BG Reads 3.20.2025

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Bingham Group Reads

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www.binghamgp.com

March 20, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 City readies final changes to revised business expansion programs (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Austin metro's smallest county is among the fastest-growing in the nation (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 With passage of SB 3, Texas Senate green-lights ban on THC products in the state (KUT)

🟪 Judges threatened with impeachment, bombs for ruling against Trump agenda (NPR)

Read On!

🗓️  Check out the Week Ahead for City of Austin public meetings and hearings.

✅ Discover how Bingham Group’s expertise drives results and

explore our experience here.

[COMMUNITY]

Austin Sunshine Camps’ Keeper Luncheon (March 26, 11:30AM to 1PM)

Since 1928, Austin Sunshine Camps (ASC) has provided the magic of overnight camp without the barrier of cost to more than 56,000 children in Central Texas.

As a past board president and longtime volunteer and fundraiser, I am proud to support this incredible organization.

This gathering is more than just a lunch—it’s an opportunity to hear inspiring stories, connect with fellow supporters, and meet the dedicated team behind Austin Sunshine Camps.

RSVP HERE

Wednesday, March 26, 11:30AM to 1PM

2225 Andrew Zilker Rd, Austin, TX 78746

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Hall:

• Today @1PM: Council Mobility Committee

• Tomorrow @11AM: Council Economic Opportunity Committee

• Next Thursday @10AM: Austin City Council Regular Meeting

🏛️ Memos:

• Staff Update to Resolution No. 20230720-128 Southshore Cultural District

• 3.17 // Update on the City’s Business Expansion Program under Chapter 380 

• 3.17 // Update on the Downtown Austin Strategic Initiative

🏛️ Austin City Hall Week in Review (Week of March 10, 2025)

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ City readies final changes to revised business expansion programs (Austin Monitor)

The Economic Development Department has announced final modifications to its Business Expansion Program, a key component of the city’s Chapter 380 economic development incentives. The updates, approved by City Council in September 2024 under Ordinance 20240926-013, are designed to increase small business participation and better align with Austin’s living wage policies.

According to a memo released last week by interim EDD Director Anthony Segura, the Global Business Expansion Division will host a series of incentive workshops in April, along with monthly office hours through the Small Business Division.

Those sessions will provide details on eligibility and application procedures under the revised incentive structure. Under the newly approved changes, the Business Expansion Program now includes a dedicated small business category, which lowers the threshold for participation.

Previously, businesses needed to create at least five new jobs to qualify for incentives. The new program reduces this requirement to one job for businesses with fewer than 100 employees… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin metro's smallest county is among the fastest-growing in the nation (Austin Business Journal)

Caldwell County Judge Hoppy Haden isn't surprised that his largely rural county is among the fastest-growing in the nation.

"I told somebody the other day that doesn't come as shock to me because I've been living it for the last three years," Haden said. Newly released U.S. Census Bureau data pegs Caldwell County — the smallest of the Austin metro's five counties — at No. 9 on the annual list of fastest-growing U.S. counties among those with populations of at least 20,000.

The population of Caldwell County grew to 52,430 in 2024 from 50,107 a year prior — a 4.6% increase that doubled the metro's overall 2.3% growth rate. Still, all four of the metro's other counties — Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop — have well over 100,000 residents, with Travis topping 1.36 million… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Committee hears Texas House bill that would create 'District of Austin' (KVUE)

Lawmakers in the Texas Capitol are discussing a proposal to create a "District of Austin," in all or part of the city of Austin. House Bill 274, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), was first announced in December and would allow the state to effectively assume control over the city. The district would still follow city laws currently in place, but would allow the state to amend or repeal laws, ordinances and policies it chooses.

Austin is a home-rule city, meaning it operates under a charter. That city charter is considered Austin's constitution. Cain said it would help address crime in the city.

"From carjackings, to open drug use blocks from this very building, the failures of Austin city government have made clear: the Seat of Texas Government should be run by the representatives of the people of Texas," Cain said. But opponents of the bill believe it to be an overreach of authority.

"This bill really just violates the core tenets of democracy by disenfranchising Austinites and depriving them of a government that's accountable to their needs and priorities," Luis Figueroa, with the nonprofit group Every Texan, said. The bill was left pending in committee on Wednesday...🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Different pace and priorities separate Texas Senate and House on school vouchers (Texas Tribune)

The last time the Texas Legislature tried to pass a school voucher program, nothing seemed to go right for Gov. Greg Abbott and his pro-voucher allies.

