BG Reads // April 11, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
April 11, 2025

Presented By

Serving Central Texas.

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

[BINGHAM GROUP]

✅ Please join me in welcoming Brittany Heckard to Bingham Group’s Consultant team. Our consultants are contract-based specialists who provide strategic guidance to clients across business, community, and policy issues in Central Texas.

Brittany brings over a decade of experience in public and government affairs, community engagement, and social impact. She previously led legislative and public affairs initiatives at AT&T and supported legal and regulatory efforts at Davis Kaufman PLLC.

Her work has included partnerships with organizations such as Waymo, Ancestry, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, and the Texas Cultural Trust, where she developed campaigns focused on advancing equity and justice across Texas.

We’re excited to have Brittany on board and look forward to the expertise she brings to our clients and partners.

🎓 Washburn Law in ATX!

Great joining fellow Washburn University School of Law alums last night for a Austin area reception hosted by City Manager T.C. Broadnax!

A Topeka native and Washburn University undergrad alum, Broadnax welcomed fellow Ichabods—including myself, a law school graduate (Note: I don’t practice law!)—for an evening of connection and community-building.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Austin City Council:

🟪 Yesterday: Austin City Council Meeting // Agenda Link (63 Items) + Archived Video - 4h 15m + Actions taken City Council

🟪 Tuesday, April 7, 2025: Austin City Council Work Session // Agenda Link + Archived Video (4h 10m)

📝 Memos:

🔁 ICYMI Public meetings:

We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin adopts new map that greatly expands area at risk of wildfire (KUT)

Businesses and homes that sit on just over half of all habitable land in the City of Austin are now at risk of being destroyed in a wildfire, according to a map City Council members adopted Thursday.

The map is included in changes to the city’s Wildland-Urban Interface, or WUI, which regulates areas where wilderness abuts development and homes and businesses are most likely to be wrecked by wildfire.

Historically, homes in West Austin have had the greatest risk of wildfire damage. New risk areas include much of South Austin and neighborhoods just west of downtown.

The latest map puts 51% of Austin’s habitable land — tens of thousands of acres — in a risk zone. That's up from 38% nearly a decade ago. It’s not clear how many homes and businesses this affects.

Any homes or businesses built or renovated in these areas will need to be “hardened” against burning. That means builders and owners will have to use fire-resistant materials, install tempered glass and cover vents with metal screens… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin-Bergstrom International Airport announces new flight service while anticipating capacity cuts (Austin Monitor)

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has announced new flights starting this month while anticipating capacity cuts with the softening economy’s effect on travel demand.

Jason Alexander, Austin’s deputy chief of airport affairs, gave a briefing on air service updates to the Airport Advisory Commission at its regularly scheduled meeting on April 9.

“We are anticipating quite a bit of new service starting this month and over the next few months. Of particular note Southwest, Frontier, Delta, WestJet and Spirit are adding service,” Alexander said, pointing out the mix of large carriers and ultra-low-cost carriers.

“We also have some new nonstops that will be launched between May and December of this year. Most of those are year-round and there are some seasonal routes,” Alexander said. The following new destinations will be added for year-round, nonstop service: Milwaukee (MKE); Panama City, FL (ECP); Indianapolis (IND); Jacksonville, FL (JAX); Memphis, TN (MEM); San Francisco (SFO); and Tampa, FL (TPA).

Additionally, Reno, NV (RNO); Vancouver, Canada (YVR); Cabo San Lucas (SJD); and Cancun, Mexico (CUN) will be added for seasonal, nonstop service. Eight new destinations will be added for nonstop service, but their frequencies have yet to be determined. Those airports are: Chicago O’Hare (ORD); Orlando, FL (MCO); Cincinnati (CVG); Phoenix (PHX); Miami (MIA); Philadelphia (PHL); Detroit (DTW); and San Diego (SAN).

With these new service developments, ABIA is anticipating capacity cuts due to the current economic climate… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ City leaders prepare for massive growth from San Antonio to Austin (CBS 5)

The population of both Austin and San Antonio are exploding in number as people flock to Texas from across the country.

Leaders from both cities and all towns in between are working together to foster new growth to keep bringing people to this part of the Lone Star State.

It is being called the San Antonio-Austin Megaregion and thanks to progress and innovation, it is poised to become one of the most dynamic zones in the U.S. economy. 

Ed Latson, the Opportunity Austin CEO told KENS 5, "I think when you look at San Antonio and Austin, we both recognize that these two economies are merging together."

Hundreds of people in San Marcos gathered at Texas State University for the inaugural San Antonio-Austin Megaregional Collaborative. 

