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BG Reads 8.19.2024

BG Reads 8.19.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - August 19, 2024

August 19, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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August 19, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Council formally authorizes November election with 13 proposed charter amendments (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Importance of Austin ISD board VATRE vote put into perspective (CBS Austin)

🟣 Amazon’s troubled drone delivery program faces latest challenge in Texas: Annoyed residents (CNBC)

🟣 These are the key Texas Democrats to watch at the DNC in Chicago (Houston Chronicle)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🟣 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]

Council formally authorizes November election with 13 proposed charter amendments (Austin Monitor)

City of Austin voters will face a loaded ballot in November, with 13 charter amendments to be decided as well as a full slate of political races to elect a mayor and five City Council members.

City Council last week ordered a Nov. 5 general election, which will include a special election for the proposed amendments to the city charter. Travis County, the Austin Independent School District and other nearby jurisdictions will also have ballot items for voters to decide in addition to the presidential election.

What’s not on the city ballot was a controversial proposal to increase the number of signatures required for voter-initiated ordinances. That proposal, widely opposed by grassroots activists, failed to gain a motion when Council finalized the propositions in July.

In addition to the mayor’s race, voters will choose Council members in Districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10. Districts 7 and 10 are open seats, with winning candidates succeeding outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool and Council Member Alison Alter.

The proposed charter amendments, starting with the letter C, will appear on the ballot as follows… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Importance of Austin ISD board VATRE vote put into perspective (CBS Austin)

A big vote on Monday could decide the future of schools within the Austin Independent School District.

Members of the Austin ISD Board are set to meet and vote on approval of a Voter Tax Rate Election – or VATRE. If it passes a vote on Monday, it would then head to the ballot this November for Austin voters.

Put simply, a VATRE could reduce the Austin ISD deficit from $119 million to $78 million, which is why Education Austin President Ken Zarafis says it’s critical this vote passes.

“It's absolutely essential to the budget and to the future of the district,” said Zarafis. “With the state not funding public education, they've put us in a position where we must go to VATRE to increase resources for our kids.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin City Council’s lone 'no' vote on the budget calls it 'fiscal irresponsibility' (WFAA)

The Austin City Council just approved and adopted its largest budget ever at $5.9 billion.

For context, the city of Dallas’ proposed budget is $4.97 billion. Despite its budget being a billion dollars less than Austin's Dallas has nearly 350,000 more residents.

Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly was the only person to vote against the budget.

Kelly says $5.9 billion is a glaring example of fiscal irresponsibility at a time when residents are struggling.

“I hear every day from constituents who tell me that they can barely afford to buy groceries at this time and that an additional tax burden on them would be problematic,” the District 6 Council Member told us on Inside Texas Politics…

(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Amazon’s troubled drone delivery program faces latest challenge in Texas: Annoyed residents (CNBC)

College Station, located about 100 miles northwest of Houston, has been the main testing ground for Prime Air, as Amazon tries to show it can ferry packages by unmanned aircraft to residents’ homes in under an hour. Lockeford, California, south of Sacramento, was supposed to be another test market, but Amazon shuttered its operation there in April. The company is seeking approval from regulators to start deliveries in Tolleson, Arizona, west of Phoenix.

As Amazon prepares to scale up Prime Air and expand it to more areas, it’s encountering another reason why that won’t be so easy. In a July letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, College Station Mayor John Nichols wrote that residents in his city, home to Texas A&M University, have grown tired of the drones loudly buzzing near their homes.

“Since locating in College Station, residents in neighborhoods adjacent to Prime Air’s facility have expressed concern to the City Council regarding drone noise levels, particularly during take-off and landing, as well as in some delivery operations,” Nichols wrote.

Nichols’ letter followed a proposal from Amazon to the FAA to allow the company to increase deliveries to 469 flights per day, up from its current level of 200 flights per day. Amazon is asking for the ability to operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., rather than being limited to daylight hours as the program is today, and to expand its delivery area to up to 174 square miles surrounding the company’s drone port, up from its current operating range of 44 square miles… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

These are the key Texas Democrats to watch at the DNC in Chicago (Houston Chronicle)

Texas doesn't have any statewide Democrats or obvious future presidential contenders, but that doesn’t mean Texans won’t play a key role in and around the Democratic National Convention, which starts on Monday in Chicago. While primetime speeches get most of the attention during the four-day event, just as important for the more than 50,000 attendees is what is happening off that stage.

“The movers and shakers in the party will all be at the national convention,” said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. “What happens in the formal sessions is only half the story.”

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar from El Paso clearly has a great line of communication to the White House. When Joe Biden was still on the ticket, he tapped Escobar to be one of his national campaign co-chairs — a key advisory role to help guide the national message. Harris has since asked Escobar to stay on. Escobar and U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia in 2018 became the first Latinas ever elected to Congress from Texas.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett has become an in-demand speaker for the Democratic Party, and not just on Capitol Hill. Case in point: Crockett was in Atlanta earlier this month leading a counter-event to former President Donald Trump, who was campaigning just miles away. And it didn’t take long for her to show why she is firing up Democrats.

“Let me tell you, November will forever be known as ‘Roe-vember,’ because we are coming for them,” Crockett said in reference to the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade, which Trump's three appointed justices helped decide. It’s not just that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been a regular at the White House and has helped get both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to Houston. She’s also built up a personal relationship with Harris in which the vice president called her at a treatment facility to check in on her when she was being treated for depression. More recently, Hidalgo greeted Harris during her visit to Houston earlier this month… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Harris County is launching a modified guaranteed income program following Paxton's legal challenge (Houston Chronicle)

Harris County will relaunch its guaranteed income initiative with added restrictions following Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawsuit challenging the legality of the Uplift Harris program. Though the Uplift Harris legal battle is still making its way through the courts, the clock is running out to move forward with the $20.5 million program because it's funded by federal pandemic recovery dollars that must be allocated by the end of the year.

