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BG Reads 2.14.2024

BG Reads 2.14.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 14, 2024

February 14, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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February 14, 2024 ❤️

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Developers in Travis County regain public improvement districts but with higher fees

🟣 Council to weigh how the city will fund climate projects

🟣 Texas AD Chris Del Conte lays out future of Longhorn facilities

🟣 Hotter-than-expected inflation clouds rate-cut outlook

Read on!

🟣 Click here for this week’s Austin public meeting times and agendas.

[BG BLOG]

✅ NEW - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Developers in Travis County regain public improvement districts but with higher fees (Austin Business Journal)

Developers in Travis County have a financial tool back at their disposal that's designed to support large-scale real estate projects, but they may not be supportive of all the changes made to the reworked program.

That's because revisions to public improvement districts, or PIDs, include an increase in community benefit charges tied to certain projects. Previously, developers paid a fee equal to 10% of total investment if their projects didn't include enough affordable housing, but that has been raised to 17.5%. The application fee for a PID has also been increased from $55,000 to $150,000.

Adam Boenig, co-president of Brohn Homes — among the region's most active residential developers — called the higher fees a "pretty drastic hit." Boenig said he's worried the charges will eat into the profitability of future projects.

PIDs enable counties and cities to levy additional taxes on sites to pay for specific project-related improvements. They're used in counties across Texas to help cover some costs to developers, such as road construction, water and wastewater systems and landscaping, when they build master-planned communities and other big projects. Applications re-opened for the program on Feb. 1… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Council to weigh how the city will fund climate projects (Austin Monitor)

Over the last decade, City Council has put forth several ambitious climate-related plans, building on the work of previous councils. But without a clear road map for financing and prioritizing projects to reduce carbon emissions and safeguard the city against natural disasters, Austin lags behind other cities that have funding mechanisms in place.

Council Member Ryan Alter hopes his resolution on Thursday’s agenda will reverse the city’s course on that front. No one said it would be easy. Because the proposal initially included direction to explore a general obligation bond election this year, the item was catapulted to the top of the work session agenda for a vigorous discussion.

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool kicked things off, stressing the lengthy lead time generally given bond elections, specifically general obligation bonds, to allow for a bond advisory task force to guide much of the process. Pool later told the Austin Monitor she wasn’t opposed to the resolution; rather, she said, “in the last year, city financial staff have clearly stated their concerns that we are straining our bonding capacity, and I listen when I hear these warnings. If we are going to talk about a bond, whether in 2024 or 2026, then we should consider the bond advisory task force process in which all Council districts are represented.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City of Austin seeks community input on the next City Manager (City of Austin)

The City of Austin is recruiting for its next City Manager. This position is appointed by, and reports to, the Austin City Council, and members are seeking valuable input from the community to help guide their selection. Austinites are asked to help shape the future of their city by participating in this short, three-question, anonymous survey in English or Spanish which closes on Friday, Feb. 16th. The survey allows the public to share their preferences regarding Austin’s next City Manager’s priorities and characteristics. It also includes a space to provide additional open-ended recommendations… (Survey Page Link)

Texas AD Chris Del Conte lays out future of Longhorn facilities (Sports Illustrated)

Texas Longhorns Athletics Director Chris Del Conte introduced several initiatives to upgrade DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium Tuesday night, as well as the planned project for an updated football practice facility.

The new complex was initially announced by the university last April, and will begin construction this June. The updated sports complex will remain south of the Rec Sports Center at the current location of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and Child Development Center.

Del Conte addressed the move of the center, stating he would not remove the office of the social work students if it was being used. After it was announced that the social work office was given an upgrade, Del Conte acted fast to secure the property for Texas Athletics.

"When the social work building became available, I met with President [Jay] Hartzell and asked if we could participate in this new venture to have that area, so we’ll have a brand new indoor and outdoor field," Del Conte said Tuesday evening… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Some Uber, Lyft drivers plan strike at Austin airport, other US cities on Valentine's Day (Austin American-Statesman)

A group representing rideshare and app workers is calling on its Austin drivers to halt rides for two hours Wednesday as part of a coordinated work stoppage at nearly a dozen U.S. cities.

Members of the Justice for App Workers coalition hope the Valentine's Day stoppage raises awareness about issues faced by app workers, including low pay, limited benefits and sudden "unfair" account deactivations, according to a news release this week. The group represents more than 130,000 drivers and delivery workers, according to its website.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is one of 10 city airports where the group plans work stoppages. Group members will hold demonstrations in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Chicago; and Miami, Orlando, and Tampa in Florida… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[BG Podcast]

On this episode (237) the Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia wrap up the week of February 5th, 2024 in Austin politics.

