BG Reads // April 18, 2025

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A.J. Bingham
April 18, 2025

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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

POLICY SPOTLIGHT: : HB 3879 – Texas Taxpayer & Voter Defense Act.

📅 Texas House Ways & Means Hearing: Monday, April 21 at 1 PM (Agenda Link)

🏛️ The Committee will hear HB 3879 by Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway), known as the Texas Taxpayer & Voter Defense Act. The bill aims to tighten oversight of capital projects funded through tax-rate elections such as Austin’s Project Connect.

🏛️ HB 3879 seeks to close two major perceived loopholes:

  • Restricting the use of tax-rate elections to fund large-scale capital projects.

  • Limiting how much a project’s scope or costs can change after voters have approved it.

💡 Key provisions include:

  • New guidelines for how tax-rate election funds can be allocated.

  • Voter protections to ensure project plans and budgets remain consistent with initial approval.

  • Enhanced transparency requirements for significant project changes post-election.

POLICY SPOTLIGHT: Austin Council to Vote on AI Ethics Framework
📅 Austin Council Hearing: April 24, 2025 at 10AM (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]

✅ City audit finds the Austin Police Department doesn't have a plan to hire more police (KUT)

Since 2020, Austin Police Department has strained under the weight of staffing shortages. But a report out this week says APD hasn't had a plan to fix the problem and fully staff the department.

City auditors told Austin City Council members Wednesday the department "does not have an effective strategy" to hire more officers. But APD leaders say recruitment efforts are ongoing.

Chief Lisa Davis said recruiting new officers is a "big priority" for her and, she said, was partly the reason the city brought her on to lead the department last year. Davis said APD has been able to better retain the staff it already has, even without a recruitment plan. The department says its retirements and resignations in 2024 were half what they were in 2023.

"That was a big thing: the recruitment and the retention," she said. "We are keeping people here, and [as far as] the recruitment effort, it's happening. It's a slow process, but it is happening."

Mayor Kirk Watson said he appreciates the department's efforts to hold onto officers, but stressed the need for a longterm plan to get APD fully staffed… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Downtown Commission looks at partnerships, philanthropy to address homelessness (Austin Monitor)

The city is establishing new partnerships with homelessness relief organizations and could announce new philanthropic partners later this month, while continuing to improve programs already in place to address the needs of the area’s growing homeless population.

The most recent meeting of the Downtown Commission featured a presentation from the Homeless Strategy Office that highlighted the emerging partnerships, efforts to expand shelter capacity, and how cuts in federal funding have already affected health care and other services seen as “adjacent” to the office.

One of the most prominent partnerships discussed by Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray is with the nonprofit Housing Connector, aimed at linking landlords with available units to providers working with unhoused individuals. In its soft launch, the initiative identified more than 2,300 units potentially available to clients… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin Convention Center officially offline as $1.6B redevelopment begins (Austin Business Journal)

The Austin Convention Center is officially closed for business for the next four years.

City and tourism officials on April 17 kicked off the $1.6 billion redevelopment effort of the convention center, which closed at the start of April and will reopen for business in time for the 2029 spring festival season.

The project should almost double the amount of rentable event space available from 365,000 square feet to 620,000 square feet. The new center will also be better at juggling the demands of events coming to Austin because it will have a roughly 90,000-square-foot flex hall that can accommodate keynote addresses — something the current center had difficulty with, said Trisha Tatro, the director of the Austin Convention Center Department.

“Before, if we needed a keynote for 6,000 people, we had to put it in the exhibit hall, which means you couldn't sell the exhibit hall for exhibits because you were having to use it for keynotes,” Tatro said. “So, now we have the actual right percentages of space from the exhibit halls to the meeting rooms to the ballrooms.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Watershed report focuses on projects to prevent and prepare for floods (Austin Monitor)

The Watershed Protection Department has released its 2024 annual report, highlighting a lengthy list of achievements in flood prevention, future flood preparedness and erosion control projects in several corners of the city.

The department credits these efforts for Austin’s improved ranking in FEMA’s Community Rating System, increasing discounts by up to 25 percent for residents seeking flood insurance policies.

The report points to several key highlights, including the start of construction to divert high water flows to Little Bear Creek to a former quarry where they will recharge the Edwards Aquifer. This will help enhance groundwater flow to Barton Springs Pool and fortify the aquifer’s resilience to climate change, the report notes.

“Reflecting on the progress we’ve made guides our path forward,” department Director Jorge Morales said in a statement, echoing the “Reflect” title and theme of the report.  “As we look ahead, we will build on these successes and continue serving the evolving needs of Austinites.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ ABIA to host subcontracting event for airport expansion (Austin Business Journal)

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is hosting an upcoming workshop to provide details about opportunities for contractors to get involved in its multibillion-dollar expansion. 

