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- BG Reads // April 17, 2025
BG Reads // April 17, 2025
A.J. Bingham
April 17, 2025
Presented By
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️ Austin City Council:
🟪 TODAY @1PM: Mobility Committee
💡 Item Spotlight: #4 Briefing regarding a one-year update on the Shared Micromobility program, which includes scooters and e-bikes.
POLICY SPOTLIGHT: Austin Council to Vote on AI Ethics Framework
📅 Scheduled Austin Council Hearing: April 24, 2025 (Agenda Link)
🏛️ Austin City Council will consider a resolution (Item 55) to establish ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in City operations.
🏛️ The proposed framework would guide how AI is deployed across departments—such as permitting, public safety, and translation services—while prioritizing transparency, workforce protection, and digital equity.
💡 Key directives include:
Annual audits of AI tools used by the City
Public awareness and engagement campaigns
Training resources on AI literacy and responsible use
Clear restrictions on AI use for surveillance, discrimination, or job displacement
📩 Have questions on how this might impact your operations or policy goals? Email me for a consult. Please include Item 55 AI Framework Question in the subject line.
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[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Fed spending cuts delay city’s workforce, infrastructure training plans (Austin Monitor)
City staff are seeking additional time to develop a comprehensive plan for funding and implementing the city’s workforce development program, in part due to federal funding delays and broader budget uncertainties. A recent memo to City Council from the city’s Economic Development Department notes that efforts to secure federal funds for that purpose have been hindered by budget restructuring at the national level, prompting a request to extend the city’s reporting deadline to Aug. 31.
The delay affects implementation of a resolution adopted by Council last March that directed the city manager to create a new workforce development initiative designed to support the city’s expanding infrastructure workforce needs. The resolution closely tracks the goals and structure of the Austin Infrastructure Academy, a public-private training and job placement network developed in partnership with Workforce Solutions Capital Area.
While the resolution does not refer to the academy by name in every section, its directives, such as aligning training programs with real-time labor market needs, providing wraparound services like child care, and recruiting from underserved communities, mirror the framework and mission of the AIA.
In a statement to the Austin Monitor, Tamara Atkinson, CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area, drew a distinction between the city’s broader workforce development strategy and the existing AIA contract. Atkinson confirmed that the AIA’s current agreement with the city does not include federal funding and is not directly affected by recent federal funding delays… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin could buy office building for $26M, relocate some workers (Austin Business Journal)
The city of Austin could buy an office building off I-35 to relocate some employees. Austin City Council will consider a $26.2 million purchase of an eight-story office building at 3300 N. I-35, according to the agenda for the April 24 meeting. The building has just under 207,000 square feet of office space.
The purchase would address “inadequate facilities and working conditions, support beneficial collaboration and future growth, and improve public access,” according to city documents.
The city documents also indicate this site could serve as a place to relocate city employees that work out of the One Texas Center, which is a city-owned property at 505 Barton Springs Road that could be redeveloped.
A city spokesperson said that Austin does plan to relocate some workers based out of the One Texas Center.
The city departments that work out of the One Texas Center include:
Downtown Austin Community Court
City Auditor's Office
Financial Services Department
Small Minority Business Resources Department
Office of Equity and Inclusion
Human Resources Department
Transportation & Public Works
Watershed Protection
✅ Post-pandemic effects on housing market still linger across Travis County (Community Impact)
This year’s appraisal valuations from the Travis Central Appraisal District show that single-family residences experienced an average 3.4% decline in market value compared to last year. However, the median market value for a residential homestead in Travis County is still up 46%, or $163,841, since pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Beginning April 9, more than 488,000 Travis County property owners received their appraisal notices by mail. The notices include the market value assigned to a property as of Jan. 1, as well as the taxable value of that property based on its exemptions.
“Property owners can review their 2025 values on our website and should expect to receive their notices of appraised value over the next few weeks.
This is the perfect time to review your property’s information, verify your exemptions and learn more about the protest process,” Chief Appraiser Leana Mann said in a statement… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ City eyes strategy shifts to address affordable housing shortfalls (Austin Monitor)
City staff members are evaluating the idea of investing more in housing as well as other strategies to address shortfalls in key areas of the Strategic Housing Blueprint, including deeply affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.
