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September 29, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

💵  Austin City Council creates another guaranteed income program

⚖️  With no opposition in the room, a rural Texas county makes traveling for an abortion on its roads illegal

🔋  U.S. races to fortify power grid against extreme weather

Read on!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🆕   BG Podcast Ep. 219:

• On this episode the Bingham Group (CEO A.J. Bingham, Associate Hannah Garcia, and firm Economic Development Consultant Larry Holt) wrap up the week of September 18th in Austin politics.

• The BG Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

➡️ 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]

Austin City Council creates another guaranteed income program (KXAN)

The guaranteed income pilot is put on by UpTogether, a national nonprofit that worked with 10 community-based partners to raise more than $500,000 of additional funds for the program.

Originally, the City of Austin allocated $1.1 million of taxpayer dollars to support 85 individuals facing extreme financial hardship. The extra allocation of philanthropic funds allowed for 50 more participants.

The pilot program was such a success that Austin City Council allocated $1.3 million within its new budget to pay for another guaranteed income program…

(LINK TO FULL STORY)

The city says shelter is coming for homeless Austinites. Nonprofits would like a word. (KUT)

For years, Austin didn't focus on finding shelter for people living outdoors. Instead, the city prioritized longer term solutions, like getting people into apartments.

That philosophy at City Hall has changed.

Under Mayor Kirk Watson, the city opened a 300-bed shelter during the summer's record-breaking heat, and it aims to open more in the coming months. But people serving unhoused Austinites say they haven't been clued in on many decisions — and they wonder what’s coming next… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin hopes to generate nearly $400 million with its new hotel tax plan (KVUE):

Staying at a hotel in Austin could cost a bit more in the near future. 

City council members signed off on a plan to create a Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID), which would partner with Austin hotels to implement a 2% fee on overall stays.

The 10-year deal could generate up to $390 million in revenue as a result. District 5 Councilmember Ryan Alter said the goal is to use roughly $75 million of that for critical needs throughout the city, such as tackling homelessness. 

"Funds from this TPID will be used to spur tourism, but indirectly, it will offset some of our costs," Alter said.

The idea was first proposed in 2020. An agreement finally landed after city leaders raised concerns about where revenue would come from once the Austin Convention Center begins construction in 2025… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin’s sole federal district judge may be the most overburdened in America (Austin Chronicle)

Federal district judges become suddenly very important when decisions with nationwide implications are in their hands. Say, when they decide to suspend the Food & Drug Administration approval of abortion pills, as an Amarillo district judge did this April. Or when they decide that those who help a pregnant person leave the state for an abortion cannot be prosecuted for rendering that assistance, as Austin District Judge Robert Pitman ruled two months earlier.

But those headline-worthy cases represent a tiny sliver of a district judge's work. For Pitman, the abortion travel case was one of more than 1,000 he'll be expected to hear in 2023. If that sounds absurd, that's because it is. Following Judge Lee Yeakel's retirement on May 1 this year, Pitman may be the most overburdened federal judge in U.S. history… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

With no opposition in the room, a rural Texas county makes traveling for an abortion on its roads illegal (Texas Tribune)

Commissioners in this rural Texas county that borders New Mexico on Thursday gave their unanimous blessing to a legally dubious policy that effectively outlaws travel on its local roads to seek an abortion.

The five-member panel in Cochran County, which sits about an hour west of Lubbock, agreed with Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the “sanctuary cities” initiative, who said the ordinance was needed to finish the work started in the state’s near-total ban, often referred to as Senate Bill 8.

“This ordinance would close some of the loopholes that exist in this fight,” Dickson said. “It’s saying the roads, and the airport, could not be used for abortion trafficking into New Mexico.”

County Commissioner Eric Silhan introduced the ordinance to the county’s governing body, saying it’s a way to stand for “the people who can’t speak for themselves.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Mayor Turner tells Houston he has 'given you my best' in his final 'State of the City' speech (Houston Chronicle)

Mayor Sylvester Turner sought to celebrate his legacy as a lasting and winning one Wednesday, highlighting his efforts to reform the city’s pension systems, reduce homelessness and weather seven federally declared disasters, including Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic. Turner delivered his final “State of the City” address at the city-owned Hilton Americas hotel, in front of more than 1,500 people.