Around 1,900 participants were selected earlier this year to receive $500 monthly payments for 18 months, following a similar guaranteed income model that has been used around the country. Just as Harris County households were set to receive the first payment, Paxton filed a lawsuit that put the program on hold, pending litigation. "There is no such thing as free money — especially in Texas," Paxton’s office wrote in the petition, describing Uplift Harris as a "socialist experiment by (Harris County Judge) Lina Hidalgo."

Though the Texas Supreme Court has not ruled on the program, in June it strongly signaled the belief that the initiative violates the Texas Constitution. "Although we make no definitive statement about the merits, the state has raised serious doubt about the constitutionality of the Uplift Harris program, and this potential violation of the Texas Constitution could not be remedied or undone if payments were to commence while the underlying appeal proceeds," Justice Jimmy Blacklock, a Republican who is running for reelection this year, wrote in a 12-page opinion that kept the program on hold.

Paxton's office has argued the program violates a state law prohibiting the gift of public funds to any individual, does not serve a public purpose and lacks sufficient controls on how the funding can be spent. The county has defended the initiative, arguing that it will alleviate poverty and the participants were selected by a common method of distributing public funds, a lottery system with eligibility requirements.

San Antonio and Austin have previously implemented similar programs without facing legal challenges from the state. Under the new plan approved Thursday, the households that were already awaiting payment will receive pre-loaded cards that restrict spending to approved categories. "That's not the spirit of a guaranteed income program," Hidalgo said.

"That's why this is Uplift Harris 2.0, not Uplift Harris. But it is a way to keep our promises to these families and we do think it will have a benefit and something that we can study." If the state challenges the modified program, the county plans to reallocate the funding to existing programs that support people living in poverty, Hidalgo said... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Protesters paused to consider opposing Harris at the DNC. They decided on full steam ahead. (Politico)

There was a moment after Vice President Kamala Harris was tapped to run for president, when pro-Palestinian activists prepping massive demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention paused to rethink their approach. The main organization corralling more than 200 groups to protest at the convention, March on the DNC 2024, met for about half an hour the day Harris announced her candidacy.

The meeting was to consider whether to move forward with the same confrontational approach they had aimed at President Joe Biden, who they dubbed “Genocide Joe” for his policies on Israel. Harris, despite being part of the Biden administration, was seen by some as being more sympathetic to the pro-Palestinian cause and made a forceful case for a cease-fire deal after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netantyahu.

“We all came to a consensus that it’s not going to make a difference, that [Harris] represents this administration,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “We’re going to stay full steam ahead.” And he noted, his organization referred to Harris as “Killer Kamala” even before she topped the ticket and continues to push for harsher restrictions on the Israeli government, like an arms embargo — something that a top Harris adviser has said she doesn’t support. There are at least six major protests planned on the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.

The biggest is planned for the first day, Monday, when “tens of thousands” are expected to march just blocks from the United Center, where Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will give their acceptance speeches. The “family-friendly march” is organized under a pro-Palestinian umbrella coalition that includes groups devoted to a variety of causes. Organizers are busing in protesters from Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin, and activists are also coming in from New York and California, too.

The switch-up at the top of the Democratic ticket prompted a conversation in the pro-Palestinian movement about its tactics. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago was widely perceived to be its biggest stage upon which to argue that the U.S. should change its policies toward Israel. But Harris, who called for a cease-fire earlier than some others in the party, made some activists wonder about taking a softer approach with the new Democratic nominee… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

JB Pritzker is ready to party at a convention he made happen (New York Times)

The request for a bid for the Democratic National Convention had been sitting unanswered in the office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago for two to three weeks in the summer of 2021 when Anne Caprara, the chief of staff to Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, burst into the governor’s office with a Politico article saying Chicago was being courted.

“Why wouldn’t Chicago do this?” Mr. Pritzker asked, according to his senior aides. Three eventful years later, Chicago has a new mayor, the Democratic Party has a new standard-bearer, and the city is completing final preparations for the convention. Through it all, Mr. Pritzker has been the constant, the anchor to which the city’s effort has been tied.

In the days before the curtain is raised, the governor has been out and about in his hometown — in a tavern across from Wrigley Field chatting with the MSNBC host Jen Psaki, at Wrigley talking to convention volunteers, at a thank-you luncheon at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall on Saturday. On Sunday, he is set to appear at a Chicago taping of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

In short, the city might be the mayor’s, but the party this week will be the governor’s. “I think his role can’t be overstated,” said State Representative Kam Buckner, an ally in the legislature and a rising star in Chicago politics.

“The world is watching, and Governor Pritzker is acutely aware of that.” The political stakes of the convention changed for Mr. Pritzker after President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the ticket. After the Republican convention in July, when former President Donald J. Trump appeared poised to thwart Mr. Biden’s re-election, the Chicago gathering was expected to be as much a tryout for 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls as a send-off for Mr. Biden.

With a deep Democratic bench jockeying for the spotlight, Mr. Pritzker was to have home-field advantage to showcase his long list of progressive achievements in Illinois, including enshrining abortion rights and banning assault weapons, and to flaunt his political skills… (LINK TO FULL STORY)