A memo released this week looks at progress related to the 2023 Austin Strategic Housing Blueprint Scorecard and shows the city has exceeded targets in housing preservation and development near transit corridors. It also shows that significant gaps remain in housing for residents earning below 60 percent of the median family income and in the geographic distribution of income-restricted units across all City Council districts.
To close these gaps, city staff is preparing to revise the blueprint based on current market data and affordability trends.
The expected updates include… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Nate Paul ordered to home confinement, $1M fine (Austin Business Journal)
Nate Paul has been sentenced to four months of home confinement, five years of supervised release and a $1 million fine.
Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra handed down the sentence on April 16 at the U.S. Federal Courthouse downtown. Paul, the CEO of World Class Holdings, pleaded guilty in January to one charge of making false statements to a lending institution, ending an 18-month federal bank and wire fraud case.
Paul will be confined to his home from the hours of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., allowing him back at his desk in his office each weekday morning. He will have two years to pay the $1 million fine, with the first half of the fine due April 16, 2026.
Being a convicted felon is also a form of punishment for a businessperson such as Paul, Ezra said.
Paul was charged in June 2023 with eight counts of bank fraud alleging Paul made false statements to lending institutions to obtain $172 million in loans. Federal prosecutors added four more counts in a superseding indictment, alleging he committed wire fraud against private investors in limited partnerships. Eleven of the 12 charges were dropped.
The embattled real estate investor faced decades of jail time with all those charges, but the agreement reached between Paul and government prosecutors included dropping all other charges. The government recommended no more than six months in prison, five additional years of supervised release and a maximum $1 million fine… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Texas House preliminarily approves controversial school voucher plan, $7.7B school funding bill (KUT)
After more than 12 hours of debate, the Texas House gave initial approval to two of the most closely-watched bills of the legislative session – a $7.7 billion public school funding package and a hotly contested proposal to create a pathway for families to use state tax dollars to help send their kids to private schools.
The House vote on the latter, Senate Bill 2, marks a massive victory for top Texas Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who named the school voucher measure a top priority for the state legislature this session.
Past attempts to create the Education Savings Account program outlined in SB 2 stalled in the Texas House in 2023 during both the regular session and several special sessions. The proposal’s failure that year came after rural House Republicans and Democrats voted together against the bill. Since then, Abbott successfully backed pro-voucher candidates in the 2024 Republican primaries, shifting the votes in his favor.
“For the first time in Texas history, our state has passed a universal school choice bill out of both chambers in the Texas Legislature,” said Governor Abbott in a statement shortly after the Texas House passed SB 2 on second reading. “This is an extraordinary victory for the thousands of parents who have advocated for more choices when it comes to the education of their children… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ City Hall outsiders vying for mayor see their support climb in latest UTSA poll, with Gina Ortiz Jones leading (San Antonio Express-News)
Three mayoral candidates from outside City Hall are climbing in UTSA’s latest poll. And the City Council members on the May 3 ballot are struggling to break 5% voter support — except for District 9 Councilman John Courage, who jumped back into the race in mid-February after suspending his campaign late last year.
Yet, with early voting set to begin April 22, 45% of voters either still didn’t know who they’ll support or were unfamiliar with any of the 27 mayoral candidates. Former Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones had the most support. Nearly 13% of the 685 likely San Antonio registered voters that the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Public Opinion Research surveyed from April 7-9 said they would likely vote for her.
The poll’s margin of error was 3.7%. The other outsiders, tech executive Beto Altamirano and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, also saw their support increase. Altamirano had just under 7% support in the recent poll, up from 4% in mid-February, while Pablos’ support grew from 1% to 5%. Courage had edged out Altamirano, with just over 7% support.