The event takes place April 22 and is aimed at connecting local construction companies and subcontractors with the prime contractors handling various aspects of the $4 billion expansion. The workshop will include a panel discussion on how subcontractors can do business with the airport, information about procurement and strategies from prime contractors on how to make a business successfully stand out in the process.

ABIA's prime construction partners on the expansion are Austin Commercial LP, Austin Bridge and Road, Hensel Phelps Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., J.E. Dunn Construction and Sundt Construction Co. / Archer Western… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ In historic first, Texas House approves private school voucher program (Texas Tribune)

The Texas House gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would create a $1 billion private school voucher program, crossing a historic milestone and bringing Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority closer than ever to reaching his desk.

The lower chamber signed off on its voucher proposal, Senate Bill 2, on an 86-61 vote. Every present Democrat voted against the bill. They were joined by two Republicans — far short of the bipartisan coalitions that in previous legislative sessions consistently blocked proposals to let Texans use taxpayer money to pay for their children’s private schooling.

“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,” Abbott said in a statement, vowing that he would “swiftly sign this bill into law” when it reached his desk.

The initial vote came more than 10 hours after the chamber gave preliminary approval to its sweeping $7.7 billion school funding package, which would give local districts more money per student and raise teacher salaries. House Bill 2, which received final passage Thursday on a 142-5 vote, also aims to improve the quality of special education services by allocating funding based on the individual needs of children with disabilities… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Tiny Texas cities rush to cut San Antonio tax deals as lawmakers eye changes (San Antonio Express-News)

As Texas lawmakers move to crack down on them, government agencies created by elected officials in tiny cities in the Rio Grande Valley are hustling to strike deals with developers to snap up apartment complexes in San Antonio. Under the law that allows for such transactions, the housing finance corporations ostensibly are aiming to increase the supply of lower-priced housing at a time when residents are grappling with soaring costs.

But their actions are wiping out chunks of annual tax revenue not for their communities but for San Antonio entities, including school districts, University Health and the Alamo Colleges District, and the affordability of the apartments provided in exchange for the tax breaks is questionable. The Legislature could close the loopholes that allow the deals, but the agencies may be rushing to acquire properties — and collect the fees stemming from the transactions — in case the changes are not retroactive.

The La Villa Housing Finance Corp., a nonprofit set up by officials in a city more than 200 miles away, acquired the Elevate at Huebner Grove complex in North San Antonio from a company affiliated with Viking Capital of Vienna, Va., in April, deed records show. The company would have been expected to pay about $445,000 this year in property taxes, according to the Bexar Appraisal District, but the deal would eliminate that bill because the nonprofit’s ownership means it’s publicly owned.

The Edcouch Community Housing Finance Corp., an agency based in a city next to La Villa, also in April acquired two apartment complexes in North San Antonio from limited liability companies affiliated with David Shippy of Austin-based Quantum Leap Property Management. Without the deal, the companies would pay nearly $1.7 million worth of property taxes this year, according to the appraisal district… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Trump lashes out at Powell, says ‘termination cannot come fast enough’ (Wall Street Journal)

President Trump lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, hinting at potentially dismissing the central bank leader, one day after Powell warned that the Fed could face a difficult trade-off as tariffs raise prices and weaken the economy “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump said in a social-media post on Thursday morning.

Later Thursday, in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he had the power to dismiss Powell as Fed chair—a position that is at odds with Powell’s view of the law. “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump said. On Wednesday, Powell repeated his longstanding view that the law didn’t permit his removal.

During Trump’s first term, Powell told the president’s advisers that he would challenge his removal in court. Trump is upset that the Fed isn’t lowering interest rates to cushion the fallout from his trade war. Powell is “too late. He’s always too late, little slow,” Trump said. Inflation in the U.S. could rise more than in other countries in the coming months because Trump has imposed a range of tariffs. Whether the Fed chair can be removed before the end of a four-year term is an open question because it has never been attempted. Trump is trying to dismiss several other Biden appointees who have challenged their removal by citing a 90-year legal precedent that has shielded them from dismissal over a policy dispute.

Trump’s Justice Department has said it would seek to overturn the landmark 1935 legal precedent that has provided that legal protection. Legal scholars have said that court ruling, which unanimously held that President Franklin Roosevelt lacked the authority to fire a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, offers the strongest legal guardrail to back up Fed independence… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Maryland Sen. Van Hollen meets with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador amid court fight over US return (Associated Press)

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Thursday evening in El Salvador, coming face to face with the wrongly deported man after two days in the country pushing for his release.

The Democratic senator posted a photo of the meeting on X but did not provide an update on the status of Abrego Garcia, whose attorneys are fighting to force the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.

A Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation. U.S. President Donald Trump and Bukele said this week that they have no basis to return him to the United States, even as the Trump administration has called his deportation a mistake and the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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