegel told the Austin Monitor he is feeling “tired, busy and excited.”

Siegel, a former assistant city attorney and organizer with Ground Game Texas, beat out runoff opponent Gary Bledsoe by around 200 votes. The two were the top contenders from an initial crowded field of six candidates vying to represent outgoing

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool’s district in North Central Austin.

Siegel said he has “big goals and broad ambitions” for issues like climate resilience, housing, workers’ rights and public safety reform, but he also hopes to plug into some of the work Council has already been doing on these policy areas. He hopes his legacy as a Council member will include developing strong ways of collaborating, researching and solving problems on a day-to-day basis.

“Job No. 1 is setting up a really strong Council office staff … people who are effective, efficient, … progressive at heart but also practical,” Siegel told the Monitor. He is also prioritizing developing relationships with his new colleagues on Council… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin reports impacts of HOME development program's first 6 months (Community Impact)

Nearly a year after the policy went into effect, Austin released a report on the early impacts of the Home Ownership for Middle-income Empowerment, or HOME, initiative.

City Council passed the first phase of HOME—allowing up to three housing units on single-family properties across Austin—last December. The land-use update officially went into effect in February, and hundreds of applications for construction under the new rules have since been filed citywide.As the first of those projects are now reaching completion and being sold, the Development Services Department released a six-month report on HOME covering activity under the policies from Feb. 5-Aug. 7. It's the first of many required reviews of HOME that council mandated when passing the program; DSD plans to kick off a more extensive one-year review in February… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Lawsuit to stop Austin from collecting property taxes for Project Connect dismissed (KVUE)

A lawsuit to stop the city of Austin from collecting millions of dollars in property taxes for Project Connect has been dismissed.

Project Connect is the voter-approved, taxpayer-funded effort to revamp public transit across Austin. It has faced opposition from groups that say it was a “bait-and-switch scheme” as the scale of the project has shrunk and costs have gone up.

Plaintiffs said city leaders need to stop the tax, rethink the project in a feasible way and go back to people to vote for it in a bond election.

Bill Aleshire, the attorney for the group opposing the project, said the decision will “very likely” be appealed… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Billions of dollars in Austin transportation projects to advance in 2025 (KXAN)

As billions of dollars in transportation projects ramp up or continue work in Austin, residents and visitors alike will be navigating a whole host of traffic snags and congestion. Here’s a breakdown of some of the changes to come with the city’s biggest transportation projects… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Wild West of THC: Texas hemp shops can sell weed and ‘no one’s gonna stop them,’ ag commish says (San Antonio Express-News)

When it comes to regulating consumable hemp-derived products in Texas, there’s no sheriff in town. And though Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is pushing for a ban, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said his agency lacks sufficient funding to enforce existing regulations already in place.

The result: Lounges, dispensaries and cafes selling cannabis and cannabis-based products are sprouting in cities all over the state — including San Antonio. There are nearly 8,000 registered hemp retailers in Texas — with 800 licensed businesses operating in San Antonio — according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

One of those is Lazydaze — a coffee lounge that legally sells intoxicating, hemp-derived cannabis products — and that recently opened a shop on the St. Mary’s Strip. If you’re scratching your head over how businesses like this can lawfully operate in Texas, the answer is simple: loopholes. In Texas, two critical pieces of legislation bind cannabis laws: state House Bill 1325 and the Texas Compassionate Use Act.

The latter permits licensed physicians to prescribe “low THC” cannabis to patients with certain health conditions. And HB1325 allows the production and sale of consumable hemp products with a concentration of 0.3% delta-9 THC or less by “dry weight” standards. Any more of that psychoactive ingredient, and the plant is legally classified as marijuana — illegal within the state of Texas. However, “that phrasing allows for several loopholes,” said Thomas Petrini, 29, manager of Lazydaze in Pflugerville.