This time around, pollsters presented respondents with the candidate names in the order they’ll appear on the ballot rather than randomizing the names. Bryan Gervais, director of the Center for Public Opinion Research, said it’s hard to say whether that benefited Pablos, who is first on the long ballot. “There’s no question ballot order can matter to some extent. However, we see a few folks at the bottom of the ballot who are relatively unchanged from February as well,” Gervais said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Trump’s tariff fight upsets the ports that bring Texas $700 billion a year in business (Houston Chronicle)
Leaders of Texas ports and the companies that rely on the ports have spent the past two weeks of tariff upheaval doing what the ship captains do practically every minute of every day: Study the information and keep an eye on the horizon. The one thing they agree on is nobody really knows for sure what the conditions will be for very long at the 23 Texas ports that by many estimates generate more than one-quarter of the state's gross domestic product.
A few predict calm seas. Others see nothing but icebergs. More still cannot even predict what waves and thunderstorms lie ahead. “We’re trying to assess the situation,” Port of Freeport Executive Director Phyllis Saathoff told the crowd at a Greater Houston Port Bureau luncheon on April 10. Despite the uncertainty of global trade markets as the Trump administration announces American tariff policy, then alters it, and then alters it again, port officials in Freeport and Houston have so far declined to elaborate on what immediate steps they are taking — including the possibility of slowing investment on their own docks or reducing their workforces.
Citing the uncertainty and near-daily changes in what tariffs will be in effect and what specific goods will cost, they said it is too soon to either sound an alarm or give the all-clear. “Looking ahead, we will approach our work as we always have,” Port Houston public relations director Lisa Ashley said in a statement.
Companies, however, are not waiting to take action, and have been doing so since before tariffs were even discussed, said Tim Sensenig, CEO of TMSfirst, a Spring-based transportation management company whose software helps companies with some 20 million shipments globally each day. Many companies — Sensenig noted the apparel industry — have already changed their patterns to get inventory moved in before tariffs can take effect.
Others, such as Apple’s widely reported last-minute flight of Iphones, were temporary measures as they examined the long-term possibilities. “The last thing they want to do is be caught with their pants down with no inventory,” he said of retailers. Other sectors are taking more decisive steps. The impacts of proposed tariffs on auto imports and exports are already leading to layoffs at some automotive factories, as well as declines in the number of cars arriving at Texas ports… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
✅ U.S. plans to use tariff negotiations to isolate China (Wall Street Journal)
The Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure U.S. trading partners to limit their dealings with China, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.
The idea is to extract commitments from U.S. trading partners to isolate China’s economy in exchange for reductions in trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House. U.S. officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries, prevent Chinese firms from locating in their territories to avoid U.S. tariffs, and not absorb China’s cheap industrial goods into their economies.
Those measures are meant to put a dent in China’s already rickety economy and force Beijing to the negotiating table with less leverage ahead of potential talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The exact demands could vary widely by nation, given their degree of involvement with the Chinese economy.
The White House and Treasury didn’t respond to requests for comment. U.S. officials have broached the idea in early talks with some countries, people familiar with the discussions said. Trump himself hinted at the strategy on Tuesday, telling the Spanish-language program “Fox Noticias” he would consider making countries choose between the U.S. and China in response to a question about Panama deciding not to renew its role in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure program for developing nations.
One brain behind the strategy is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has taken a leading role in the trade negotiations since Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for most nations—but not China—on April 9. Bessent pitched the idea to Trump during an April 6 meeting at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club in Florida, said people familiar with the discussion, saying that extracting concessions from U.S. trading partners could prevent Beijing and its companies from avoiding U.S. tariffs, export controls and other economic measures, the people said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Trump’s Tariffs Could Wreck California’s Economy. The State Is Suing (PBS)
California is challenging President Donald Trump’s tariffs in court, arguing in a lawsuit filed Wednesday morning that he lacks the authority to unilaterally impose the levies on foreign goods and that they are doing irreparable harm to the state’s economy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are asking a federal court to pause the tariffs being levied against Mexico, China and Canada, as well as the across-the-board 10% tariff enacted by Trump. The suit argues that the law the president is relying on — the International Economic Emergency Powers Act — has never been used before to justify tariffs, and that Trump needs Congressional authorization for actions with such broad economic consequences.
Newsom and Bonta announced the lawsuit at Gemperle Orchards, a family-owned almond farm in Stanislaus County. Newsom called the tariffs a regressive sales tax that is hurting both businesses and consumers — including Trump’s own supporters… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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