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- BG Reads 9.19.2024
BG Reads 9.19.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - September 19, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
www.binghamgp.com
September 19, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Austin Council District 4 candidate forum tonight at 6:30PM
🟪 Fuentes airs budget concerns over move to keep Marshalling Yard shelter open indefinitely (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Cooling trend persists in Austin-area housing market (Austin American-Statesman)
🟪 Austin apartment landlords gather to discuss ‘state of the industry’ (KXAN)
🟪 Americans can now renew passports online (NPR)
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
🟪 We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.
🟪 Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🟪 The Austin Council has seven (6) regular meetings left in 2024.
Tonight @6:30 -> District 4 - September 19th
City of Austin Permitting and Development Center, Room 1405, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive, Austin 78752
District 2 - September 25th
Dove Springs Recreation Center, 5801 Ainez Drive, Austin 78744
District 10 - September 30th
Dell Jewish Community Campus, Epstein Family Community Hall, 7300 Hart Lane, Austin 78731
Mayor - October 3rd
Austin City Hall Council Chambers, 301 W. 2nd St. Austin 78701
District 6 - October 7th
Hope Presbyterian Church, 11512 Olson Drive, Austin 78750
📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 7 - Video (9.5.2024)
✅ All candidate forums will are scheduled from 6:30pm to 8pm.
✅ All forums will be streamed live and archived on ATXN.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Cooling trend persists in Austin-area housing market (Austin American-Statesman)
It has been a familiar refrain in the Central Texas housing market since mid-2022: There's good news for buyers who can afford to purchase a home.
However, the news might not be as great for sellers, some of whom are having to reduce prices as the market continues to cool, housing supply rises and prices ease in the fluctuating interest-rate environment.
That's the takeaway from the Austin Board of Realtors' latest monthly report for August and echoed by local industry experts and real estate agents.
In August, the number of homes for sale in the Austin-Round Rock region jumped by 15.4% compared with August 2023. The five-county region extends from Georgetown to San Marcos.
Across the area, 2,591 homes changed hands in August, 10.4% fewer than in August 2023, the board said.
Half of the houses that closed last month sold for more than $439,990, and half went for less, marking a 4.4% decrease in the median sales price, the board said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Fuentes airs budget concerns over move to keep Marshalling Yard shelter open indefinitely (Austin Monitor)
City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes has signaled her concerns with a resolution scheduled for next week’s meeting that could result in keeping a 300-bed emergency shelter open far longer than it was originally budgeted for.
The resolution directs the city manager to find the estimated $9 million it would cost to keep the Marshalling Yard Emergency Shelter open for another year, with the possibility of further extensions until a site can be found for a comparable emergency shelter facility. Located in District 3 near one of the borders of Fuentes’ District 2, the Marshalling Yard was originally intended as a short-term solution to provide emergency shelter and other resources while the city and partner groups continue to add permanent supportive housing units.
Council approved a budget amendment to extend the facility’s closing date until March 2025, with the city’s Homeless Strategy Office already taking steps to decrease intake there as well as at other emergency shelters that would eventually have to absorb hundreds of clients who have been living at the Marshalling Yard... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin apartment landlords gather to discuss ‘state of the industry’ (KXAN)
Leaders in the local rental market met at Austin Apartment Association’s 2024 “State of the Industry” meeting on Sept. 12; in a recap of the event, the association said that the “Central Texas rental housing market is at a critical turning point.”
The current story of Austin’s rental industry is one of booming construction slowly pushing down rents, as competition in the region continues to increase. Theron Patrick, an analyst with data broker ALN Apartment Data, presented data at the event and said that rents in the region fell by 7.5% year over year.
“We’re seeing more units come online in Austin than ever before, and this competition is creating downward pressure on rents,” Patrick said in the release. “This is good news for renters. With new supply not slowing down until at least 2026, we expect rents to remain competitive.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
UT Austin president gives State of the University address (KXAN)
The University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell delivered the annual State of the University address Wednesday afternoon.
He focused on how the university continues “to advance excellence and innovation and create the most comprehensive and impactful academic experience” for students.
