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BG Reads 8.16.2024

BG Reads 8.16.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - August 16, 2024

August 16, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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www.binghamgp.com

August 16, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Builders can now construct homes on less land, as Austin’s new minimum lot size goes into effect (KUT)

🟣 Taxes are rising, as are charges for city services (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Central Health board considers improvements to reaching target communities (Austin Monitor)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🟣 [NEW] BG Podcast Ep. 264: Austin Politics Weekly Recap And What's Ahead

🟣 Updated City of Austin Org Chart (as of 7.2.2024)

LINK TO THIS WEEK’s CITY OF AUSTIN HEARINGS + AGENDA

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Builders can now construct homes on less land, as Austin’s new minimum lot size goes into effect (KUT)

A controversial rule that lowers the amount of land needed to build one house in Austin goes into effect Friday. Landowners wanting to build a home in some city neighborhoods will now need 1,800 square feet of land, about two-thirds less than the old requirement.

Council members voted on this change, coined HOME Phase 2, in May. Theoretically, a landowner with an 8,000-square-foot lot, which is close to the median lot size in the city, could split that up into four pieces of land, erecting one home on each.

By cutting the city’s long-standing minimum lot size by more than half, elected officials have said they hope it will be easier to build more homes in central neighborhoods. More homes in popular neighborhoods, they reason, could lower overall housing costs and provide current homeowners with the option to sell off a portion of their backyard… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Taxes are rising, as are charges for city services (Austin Monitor)

Money paid by city of Austin taxpayers and Austin residents who pay monthly bills for water and wastewater, electricity, trash and recycling collection (as well as a drainage utility fee and a clean community fee) will see their cost-of-living increase starting in October. That’s pretty much the case every year, and this year the city and its residents have all had to contend with inflation.

Looking at those fees, the biggest jump is in the drainage utility fee, which is increasing from an average of $12.17 per month to $13.38 per month, or nearly 10 percent. According to the city budget office, this calculation was based on the property of a residential customer with 3,100 square feet or 37 percent impervious cover.

Austin Energy will receive the smallest percentage increase of the utilities. According to their calculations, a residential customer using 860 kilowatt hours per month has paid $119.26 per month. That same customer will pay $121.96 per month starting with the new fiscal year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Central Health board considers improvements to reaching target communities (Austin Monitor)

Members of the Central Health Board of Managers turned their attention Wednesday to how well the organization is doing at finding those who need health care and other services in a number of areas throughout East Austin.

The discussion came during a managers’ meeting prior to the public hearing on Central Health’s next budget, which is scheduled for a vote next Wednesday.

Ivan Davila, senior director of marketing and communications, began a presentation to the board by sharing details of Central Health’s marketing and outreach efforts and the goal of connecting more vulnerable residents to services such as the Medical Access Program.

Davila said the team’s work is concentrated in five communities: Central East Austin, North Travis County, Dove Springs/Montopolis, Rundberg/St. John’s, and Colony Park/Manor.

In those areas, the team is most focused on reaching people with no internet access, communities of color, those involved in the criminal justice system, those experiencing homelessness, and county residents earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas sues Biden again to block federal protections for transgender workers (Texas Tribune)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to court on Thursday to press his case against the Biden administration’s workforce protections for transgender employees.

Texas’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Thursday against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, argued that the agency’s guidelines were unlawful and asked that the court permanently block them.

The EEOC’s guidance, released in April, seeks to clarify what constitutes harassment under federal law. It states that denying employees accommodations for their gender identity — such as by prohibiting an employee from using the bathroom of their gender identity or repeatedly and intentionally using a name and pronoun that is inconsistent with a person’s gender identity — is unlawful workplace harassment.

“Harassment, both in-person and online, remains a serious issue in America’s workplaces,” Charlotte Burrows, the agency’s chair, said at the time.

“The EEOC’s updated guidance on harassment is a comprehensive resource that brings together best practices for preventing and remedying harassment and clarifies recent developments in the law.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Harris unveils an economic plan focused on housing and grocery prices (NPR)

Vice President Harris is set to unveil an economic plan on Friday that will focus on the high cost of housing and groceries — top-of-mind expenses for voters pinched by years of rising prices.

In Raleigh, N.C., Harris will give the first major policy address of her campaign. It's a city where her campaign is highlighting innovative affordable housing developments — in a state that Democrats are trying to win the presidential race for the first time since 2008.

Polls have shown Biden has struggled to get credit for his efforts to lower prices and many voters continue to trust Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump more on the economy — but polls also show that voters are less critical of Harris on economic issues… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump says he’s ‘entitled to personal attacks’ as he hammers Harris on inflation with grocery props (Associated Press)

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he thinks he’s “entitled to personal attacks” on his Democratic rival, adding he’s “very angry” at Vice President Kamala Harris and questioning her intelligence.

Trump was asked during a news conference whether his campaign needs more discipline as he faces a Democratic ticket newly energized since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.

“As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” Trump said at his New Jersey golf club, where he invited reporters in his quest to saddle Harris with Biden’s unpopular economic record.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she’ll be a terrible president,” he added… (LINK TO FULL STORY)