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- BG Reads 9.22.2023
BG Reads 9.22.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - September 22, 2023
September 22, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
🗳️ Council approves incentives for NXP Semiconductors’ $290M planned investment
➡️ A Texas border cities scramble to shelter thousands of newly-arrived migrants
✈️ 911 call shows bizarre circumstances of F-35 ejection
Read on!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
On this episode Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham welcomes Larry Holt, our newest consultant to the show. Larry has deep experience in Texas municipal and state economic development, and will assist in developing Bingham Group's practice in this area.
On this episode Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and firm Economic Development Consultant Larry Holt discuss NXP Semiconductor's incentive proposal before the city of Austin.
➡️ Check out our red lined City of Austin org chart. The changes reflect the many changes in city leadership since February 2023.
➡️ You can view those here: BG Blog: Tracking City of Austin Leadership Changes (Updated September 1, 2023).
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Council approves incentives for NXP Semiconductors’ $290M planned investment (Austin Monitor)
The city has agreed to its first major economic incentive package in six years, with just over $1 million for a variety of uses headed toward tech manufacturer NXP Semiconductors N.V.
That package will allow NXP, which has two major facilities in Austin, to qualify for additional federal incentives as the company plans to spend more than $290 million to make upgrades at its plants on Ed Bluestein Boulevard just east of U.S. Highway 183 and in Oak Hill just west of Escarpment Boulevard.
City Council unanimously approved the Chapter 380 agreement on Thursday after a public hearing that saw longtime NXP employees praising the company’s practices while community groups asked Council to delay the vote to allow more time to discuss and fine-tune NXP’s requirements as part of the package.
The long gap between incentive agreements for the city was caused by a number of factors, including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a change in philosophy by some recent Council members in favor of assistance for smaller businesses and middle-income job growth.
The last incentives were given to pharmaceutical giant Merck Corporation in 2017, with the company expected to grow its local workforce to about 600 people after receiving a mix of city and state assistance. Merck withdrew from that agreement in 2019 without ever receiving any city or state money… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Brodie Oaks redevelopment wins final approval (Austin Monitor)
City Council gave final approval Thursday to the redevelopment of the Brodie Oaks shopping center, which developers envision as a vibrant mixed-use center with retail space, restaurants, offices and residential towers, as well as green space and a hotel.
District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter was not on Council when they first approved the PUD. However, he has been supportive of the new development, which will be in his district. On Thursday, he said, “We’ve had a lot of conversations about this.” He said he had walked door-to-door in the closest neighborhood to find out what residents were thinking. He concluded that “by and large, almost unanimously people were very excited about this. … It’s going to be done in a very environmentally friendly” way… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Perspective:
In another era, the project's opponents would have very likely succeeded in either killing it or significantly watering it down –– fewer units, less commercial space, whatever. Times are different now, though. The anti-growth apparatus no longer has reliable allies on Council. - Jack Craver, The Austin Politics Newsletter (Consider subscribing, We do!)
Ed Latson named Opportunity Austin CEO after its split from Austin Chamber (Austin Business Journal)
For the last 10 years, Ed Latson has been at the nexus of business, community and politics as he's grown the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association into an advocacy powerhouse amid the region's manufacturing upturn.
That's why the lifelong Austinite called it "inspiring" to have a chance to continue to influence the future of the Central Texas economy as he becomes the first full-time CEO of Opportunity Austin. He starts the job Oct. 21, and ARMA will soon seek a successor.
"I feel like I'm a beneficiary of some amazing work that happened a couple of decades ago to start shaping the future of the region," Latson said. "I just want to pay it forward because I feel like we're at the beginning of something. We're not done yet. We have an opportunity to really make this one of the premier cities in the country."… (LINK FOR FULL STORY)
➡️ Note: The Austin Regional Manufacturers Association is a Bingham Group client.
And in other Austin Metro News:
➡️ 'I don't want to go back to the struggle': Austin child care providers brace for end of COVID aid (KUT) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
➡️ For Pearlstone Partners, $700 million in new investment is on tap for Austin market (Austin American-Statesman) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas border cities scramble to shelter thousands of newly-arrived migrants (Texas Tribune)
Thousands of migrants have crossed from Mexico to Eagle Pass and El Paso in the past few days, with both cities struggling to find shelter for the new arrivals as immigration officials process and release many of them into the border cities.
In Eagle Pass, Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr., signed an emergency declaration on Tuesday night to allow the city of about 30,000 to get state resources and funding to handle the number of migrants being released by immigration officials. He told The New York Times that on Wednesday as many as 2,500 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass.
“We need the extra help, the funding,” Salinas told the Times. “We are losing. Every day the bridge is closed we are losing money.”
In July federal agents encountered an average of 817 migrants each day in the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, according to government data… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Thousands of Venezuelans could be newly eligible for work permits in Texas amid border influx (Houston Chronicle)
Dailiris Valera and her husband fled Venezuela to escape economic and political instability, but they have been unable to work since arriving to the U.S. in May to seek asylum. Stuck in a deeply backlogged immigration system, the family is unlikely to get permits before the end of the year. Valera often worries how the couple will feed their three children. “If we had jobs then everything would be great,” said Valera, whose family bounced from San Antonio to New York before settling in Denver with a family friend.
“Imagine not having anything. Renting is expensive, and if we can’t pay then they’ll kick us out. What does one do?” This week brought a bit of renewed hope. The Biden administration announced it would offer temporary legal status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans — tens of thousands of them in Texas — who arrived in the country as of July 31. The change would make it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S.
“We’ve gone through so much,” Valera said, “but hopefully we can find something fast now.” The administration says the move is part of a broader effort to build a safe, orderly immigration system, and it comes at the urging of Democratic leaders in cities and states where Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans have bused tens of thousands of migrants. Republicans quickly blasted the announcement as incentivizing more crossings just as a rush of asylum seekers arriving at the border this week has overwhelmed shelters in San Antonio and El Paso and spurred U.S. Customs and Border Protection to close international bridges.
“When Biden tells migrants ‘do not come to the US’ and then creates a magnet like work permits, it undermines all deterrence,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. The Department of Defense announced it would send up to 800 new active-duty personnel to help free up border patrol agents. Venezuelans have represented the second largest share of those arriving at the border, with Border Patrol reporting encounters with 168,000 since last October. Some 243,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. before March 2021 already qualified for temporary status… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS]
911 call shows bizarre circumstances of F-35 ejection: ‘Not sure where the airplane is,’ pilot says (Associated Press)
A military pilot whose advanced fighter jet went temporarily missing over the weekend is heard repeatedly requesting an ambulance in a perplexing 911 call from the South Carolina home where he had parachuted to safety, according to an audio recording released Thursday to The Associated Press.
“We got a pilot in the house, and I guess he landed in my backyard, and we’re trying to see if we could get an ambulance to the house, please,” the resident said.
The pilot, who said he was 47, reported feeling “OK” after falling what he estimated was 2,000 feet. Only his back hurt, he said. The resident said the pilot looked fine.
“Ma’am, a military jet crashed. I’m the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling,” the pilot said. “I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash landed somewhere. I ejected.”
Later in the call, he made another plea for medical help.
“Ma’am, I’m a pilot in a military aircraft, and I ejected. So I just rode a parachute down to the ground. Can you please send an ambulance?” the pilot said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
OTHER NEWS:
➡️ Rupert Murdoch to step down as chair from Fox and News Corp. boards, hand reins to son (Politico) -> LINK TO FULL STORY
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