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BG Reads 4.5.2024

BG Reads 4.5.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - April 5, 2024

April 05, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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April 5, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Austin hires T.C. Broadnax as city manager with $470K salary

🟣 Samsung doubles down on Texas as U.S. Chip epicenter

🟣 Trump and wealthy Texas Republicans want to oust House Speaker Phelan. David Covey is their man

🟣 California businesses take on Gavin Newsom over tax hikes

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

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

[AUSTIN CITY HALL]

✅ Final Draft of City Manager Contract Link

✅ We’ve received word that Brie Franco, the city of Austin’s Intergovernmental Relations Officer, has retired from the city. She received a Distinguished Service Award at yesterday’s Council meeting. This is important because role serves as the focal point in developing and steering the City of Austin’s State Legislative and Federal Agendas, including hiring and managing the city’s contract lobby teams.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin hires T.C. Broadnax as city manager with $470K salary (KUT)

T.C. Broadnax will be making $82,000 more than his predecessor when he starts his job as Austin’s city manager next month.

City Council on Thursday approved an employment agreement with a base salary of $470,000. Broadnax will also receive an array of fringe benefits, including a $5,000 per month housing allowance for six months to offset costs of a temporary residence, relocation and moving assistance; a cellphone stipend; and an “executive allowance.”

The salary is about $50,000 more than Broadnax was making as city manager in Dallas. Before he was fired in 2023, Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk was making $388,000 annually.

“Austin is a vibrant city with immense potential, and I am committed to working tirelessly alongside our dedicated team to ensure its continued growth and prosperity,” Broadnax said.

“Together, we will navigate challenges, seize opportunities and build a resilient and inclusive future for all residents. I look forward to serving the people of Austin with a collaborative, transparent, inclusive and equitable approach.”

Broadnax was informally offered the job last week following a town hall meeting with the community and an interview with the mayor and City Council. He beat Sara Hensley, the Denton city manager and former Austin assistant city manager, for the role.

The city manager is the highest-ranking employee at City Hall. Broadnax will be responsible for hiring and firing department heads, preparing the budget and serving as an objective adviser to Council… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Samsung doubles down on Texas as U.S. Chip epicenter (Wall Street Journal)

Samsung Electronics plans to more than double its total semiconductor investment in Texas to roughly $44 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a significant breakthrough in the U.S.’s quest to make more of the world’s cutting-edge chips.

The South Korean company’s new spending will be concentrated in Taylor, Texas, where Samsung is building a semiconductor hub and has other nearby existing operations, the people said. The additions include a new chip-making factory, and a facility for advanced packaging and research and development.

Samsung is one of just three firms, along with Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, capable of producing advanced logic semiconductors vital to artificial intelligence and national defense. These companies sit at the heart of the Biden administration’s push to strengthen the U.S.’s chip-making capabilities, as Washington simultaneously seeks to undercut Beijing’s tech advances.

To help finance the broader Texas expansion, Samsung is expected to receive billions of dollars in subsidies from the U.S. Chips Act, the people said. Talks with the Commerce Department remain ongoing, though Samsung is expected to receive one of the largest payouts given to a single company.

An event to announce Samsung’s broadened investments is expected to be held on April 15 in Taylor, according to the people familiar with the matter. Samsung declined to comment. The Commerce Department declined to comment, saying that it is unable to discuss any specific company projects.

Samsung’s additional investments add to the $17 billion that the company had previously committed more than two years ago to Taylor, located just outside of Austin, for a cutting-edge chip-making plant… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

New federal cash paves way for East Austin's 'wishbone' bridge over Lady Bird Lake (KUT)

Facing a steep climb in costs for a long-planned pedestrian bridge on the eastern edge of Austin's most popular trail, the city has finally found a path forward with a $4 million cash infusion from the federal government.

The new money will close a budget shortfall and allow the city to start contracting builders for the $25 million project on the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail.

The unique, three-pronged bridge will connect Longhorn Shores, Canterbury Park and an unnamed peninsula in Lady Bird Lake. The wishbone-shaped span — the first of its kind in Austin — will have a 76-foot-wide plaza at its center with benches, bike racks, ornamental trees and shade structures.

The plaza will feature public artwork by Houston artist Dixie Friend Gay, known for her installations at places like George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Sam Houston State University and the Port of Miami.

As part of the project, a 6-foot-wide pedestrian tunnel under Pleasant Valley Road will be replaced with a more spacious 30-foot-wide tunnel with a 16-foot-wide sidewalk, better lighting and a higher, arched ceiling… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin kickstarts code changes to crack down on illegal parking in bike lanes (KXAN)

On Thursday, Austin City Council approved beginning the process to help crack down on drivers parking in city bike lanes.

Council greenlit initiating a code amendment change process that’ll come back to council Oct. 24 for full consideration. The resolution is designed to restrict parking in bike lanes across the city, with a six-month grace period planned where the city will issue warnings and education information before citations roll out.

The only exceptions to the code change would be on neighborhood bikeways, defined as “low-speed and low-volume streets where vehicles are not separated from cyclists,” per city documents... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Leander terminates incentives agreement for delayed lagoon project, dealing big blow to developer (Austin Business Journal)

After a key construction deadline came and went in January, the clock has been ticking on the ambitious billion-dollar Leander Springs project northwest of Austin. Now, the city has informed the developer that it is terminating a $22 million incentives agreement approved four years ago to help the plan come to fruition.