“For edibles, it basically lets us use the same delta-9 THC that’s being used in California, Colorado, everywhere else that is recreationally legal,” he said. “When they wrote the law, they didn’t realize that ‘0.3% by dry weight,’ (makes it) very easy to get effective doses.” “Dry weight” isn’t the best metric for lawmakers trying to regulate THC in Texas, said Nicholas Mortillaro, a chemical engineer who specializes in the biosynthesis, extraction and formulation of cannabinoids. Lawmakers “did not realize that THC is measured in milligrams,” he said... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Ex-Harris County health director charged with three new felonies in awarding $40M-worth of contracts (Houston Chronicle)

Barbie Robinson, the former head of the Harris County Public Health Department, has been charged with three more crimes for allegedly funneling inside information to help companies she had previous connections to secure lucrative county contracts. The new allegations relate to $40 million-worth of contracts given to IBM and DEMA Management & Consulting, two companies Robinson worked with previously in California.

The Houston Chronicle in August reported on potentially improper connections between Robinson and DEMA. Harris County’s lead administrator, Diana Ramirez, fired her from her job just days later. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg previously had charged Robinson with using her government email to share information with IBM to help it win a competitive contract to deliver mental health services for Harris County, a third-degree felony.

The new charges, filed December 23, stemmed from additional emails that Robinson did not turn over until after that. Two are first-degree felonies, carrying up to 99 years or life in prison. The first alleges Robinson falsely filled out conflict-of-interest forms swearing she had no personal connections to the bidders when, in fact, she did. For example, DEMA offered outside work to both Robinson and her husband while Robinson was in a position to award it a contract to respond to certain nonviolent 911 calls, the new charges alleged.

The second of the new more serious charges claims that by obscuring the connections, she deceived the county into entering into the contracts. A third charge alleges Robinson improperly shared state emails with IBM, a state jail felony that carries up to two years in prison. “People hate corruption because any misuse of tax dollars is an affront to our entire community,” Ogg said in a statement. “Now that more evidence of corruption has come to light in this case, more charges have been filed.”

One of Robinson’s listed attorneys, Chukwudi Egbuonu, did not return phone or email messages from the Chronicle. The other, Cornel Williams, said he was out of town and had not reviewed the new complaint. In earlier comments, Robinson has denied any wrongdoing… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Trump’s return sparks hope for 2025 deals revival (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street is optimistic that a buoyant stock market, declining interest rates and Donald Trump’s lighter-regulation agenda will prompt a dealmaking rebound in 2025. But jitters remain thanks to the president-elect’s unpredictability. Deal volume has been muted for the past few years following record volumes coming out of the pandemic.

While total global deal volume is up roughly 12% in 2024 through Dec. 26 compared with the same period in 2023, the number of transactions is lower and volume remains well below the 2021 high, according to Dealogic data. Dealmakers were encouraged when Trump in December picked Andrew Ferguson, the Republican Federal Trade Commission member, to succeed FTC Chair Lina Khan. Ferguson and Republicans are expected to dismantle Khan’s guidelines that gave the agency new legal powers to try to block deals. Still, Jay Novak, global co-head of corporate finance at the investment bank Houlihan Lokey, said it remains to be seen exactly where the new Trump’s administration’s antitrust policy will land.

“Sentiment is certainly more positive. People don’t really know the answer, but they’re more positive about the direction,” he said. The year featured a handful of blockbuster tie-ups, including Capital One’s $35 billion agreement to buy Discover Financial Services and Mars’s roughly $30 billion deal for the maker of Cheez-It, Kellanova. But the pace of sizable deals, especially in typically busy sectors such as technology and healthcare, has been noticeably slower.

Both Ferguson and Trump’s administration are expected to keep the pressure on large technology companies. That could include such giants as Apple and Meta Platforms, which have shied away from deals while under increased regulatory scrutiny. Declining interest rates and frothy markets should help bring corporate CEOs and private-equity firms, which drive a large portion of merger activity, back to the table. Lower rates make it more affordable to finance deals with debt while rising stock prices embolden corporate chiefs to use their shares as currency to fund deals… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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