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- BG Reads // April 30, 2025
BG Reads // April 30, 2025
A.J. Bingham
April 30, 2025
Presented By
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
✅ An Austin-area guide to the May 3 election (KUT)
Voters across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties will line up on May 3 to cast their ballots, deciding who represents them and how their local school districts get funded. Here’s what you need to know to vote in the election.
Over a dozen mayoral and city council seats are contested across multiple cities, including Cedar Park, Round Rock and West Lake Hills… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
Department Memos:
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[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Austin Energy’s annual report highlights growing demand, help for ratepayers (Austin Monitor)
Austin Energy set new peak demand records for both summer and winter, according to a new report from the utility’s departing General Manager, Bob Kahn. Kahn released the utility’s FY2024 annual report last week.
In addition to setting new records, the utility finalized work on its Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035. As Kahn summarized, “It sets the course for a cleaner, more resilient energy future by balancing affordability, sustainability and reliability as we transition to 100% carbon-free energy.”
Austin Energy also launched full deployment of the AI Wildfire Early Detection system, which “continuously scans for smoke, triangulates the fire’s location, and delivers actionable intelligence to local authorities and fire departments.”
The utility also reported helping 70,242 customers pay their bills through the Customer Assistance Program, close to 13 percent of its reported customers in 2024. The utility said it delivered more than 14 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year. In its 2023 report, the utility said the program “ended FY23 with 57,501 participants, a 75% increase from the beginning of the Fiscal Year.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ $10B projects underway a mile from Capitol (Community Impact)
Estimates from city officials indicate that more than $10 billion in construction projects are currently underway in downtown Austin—many of the them aiming to revitalize and expand different areas of the city's heart. “We are a very successful city, and as a result of that, you have a lot of demand for improvements,” Mayor Kirk Watson said. “...There are going to be some eggs broken to create the omelette—but we’re doing it in a methodical way.” According to property advocacy group Downtown Austin Alliance, 7.2 million square feet of development is actively under construction in the downtown district, including redevelopment projects along Sixth Street and proposed changes to Congress Avenue near the Capitol, as well as:
16+ projects actively under construction
25 planned projects
1.1 million recently completed square feet
10.6 million proposed square feet
What has colloquially been dubbed Dirty Sixth is undergoing changes as Stream Realty Partners, the owner of 31 properties along the bar-heavy block, seeks to revitalize the area.
That project, called Old 6th, includes both cosmetic and business changes with the goal of creating a “true downtown neighborhood,” said Paul Bodenman, Stream’s senior vice president of investments… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin Independent School district buys more time for plan to address Dobie Middle School, but prepares for seismic shifts (Austin Monitor)
After years of deferrals and litigation, new state mandates for public school performance are finally catching up to Austin Independent School District, leaving hundreds of its children, teachers, and administrators unsure if they will have a school to return to come August.
Dobie Middle School, a Title 1 campus on East Rundberg Lane, faces an uncertain future after the school’s rating for 2023 was made official last week. For earning a failing grade, state and federal penalties now force the district to decide whether Dobie will shutter permanently, close for at least two years for strategic restructuring or hand over operations to a charter.
If that didn’t already sound grim, a 2021 amendment to the state accountability law raises the stakes even higher–if the school receives five consecutive ‘F’ ratings, AISD is fair game for a Texas Education Agency takeover. ( Readers interested in what that looks like can look to Houston ISD). With 2024 STAAR scores making a third ‘F’ seem likely, the district’s choices at Dobie could bear existential consequences… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ New SXSW leader appointed amid shakeup (Austin Business Journal)
South by Southwest, one of Austin's most prominent festivals, has a new leader — but how it got there is in dispute.
Hugh Forrest, the former president and longtime exec, contends he was fired from the organization on April 25. But a representative of Penske Media Corp., the controlling owner of South by Southwest, said Forrest made the decision to leave after being told he would report to a new boss.