After months of political threats and last-ditch attempts to salvage Abbott’s signature issue, the demise of vouchers in late 2023 underscored a simple truth: lawmakers couldn’t engineer anything that would pass the voucher-resistant House while meeting the standards of Abbott and the Senate.

Two years later, the gulf between the chambers is far narrower as the GOP-controlled Legislature takes another stab at providing taxpayer funds for families to send their kids to private schools.

To make vouchers a reality this year, House and Senate lawmakers will have to reconcile differences in their respective bills over how much money students would receive, which applicants would take priority and how the program would accommodate students with disabilities… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ With passage of SB 3, Texas Senate green-lights ban on THC products in the state (KUT)

A bill that would ban the sale of THC products has passed the Texas Senate. Senate Bill 3, a priority item for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, was approved in a 24-7 vote Wednesday afternoon, less than a week after unanimously passing out of the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), who authored the bill, said he is primarily concerned about synthetic THC products on the market. On the Senate floor Wednesday, he called them “akin to K2, spice and bath salts.”

“The effect of what this drug is doing to the people that are involved in it, contrary to what you hear, it’s devastating lives, it’s generational, it is creating psychosis, it is creating paranoia,” he said. For some Texans — like veterans struggling with PTSD — using synthetic strains of THC, like Delta 8 and Delta 9, can be lifesaving.

Last May, several testified before a panel of Texas senators, opposing a ban on these products. But opponents told those same lawmakers about cases of psychosis and accidental overdose involving the products.

If SB 3 makes it to the governor’s desk and becomes law, it’s estimated Texas could lose out on $19.2 million in revenue from taxes on THC products over the next two fiscal years… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Police, firefighters’ unions stay out of San Antonio mayor’s race — for now (San Antonio Express-News)

The city’s deep-pocketed police and firefighters’ unions are staying out of the race to replace Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is term-limited from seeking reelection — at least until voters narrow the crowded field of 27 contenders on May 3. With that many candidates, a runoff election is widely expected.

The San Antonio Police Officers’ Association and the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association could decide to endorse one of the top two vote-getters who makes it to the June 7 runoff. “At this point in time, with several candidates that could literally step in and have a profound impact on our community right out of the gate, we think that it’s better to let the community kind of pare that list down before we weigh in,” said Joe Jones, president of the firefighters’ union.

Those vying for the mayor’s seat include Council Members Manny Peláez, John Courage, Melissa Cabello Havrda and Adriana Rocha Garcia, and former Councilman Clayton Perry. Other major candidates include tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano, former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, and former U.S. Air Force Undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones.

All 10 council seats are up for election and those who are elected, or reelected, will serve a four-year term instead of a two-year one, the result of a city charter amendment that voters approved last fall. The new mayor and council will also earn substantially more, with the next mayor taking home $87,800 annually (up from $61,725) and council members earning $70,200 (from $45,722).

The next mayor and City Council will vote on new labor contracts with both unions, starting with the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association. Its collective bargaining agreement with the city expires on Sept. 30, 2026, while the contract the City Council approved with the firefighters’ union last September runs through September 2027… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Judges threatened with impeachment, bombs for ruling against Trump agenda (NPR)

Federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration this year are confronting a wave of threats, potentially compromising their personal safety and the independence of the judiciary.

The sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received a bomb threat earlier this month, and lower court judges who hit pause on some of President Trump's efforts to dismantle federal agencies and programs have been singled out on social media.

Republican lawmakers close to the president even have proposed impeachment proceedings against a few of those judges, who serve for life. Elon Musk, who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency making cuts to federal agencies, himself has repeatedly posted on social media about impeaching judges who delay or block parts of Trump's agenda.

Efforts to undermine the judiciary come at the same time the Trump administration has moved to fire lawyers inside the Justice Department and the Pentagon, penalize private law firms who represented clients Trump does not like, and to back away from participation in the activities of the American Bar Association.

Judge Richard Sullivan, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, said in his lifetime four federal judges have been killed in retaliation for their work on the bench.

"This is not hypothetical," Sullivan, who leads a Judicial Conference panel on security issues, told reporters in a news conference this week. The Judicial Conference is a representative body of federal judges that frames policies for courts.

"It's real. It's happened before. We have to be certain that it doesn't happen again," he said. The Federal Judges Association, a voluntary group of more than 1,000 judges across the nation, said the judiciary plays a "critical role in preserving democracy and a law-abiding society."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Discover how Bingham Group’s expertise drives results and

explore our experience here.

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