The move strikes a massive blow to Austin-based iLand Development Group, which has yet to make progress on the ambitious 78-acre project in Leander. It is set to be anchored by a 4-acre lagoon, plus up to 1,600 multifamily units, a hotel and more than 1 million square feet of commercial space about a 35-minute drive from downtown Austin.

In a March 18 letter, which was obtained by the Austin Business Journal, Leander economic development director Randall Malik notified Leander Springs LLC, which is controlled by iLand, that it was terminating the Chapter 380 incentives agreement after the company failed to commence construction on the initial phase of the development by Dec. 31… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS]

Mayor welcomes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to New York with offer to sleep at migrant shelter (Dallas Morning News)

Mayor Eric Adams offered a sarcastic helping hand to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during his New York City stay, saying Thursday that the Republican could sleep in a migrant shelter “so he can see what he has created.”

Abbott, who has helped feed the migrant crisis in the city through a policy of bussing hundreds from Texas since 2022, was expected to be in New York to deliver the keynote address at Thursday night’s 2024 Gala for the state Republican Party. His sojourn to the Big Apple is widely viewed as a window into the GOP’s strategic thinking as the presidential contest and national congressional races heat up.

Asked about the governor’s visit, Adams suggested Abbott lodge in one of the many Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, or HERRCs, that the city has set up to accommodate the more than 180,000 migrants who’ve flooded in during Adams’ term in City Hall... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump and wealthy Texas Republicans want to oust House Speaker Phelan. David Covey is their man (Houston Chronicle)

When David Covey decided to run against House Speaker Dade Phelan last summer, he called his friend and colleague, Waller County GOP Chair David Luther, who told him it was a terrible idea. Covey and Luther had worked together on the Texas GOP’s executive committee, and Luther was honest. Running against Phelan — a five-term representative and prominent businessman in his Beaumont-area House district — was a bad political move, he remembers telling him, even though he believed Covey could make a good representative.

But Covey, a 34-year-old oil and gas consultant and former policy adviser to a far-right state senator, saw the race as a way back to statewide politics, Luther said. Phelan was vulnerable in a way he had never been before, facing fierce criticism from fellow Republicans for his chamber’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, and this could be the only real chance to unseat him in an otherwise deep-red district.

“It’s the perfect time for him to make this move," Luther said. "He had the support of the company that he worked for. … He has a young family. I don’t fault him for taking this leap.”

Covey sent shockwaves across the state when he bested Phelan in the three-candidate March primary, forcing the speaker into a runoff election set for May 28 and positioning Phelan to become the first House speaker to lose his seat in more than 50 years. The high-dollar, much-watched and often nasty contest is widely viewed as a referendum on Phelan, who has faced attacks from his party’s right flank for more than a year. The race has garnered national attention, and even former President Donald Trump has weighed in.

While Covey’s supporters have sometimes mentioned his experience as the Orange County GOP chairman or fire commissioner, his main appeal is simple:

He’s not Phelan.

Covey has lived in Texas his entire life, he said, and for the last 28 years has been in Orange, the easternmost city in the state that borders Louisiana. At work, he advises oil refineries on fluid distribution; at home, he showcases his family life in YouTube videos, offering affordable date night tips and parenting advice with his wife, Esther. He said his conservative beliefs stem from his Christian faith and “the ideals on which our nation was founded — freedom, liberty and personal responsibility.”

Growing up in a family of 10, Covey said he and his siblings tagged along with his parents to local conventions. Now, politics is a bit of a family affair: One of Covey’s seven siblings, Jonathan Covey, works as the director of policy for Texas Values, an influential right-wing nonprofit that lobbies the Legislature to “preserve and advance a culture of family values in the state of Texas.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATION/WORLD NEWS]

Biden tells Israel’s Netanyahu future US support for war depends on new steps to protect civilians (Associated Press)

President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

Biden and Netanyahu ‘s roughly 30-minute call just days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza added a new layer of complication to the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship. Biden’s message marks a sharp change in his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts, with the U.S. leader for the first time threatening to rethink his backing if Israel doesn’t change its tactics and allow much more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The White House would not specify what could change about U.S. policy, but it could include altering military sales to Israel and America’s diplomatic backup on the world stage… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

California businesses take on Gavin Newsom over tax hikes (Wall Street Journal)

A coalition of California companies is going to war with Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democratic allies over taxes it says have grown out of control in the Golden State.

The businesses have gathered enough signatures to put a measure on November’s ballot that would require two-thirds of voters to approve most local tax increases and roll back some recently enacted ones. If passed, it would be one of the most significant changes to the way California funds its government since 1978’s Proposition 13, a voter-approved law that severely limited property tax increases.

Backers say it is necessary to stop continued tax hikes that are making it too expensive to operate in California and pushing companies to leave the state. Real estate businesses in Southern California are among the biggest funders, according to state campaign finance records, partly in response to a surcharge on luxury home sales that Los Angeles voters passed in 2022.

Newsom, local officials and labor unions say the proposal would decimate funding for basic services such as trash collection and firefighting and would make budgeting decisions near-impossible.

The companies spent some $16 million to gather signatures to put their proposal before voters and are gearing up for a fight political analysts say could draw tens of millions of dollars in advertising by both sides… (LINK TO FULL STORY)