The speech offered Turner an opportunity to define his legacy for himself, and to say goodbye to city stakeholders and workers, whom he recognized for making his administration’s achievements possible. Turner faces term limits and will leave office in December. “Let me just be clear: I am not anxious to leave. And if I could run again, I would. But a word of advice for those who seek to follow me: Be careful of what you promise. Be careful on how you criticize, because you haven’t looked under the hood,” Turner said. “What I can say to Houstonians: I have given you my best. And I am proud of the city I shall pass forward.”

Perhaps most notably, Turner forcefully argued he would hand off the city in better financial shape than he inherited, among criticism by former Mayor Annise Parker and several mayoral contenders that the city will face dire budget gaps in the next administration. Turner cited two figures: The next mayor will find a $420 million surplus in his or her first budget cycle, after Turner closed a $160 million budget hole in 2016. And the city’s pension system is down from $8.2 billion to $2.2 billion. The mayor cited that success from the landmark reforms he shepherded through the Texas Legislature in his first term.

The budget surplus is largely thanks to $1 billion in federal recovery funds Houston received during the pandemic, which Turner has mostly used to cover city expenses while driving up its reserve account. The money must be obligated by the end of next year, and the Finance Department has offered a wide range of figures for potential deficits once it runs out. That forecast included a worst-case scenario of $244 million in 2026. Turner also hailed his administration’s efforts on reducing homelessness, using a strategy of decommissioning tent camps and offering those residents permanent supportive housing. Other cities have sought information about how to replicate the approach… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Other Texas News:

Gov. Abbott to push for border security legislation in upcoming special session amid migrant surge (CBS Austin) -> LINK TO FULL STORY

Rep. John Smithee emerges as House hero among Paxton supporters, floated for speaker (Texas Tribune) -> LINK TO FULL STORY

[US/WORLD NEWS]

U.S. races to fortify power grid against extreme weather (The Wall Street Journal)

A gusher of cash is starting to pour out of Washington to carry out the Biden administration’s plan to strengthen the U.S. power grid and make it more resilient to outages and extreme weather.

The Energy Department on Thursday announced a new round of grants to tribes, territories and 11 states including Arizona, Florida and West Virginia as part of a $2.3 billion program designed to advance a key piece of the White House’s clean-energy drive. It is a fraction of the amount the government plans to spend on the grid in coming years.

The administration sees strengthening the grid as crucial to getting Americans to adopt greener alternatives such as electric vehicles that rely on the network, especially as harsher weather conditions from global warming make utilities more vulnerable. Increasing capacity also would help transmit the growing amount of wind and solar energy the government is encouraging as part of a shift away from coal and natural gas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Los Angeles city and county to spend billions to help homeless people under lawsuit settlement (Associated Press)

Los Angeles County and city will spend billions of dollars to provide more housing and support services for homeless people under a lawsuit settlement approved Thursday by a federal judge.

The county ends more than two years of court battles over LA’s response to the homelessness crisis by agreeing to provide an additional 3,000 beds by the end of 2026 for people with mental health and drug abuse issues.

It was the last piece in a series of commitments that were hammered out after a lawsuit was brought in 2020 by the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition that includes businesses, residents, landlords, homeless people and others who alleged that inaction by both the city and county created a dangerous environment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Japanese scientists race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab (NPR)

Katsuhiko Hayashi pulls a clear plastic dish from an incubator and slides it under a microscope.

"You really want to see the actual cells, right?" Hayashi asks as he motions toward the microscope.

Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at Osaka University in Japan, is a pioneer in one of the most exciting — and controversial — fields of biomedical research: in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG.

The goal of IVG is to make unlimited supplies of what Hayashi calls "artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body. That could let anyone — older, infertile, single, gay, trans — have their own genetically related babies. Besides the technical challenges that remain to be overcome, there are deep ethical concerns about how IVG might eventually be used… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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