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BG Reads 3.5.2024

BG Reads 3.5.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - March 5, 2024

March 05, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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March 5, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Election day: What Travis County voters need to know

🟣 Progress towards a permanent Austin City Manager

🟣 Travis County commissioners prepare for a complicated budget season

Read on!

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

[BINGHAM GROUP]

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

[AUSTIN CITY HALL]

The Austin City Council meets this morning at 9AM for its Work Session. Of note, Council will go into Executive Session to review candidates to be Austin’s next City Manager.

Per Mayor Kirk Watson’s Council Message board update, there are 39 applicants for the position. The update also stated additional time was identified later this month and in early April for candidate interviews and a community townhall with final candidates.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Election day: What Travis County voters need to know (Community Impact)

Travis County residents can vote on a slew of national, statewide and local races March 5.Residents may cast their ballot at any polling location in the county in which they are registered to vote. A full list of Travis County polling locations is available here.All polling sites will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

County commissioners prepare for a complicated budget season (Austin Monitor)

Each year, the Travis County Planning and Budget Office presents its budget guidelines for the upcoming fiscal year to the Travis County Commissioners Court, furnishing the court with important data and forecasts while launching talks about further planning efforts.

On Tuesday, Jessica Rio, Planning and Budget Office county executive, predicted an encouraging economic outlook for Travis County in Fiscal Year 2025.

However, with American Rescue Plan Act funds due to run dry, unpredictable revenues and rising costs of living potentially loaded to ricochet in an unpredictable arc, the upcoming year is proving slippery on the spreadsheet.

In their projections, commissioners and county staff report they can depend only on “the rightest wrong number we can get.”

In her presentation, Rio remarked that favorable trends in population and employment growth, an unusually sturdy standing following the “roller coaster” of the Covid-19 pandemic and a radically low unemployment rate stand as a bulwark against any potential economic turbulence… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

‘Hardcore Republicans’ are voting in Travis County’s Democratic primary. Here’s why. (KUT)

One of the biggest races on the Travis County ballot this primary season will likely decide who is the next district attorney. On the Democratic side, incumbent José Garza faces challenger Jeremy Sylestine, an Austin-based attorney.

The race has been fraught the last couple of weeks, with the challenger outraising the incumbent and GOP interference in Travis County's Democratic primary. It's been messy and it's all coming to a head on Election Day. Let's take a look back at how we got here and what's next… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Will Central Texas semiconductor scene be rewarded with CHIPS Act funding? Experts say yes (Austin American-Statesman)

It remains to be seen whether Austin-area projects will benefit from legislation designed to boost the semiconductor industry, as the Commerce Department starts announcing as soon as this month which companies will be awarded funding.

Central Texas is among a handful of regions expected to see a boost from the CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed in 2022. The legislation made $52 billion available for companies that manufacture computer chips, billions more in tax credits to incentivize chip manufacturing, and tens of billions of dollars to fund scientific research and development of other U.S. technologies.

No projects in Texas have been included in the first handful of announcements made by the Commerce Department, but local industry leaders remain optimistic about the Austin area’s ability to compete with the hundreds of projects waiting to see if they will receive the remaining funding… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

SCOTUS temporarily blocks Texas immigration law, reversing 5th Circuit ruling (Texas Tribune)

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted a new state law on Monday evening allowing Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally from going into effect.

The nation's highest court stayed a decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that would have allowed police to enforce the law as soon as this Saturday. Last Saturday, the New Orleans-based appeals court reversed a lower court's ruling that had previously halted the new state law.

The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay until March 13 while the court considers whether it will allow the state to enforce Senate Bill 4.

The 5th Circuit ruling on March 2 came just a day after U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin blocked SB 4 from going into effect, saying the law “threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

US says Israel has agreed to the framework for a Gaza cease-fire. Hamas must now decide (Associated Press)

Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday, a day before talks to reach an agreement were to resume in Egypt. International mediators have been working for weeks to broker a deal to pause the fighting before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10. A deal would likely allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who aid officials worry are under threat of famine. The Israelis “have more or less accepted” the proposal, which includes the six-week cease-fire as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered vulnerable, which includes the sick, the wounded, the elderly and women, said the official.

“Right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House to brief reporters. Officials from Israel and from Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A senior Egyptian official said mediators Egypt and Qatar are expected to receive a response from Hamas during the Cairo talks scheduled to start Sunday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not publicly authorized to discuss the talks. There is increasing criticism over the hundreds of thousands struggling to survive in northern Gaza, which has borne the brunt of the conflict that began when the Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing around 250 hostages. U.S. military planes began the first airdrops of thousands of meals into Gaza, and the militaries of Jordan and Egypt said they also conducted airdrops. Aid groups say airdrops should be only a last resort and instead urge the opening of other crossings into Gaza and the removal of obstacles at the few that are open… (LINK TO FULL STORY)