"This session is about the people who are in charge with preparing. Preparing our roadways, preparing our water supply, preparing our electric power, preparing our educational institutions," said Former San Antonio Henry Cisneros said.

Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, the Greater SATX CEO added, "If you take a step back and you think about how we marketed the collective megaregion together, internationally, we know that within the next 20 years, this corridor will be one of the most dynamic in the world."

As of 2024 Austin's population was 975,000. San Antonio, 1.5 million. Taking into account everything in between, the San Antonio-Austn metro tops 5 million people, with much more to come.

"It's going to be 8.3 million people. So it's going to grow. The question isn't are we going to grow, but how are we going to prepare?" Cisneros said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin requires all homes to have working air conditioning (KUT)

ad of Austin's scorching summer months, City Council members adopted a property maintenance code Thursday that requires all homes in the city to have functioning air conditioning.

The new rule does not require property owners to have central air conditioning. But owners are required to have some form of air conditioning equipment, such as window units, capable of cooling homes to a temperature 15 degrees Fahrenheit lower than outside — as long as the temperature inside the home stays at or below 85 degrees.

The change requires that air conditioning be able to cool any “habitable” room in a home, which typically includes rooms where people relax, sleep, eat or cook. This likely would not include attic space, for example.

“Knowing that we had Austinites who were experiencing extreme heating conditions … I’m very pleased to see this move forward, “ said Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, who represents parts of Southeast Austin and whose office pushed for the change.

Several other cities in Texas require rental homes to have air conditioning, including Dallas and Denton. Austin already required that existing air conditioners work. But if a home did not have any form of air conditioning, the city had no regulation to force owners to install equipment… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ PINNED STORY // City facing a $33 million deficit for 2026 (Austin Monitor, 4.9.2025)

Given current conditions, the city’s budget analysts are projecting a $33 million shortfall in the city’s General Fund in Fiscal Year 2026, with that number increasing to $79.9 million by FY 2030. City Council heard the bad news from City Manager T.C. Broadnax and Budget Director Kerri Lang at Tuesday’s City Council work session.

One of the biggest factors in the projected deficit is the 3.5 percent cap on yearly property tax increases without voter approval in an election. That limit was imposed by the Texas Legislature in 2019. Some members of Council, including District 4’s Chito Vela, have been particularly emphatic about the need for such an election.

Council members have taken to referring to that election as a TRE (tax rate election), so the public will likely be hearing that term for at least the next six months. As Broadnax noted, the city is also facing “a continued slowing of sales tax revenue growth.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin approves resolution for new safety tools on 6th Street (KXAN)

The Austin City Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday for the Sixth Street Safety Plan.

The resolution green lights things such as data collection and reporting, along with fencing and traffic changes designed to address safety issues and create a better entertainment district.

The city said the resolution also advances a “year-round Public Assembly Code Enforcement (PACE) team for inspections and rapid response, explores a new entertainment license for late-night venues to reduce repeat code violations … and evaluates pathways to regulate vacant and abandoned properties, and assess lighting needs downtown.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Tesla's plan for big public park next to gigafactory greeted with skepticism (Austin Business Journal)

On paper, Tesla Inc. has made substantial headway on the “ecological paradise” that CEO Elon Musk once vowed to create near the electric vehicle maker’s giant factory along the Colorado River in eastern Travis County.

But some area residents are skeptical the effort will ever amount to more than just an impressive PowerPoint presentation.

Austin-based Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) included designs for a “riverfront eco-park" in a recent incentives-related annual report to Travis County, complete with illustrations of well-populated hike-and-bike trails and a boardwalk, as well as plenty of blooming vegetation and even the vestiges of a rainbow. What wasn’t included in the plan — some pages of which were marked “copyright 2023 Tesla Inc.” — is any hint of when the project might actually begin.

“I think it's a bunch of PR nonsense," said Richard Franklin III, who lives in the Austin's Colony neighborhood just northeast of the factory and helped found the Far East Austin Community Development Corp. "We don’t believe anything Tesla says at this point — they have zero credibility in this community.”

Franklin said the view stems from what he described as an overall lack of responsiveness and engagement by Tesla regarding neighborhood concerns, five years after its factory was announced and three after it became operational… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ $337 billion, two-year budget gets Texas House approval (Texas Tribune)

The Texas House approved a roughly $337 billion two-year spending plan early Friday, putting billions toward teacher pay, border security and property tax cuts, after more than 13 hours of debate that saw hundreds of amendments — from Democrats and hardline conservatives alike — meet their demise.