The address came after an eventful 2023-24 academic year for the university. In late April, pro-Palestinian protests broke out across campus that ended in dozens of arrests.
Just this week, the university announced it had created a new unit dedicated to free speech on campus.
A new webpage provides ways students can protest while staying within the bounds of what the university finds acceptable.
Hartzell also touched on the topic of mental health and wellness. Within this past year, the university has launched what they call “TimelyCare.”
A 24-hour mental health counseling service, TimelyCare joined the launch of another program, “Longhorn Listens,” to help open the conversation around mental health to make all students feel safe and heard… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar: Rule update would bring clarity to taxing online marketplaces in Texas (Austin American-Statesman)
Technology has undergone a sea change in the past few decades, and Texas tax law has had to adapt to the innovations — including online marketplaces that process data to help people sell goods and services. When the Legislature imposed the sales tax on data processing services in 1987, the internet as we know it didn’t even exist.
Current tax law applies to online marketplaces just as it does to the traditional businesses within our communities, and my job is to collect taxes fairly. To help online marketplaces understand their responsibilities under the law, my office is proposing to update Comptroller Rule 3.330 regarding taxable data processing services.
The proposed update has been published in the Texas Register for public comment, and we may revise it based on feedback we receive. Starting with the basics, the proposed rule defines a taxable data processing service as the computerized entry, retrieval, search, compilation, manipulation, or storage of data or information. It also lists items that are taxed and excluded from taxation.
For example, the proposed rule excludes some data processing from taxation if it is ancillary to a nontaxable, related service and does not have a separate value. It identifies specific factors to consider when looking at whether a service is taxed as a data processing service, and it provides examples of services that are and are not taxable. I hope the detail in the proposed rule will resolve any confusion about the taxability of fees paid to online marketplaces by people using them to sell goods and services.
Many online marketplaces have already come into compliance and are appropriately collecting tax on their data processing fees. But other online marketplaces have expressed surprise when they’re audited by my office and discover the fees they charge the sellers are taxable, since sales tax is separately collected on the price of the item sold. The reality is there are two purchasers, two sales contracts and two taxable transactions.
The purchaser of goods or services through a marketplace pays sales tax on the goods or services purchased. And the marketplace seller, who is purchasing data processing services from the marketplace provider, pays sales tax on those services…🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Mayor John Whitmire's first State of the City address leans into the past over policy (Houston Chronicle)
In his first State of the City address on Tuesday, Mayor John Whitmire mostly stuck to the past, whether it be his accomplishments on his road to becoming Houston's mayor or the perceived failures of the past administration.
The mayor spent the first 30 minutes of his nearly 45-minute chat in front of more than 1,600 audience members at Hilton Americas taking questions about his time prior to being Houston mayor. Moderator William F. McKeon, the president and CEO of Texas Medical Center, flashed photos from the mayor’s childhood, his hometown of Hillsboro and some during his time as dean of the Texas Senate on the screen, at one point asking Whitmire to identify the shape of inkblots to prove the mayor was speaking off the cuff, before finally asking a question on city and county collaboration. Whitmire took questions about some of the biggest top-of-mind issues surrounding the changes has made in his eight months in office so far after the address.
His administration has said repeatedly it inherited a bevy of issues when he took over this past January. Whitmire's team made a gamut of changes to fix some of those issues. The mayor made due on his promise to the fire union and settled the more than $1.5 billion deal, and he proposed and passed a new budget that included no tax hikes for city residents or extra fees.
Yet as financial concerns rise, the mayor in his Tuesday talk did not address topics surrounding the impact of his changes – like how his administration will pay the $1.5 billion fire settlement or plans to potentially raise taxes to offset damages incurred from Hurricane Beryl, among others. One upcoming change he teased out in his talk and elaborated on to reporters after the event was a plan to open navigation centers around the city with Housing Director Mike Nichols and homeland security director Larry Satterwhite to help get the city’s unsheltered population off the streets. He also reiterated that he wasn’t going to raise taxes until his administration had done the best it could to eliminate waste, duplication and corruption… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
On-campus nuclear reactor approved for university in Texas (Dallas Morning News)
Federal nuclear power regulators have given the go-ahead for the first research nuclear reactor in more than 40 years, and it’s here in Texas. Abilene Christian University will be home to the advanced nuclear reactor, which the university’s NEXT Lab and Abilene-based nuclear company Natura Resources will build on campus.
The permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a milestone in the research and development of smaller-scale nuclear reactors in Texas and could become the state’s first new nuclear reactor since the Comanche Peak power plant’s second unit was licensed to operate in 1993. The NEXT Lab reactor could generate enough energy to power the equivalent of only about 250 homes.
However, it will create a testing ground for a type of reactor that its developers believe can be scaled to larger utility-scale reactors. It will be housed in the university’s Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center, which was completed in August 2023.
“With the NRC’s issuance of the construction permit, we are one step closer to making that a reality. The performance-driven approach of Natura Resources to advanced reactor deployment has quickly moved them from a relative unknown to a leader in the upstart advanced reactor industry,” said Phil Schubert, university president. Federal inspectors will monitor the construction of the reactor, which will not produce electricity until ACU obtains additional federal approval to fuel the reactor with uranium.
“This is the first research reactor project we’ve approved for construction in decades, and the staff successfully worked with ACU to resolve several technical issues with this novel design,” Andrea Veil, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a news release. Molten salt will be used to cool the reactor, which can reach extreme temperatures. Heat that radiates through the molten salt can then be used to create electricity. While this method of cooling has existed for more than 50 years, it is not widely used. Legacy reactors generally rely on water to cool fuel rods… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
Forget tedious paper applications, Americans can now renew passports online (NPR)
Americans can now renew their passports online, bypassing a cumbersome mail-in paper application process that often caused delays.
The State Department announced Wednesday that its online renewal system is now fully operational, after testing in pilot programs, and available to adult passport holders whose passport has expired within the past five years or will expire in the coming year.
It is not available for the renewal of children's passports, for first-time passport applicants for renewal applicants who live outside the United States or for expedited applications.
"By offering this online alternative to the traditional paper application process, the Department is embracing digital transformation to offer the most efficient and convenient passport renewal experience possible," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How the Trump campaign ran with rumors about pet-eating migrants—after being told they weren’t true (Wall Street Journal)
City Manager Bryan Heck fielded an unusual question at City Hall on the morning of Sept. 9, from a staff member of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The staffer called to ask if there was any truth to bizarre rumors about Haitian immigrants and pets in Springfield. “He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled Heck. “
I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” By then, Vance had already posted about the rumors to his 1.9 million followers on X. Yet he kept the post up, and repeated an even more insistent version of the claim the next morning. That night, former President Donald Trump stood on a Philadelphia debate stage and shot the rumor into the stratosphere. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said to 67 million viewers. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating, the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in this country.”
In an instant, the everyday struggles of a typical American city grappling with an influx of immigrants were transformed into a bombshell political message laser targeted at voters distressed by immigration. It was the culmination of a spectacular collision of forces that thrust Springfield into the heart of the U.S. presidential election.
Over the summer, outside neo-Nazi groups—which specialize in exploiting local controversy to foment outrage about migrants—had seized on a local controversy and fanned the narrative of pet-eating Haitians. Then the Trump campaign blasted those rumors to the world—and kept pushing them even after they were exposed as lies.
The Trump campaign continues to run hard at the controversy. Trump last Friday said he planned “large deportations” from Springfield—whose Haitian community is overwhelmingly in the country legally. Trump campaign surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy plans to host a town hall in Springfield this Thursday.
Vance said on Tuesday that Trump would like to visit Springfield, too, at some point. Attempts to contain the damage in Springfield were quickly overwhelmed despite city leaders’ racing from meeting to meeting trying to stem the tide. The Ohio state police were called in to protect local children as they returned to school. A security tower with cameras was erected outside City Hall.
Thirty-six bomb threats had been logged as of Tuesday evening… 🟪
_________________________
We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.
Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.
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