Topics include:

✅ Austin Interim City Manager search and current events with the office.

✅ Items on next week's Council meeting (2.15.2024)Austin's interim police chief talks priorities, goals for 2024 (CBS Austin) including potential Artificial Intelligence guidelines and a Climate Bond (Items 24 and 25).

LISTEN ON: SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

[TEXAS NEWS]

The Republican Party of Texas has moved further to the right. How did that happen? (KUT)

There's no doubt the Republican Party of Texas has changed over the last several decades.

The party the Bush family embraced and helped build in the '80s and '90s has now become a place where the Bushes are considered passé. To many, the dynasty took its final breath in 2022, when Texas Republican voters rejected George P. Bush’s primary bid for attorney general.

More recently, the party has been engulfed in controversy and infighting — from spats over Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment to ties to white supremacists.

So, how did we get here?

The shift was long and complicated, so let’s start in the more recent past: In 2012, when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was vying to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

What Texas oil companies have at risk as Middle East tensions rise (Houston Chronicle)

Just 15 miles off the Israeli coast, Chevron operates a natural gas field that has already had to be shut in once over fear of a missile attack. Approximately 1,200 miles to the east, along the Persian Gulf, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell are drilling for oil and gas through joint ventures with state-owned oil companies that have previously been targeted by terrorists. And 1,400 miles to the south, BP has had to divert tankers from passing through the 20-mile wide Bab el Mandeb Strait, where Iran-backed Houthi militants are firing missiles at passing ships. Four months after Hamas fighters swarmed across the Israeli border, killing more than 1,100 people and kidnapping over 200 more, many of the oil and natural gas companies that operate in and around Houston have much at stake as tensions in the Middle East build.

A week after the U.S. military hit Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a fatal drone strike on U.S. troops, fear of a wider conflict is growing, potentially drawing the United States and Israel into conflict with Iran.

“The real issue is Iran contagion risk. The Strait of Hormuz carries 25% of seaborne oil trade, and if war breaks out in the Persian Gulf that means the loss of all spare capacity north of Hormuz,” said Bob McNally, president of the Washington-based consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group. “Iran doesn’t want war, the Biden administration certainly doesn’t, but you can’t always get what you want.”

To avoid having their ships fired on by the Houthis as they make their way north through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, oil companies have begun diverting European-bound oil and LNG tankers around Africa. Shipping traffic in the Suez Canal has fallen to a two-year low, with the biggest decline among highly flammable LNG and LPG tanker traffic, which declined 75% and 66% respectively between November and January, according to the data firm KPLER… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Hotter-than-expected inflation clouds rate-cut outlook (Wall Street Journal)

Inflation eased again in January but came in above Wall Street’s expectations, clouding the Federal Reserve’s path to rate cuts and potentially giving the central bank breathing space to wait until the middle of the year.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that consumer prices rose 3.1% in January from a year earlier, versus a December gain of 3.4%. That marked the lowest reading since June.

Still, the consumer-price index was higher than the predicted 2.9%, a disappointment for investors who hope the Fed will cut rates sooner rather than later. Rate cuts tend to help stock prices by boosting economic activity and reducing competition from bonds for investor dollars.

The release gave a nasty jolt to markets. Stocks fell sharply and bond yields rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 500 points, or about 1.4%, its worst one-day decline since March. For all three major U.S. stock indexes, it was their worst performance on a CPI release day since September 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.315%, bringing it to its highest level since the end of November.

For many investors, Tuesday represented a realization: Disinflation was easy in 2023, when inflation fell from 6.4% at the start of the year to 3.4% in December. That this happened without the widely anticipated rise in unemployment or even recession came as a pleasant surprise and led some to hope the path all the way back to the Fed’s 2% target would also be relatively easy. Although January’s report is just one month’s data, it raises the risk that the path could be uneven… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Biden turns to TikTok as concerns over young voters mount (The Hill)

President Biden’s reelection bid is now on TikTok as the 81-year-old incumbent looks to reach younger voters amid rising anxiety about his age.

A 30-second video from “Biden-Harris HQ” showed Biden running through a series of questions about the Super Bowl, with the quippy caption “lol hey guys.”

The move to join the video-sharing app popular among young Americans comes as Biden’s campaign battles enduring concerns about its traction with young people and a surge of new critiques against the president’s age after a special counsel report labeled him an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

But the decision has also sparked controversy because of national security concerns about the app’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. Last year, Biden signed a bill that included barring TikTok from government devices.

“I’m a little worried about a mixed message,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said of the campaign’s decision, citing concerns about China… (LINK TO FULL STORY)