The House budget largely aligns with a version the Senate passed in March, though lawmakers made several changes on the floor that will have to be ironed out behind closed doors with their Senate counterparts. The biggest amendment of the day, from Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, eliminated funding for the Texas Lottery Commission and for economic development and tourism in the governor’s office, to the tune of more than $1 billion. Both remain funded in the Senate’s latest budget draft.

The House’s proposal, approved on a 118 to 26 vote, would spend around $154 billion in general revenue, Texas’ main source of taxpayer funds used to pay for core services. The bulk of general revenue spending would go toward education, with large buckets of funding also dedicated to health and human services and public safety agencies.

Both chambers’ spending plans leave about $40 billion in general revenue on the table, coming in well under the $195 billion Comptroller Glenn Hegar projected lawmakers will have at their disposal. But the Legislature cannot approach that number unless both chambers agree to bust a constitutional spending limit, a virtual nonstarter at the GOP-controlled Capitol… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Former U.S. Attorney John Bash first to announce run to replace Attorney General Ken Paxton (Texas Tribune)

Former U.S. Attorney and Elon Musk lawyer John Bash is the first to throw his hat in the ring to replace Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is making a bid for a U.S. Senate seat.

Bash previously worked as a federal prosecutor for the Western District of Texas until 2020, and served as a special assistant to President Donald Trump during his first term. Since resigning as a government attorney, he has taken on cases such as defending Musk against a then-college student who sued him for defamation.

Bash’s wife, Zina Bash, previously worked as Paxton’s senior counsel until 2021.

Bash describes himself on his campaign website as the “left’s worst nightmare” and pledges to “stop woke lawfare cold.” He said in a statement on social media he’s running because Texas needs “the toughest, most battle-tested attorney to lead the fight to keep our communities safe, defend our constitutional rights, and make sure Texas remains a leader in innovation and growth.’”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Trump targets Houston law firm Susman Godfrey in latest executive order (Houston Chronicle)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed his latest executive order against a prominent law firm, this time targeting Susman Godfrey, which represents Dominion Voting Systems in defamation cases related to the 2020 U.S. election.

Houston-based Susman Godfrey represented the electronic voting machine maker in its case against Fox News, which agreed in 2023 to a $787.5 million settlement.

White House aide Will Scharf said the order resembles previous actions the Trump administration has taken against law firms that it says have been involved in the "weaponization of government or actions of lawfare."

"There is no question that we will fight this unconstitutional order," Susman Godfrey said in a statement. "We believe in the rule of law, and we take seriously our duty to uphold it." Susman Godfrey is also representing Dominion in defamation lawsuits against the president's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, and others related to false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.

A Delaware judge issued a ruling in favor of Dominion and its lawyers at Susman on Wednesday in a similar case against Newsmax… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Trump admin must ‘facilitate’ return of man erroneously deported to El Salvador, Supreme Court says (Politico)

The Supreme Court is requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland man deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to what officials described as an “administrative error.”

The justices turned down the administration’s request to set aside a judge’s order that U.S. officials seek Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the U.S., after he was flown to El Salvador despite an immigration-court order that he not be sent there due to the threat of persecution by a local gang.

The judge’s order “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The high court’s ruling doesn’t explicitly mention bringing Abrego Garcia back to the United States, but it leaves in place the bulk of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order that specifically required his “return” to the United States.

The Supreme Court’s decision is a significant rejection of the Trump administration’s claim that it lacked any power — and therefore could not be compelled — to attempt to remedy its admitted error. It also comes just days after the justices ruled that the administration must provide due process to other foreign nationals that President Donald Trump has sought to quickly deport using rarely invoked war powers… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September (Associated Press)

The nation’s top health agency will undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability, said the effort will be completed by September and involve hundreds of scientists. He shared the plans with President Donald Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting.

Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates, although decades of research have concluded there is no link between the two.

“There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” Trump told Kennedy. “If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Amazon considers $15 billion warehouse expansion plan (Reuters)

Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab is considering a $15 billion warehouse expansion plan for about 80 new logistics facilities in U.S. cities and rural areas, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company is asking potential capital partners to submit proposals, according to the report, opens new tab, which said the facilities are expected to be mostly delivery hubs, but some would also include large fulfillment centers packed with robots.

Amazon said the projects were currently under discussion and have not been finalized.

"Meetings like this with our capital partners are routine and part of the normal due diligence process, as we consider potential, future projects," Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said.

Separately, the e-commerce company has canceled orders for multiple products made in China and other Asian countries, Bloomberg News reported, citing a document it reviewed and people familiar with the matter.

The orders for beach chairs, scooters and other merchandise from multiple vendors were halted after the sweeping April 2 U.S. tariff announcements, the report said, adding that timing of the cancellations, which had no warning, led the vendors to suspect it was a response to tariffs… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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