"I was fired," Forrest said on April 29, reiterating a statement he previously provided to the Austin Business Journal.
Jenny Connelly, a vice president of product and technology at PMC, was elected by the SXSW board to lead the festival as director-in-charge, Penske confirmed in an April 29 email. The company said she is based part-time in Austin as of April 1 and that the move was announced in a town hall discussion as part of succession planning that was already in motion… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Some ABIA parking rates to go up May 1 (Austin Business Journal)
Starting May 1, passengers traveling out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will pay increased parking rates at two garages.
The new rates impact the red and blue parking garages, while the economy parking lot rates stay the same.
Red garage daily rate is changing from $32 to $35
Red garage hourly rate is changing from $5 to $7
Blue garage daily rate is changing from $23 to $26
In an April 28 announcement, airport officials said the new rates “reflect the airport’s response to increasing passenger traffic and rising demand for on-airport parking options.”
ABIA is in the midst of a $4 billion expansion that may yield a new concourse and up to 30 more gates by 2030… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin needs $101 million in next budget to address homelessness, city says (KUT)
Austin will need nearly $101 million — about $33 million of which would come from community partners — next year to adequately fund emergency shelters and support services for the city's homeless population, according to the David Gray, the city's homeless strategy officer.
That money would help the nearly 5,000 people experiencing homelessness in Austin, according to data from ECHO. The population has grown over the last several years as the of cost of living has increased, making the city less affordable.
But the need for more money comes at a time when the city is already strapped for cash as it faces a $33 million budget deficit next year. The shortfall is being attributed to flat sales tax revenue, limited property tax revenue and an end to COVID-era funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Gray delivered his recommendation to Austin City Council members on Monday as they prepare for budget discussions this summer… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Trump tariffs are putting even more pressure on Texas' soaring homeowner insurance premiums. Here's why. (Houston Chronicle)
President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs could cause homeowners insurance premiums in Texas to rise even faster this year than they otherwise would have, a new study finds. Even without tariffs, average premiums in Texas will rise by about $500 this year, according to projections from Insurify, an insurance comparison shopping website.
But tariffs on imports such as Canadian lumber and Mexican lime — used in concrete — would push that to $713 a year, Insurify projects, bringing the average annual cost of homeowners insurance in Texas to $6,718 by the end of 2025 — an increase of 12% over last year.
Texas homeowners already pay some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation, especially in regions such as Houston and coastal Texas. Average homeowners and auto insurance rates have seen double-digit increases in recent years, according to data from the Texas Department of Insurance, due largely to costly natural disasters as well as overall inflation.
"In the last five years, 68 billion-dollar disasters have impacted Texas, the most of any state, causing about $108 billion in damages," wrote Chase Gardner, data insights manager for Insurify, in an email. "Texas is one of the most at-risk states for hurricanes, coastal flooding, drought, hail, lightning, tornadoes, wildfires, ice storms, strong winds, heat waves, and cold waves." "All of these severe weather events increase risk for insurers," he added. "The substantial climate related losses Texas home insurers face force them to pass more risk onto homeowners in the form of higher premiums." If Trump's tariffs take effect and remain in effect, Gardner explained, claims will become even costlier, which will translate into higher premiums.
"Tariffs will fuel rate increases even more, because tariffs increase the cost of home repairs," Gardner wrote. "Since rates are based largely on the cost to rebuild or repair a home, the added costs of tariffs will have to be passed on to the consumer through higher premiums." Over the past month, Trump has gone back and forth on his tariff proposals. Even so, the Insurify report noted, Trump's tariffs are already having an impact nationwide.
In an April 2025 survey from the National Association of Homebuilders, 60% of respondents reported their suppliers have already increased material prices, or announced plans to do so, as a result of Trump's tariffs. The builders estimated that the overall impact of the tariffs would raise the cost of building a home by about $11,000… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Why legislation to protect mothers’ lives in Texas went from bipartisan to belligerent (Texas Monthly)
In the annals of the Texas Legislature, it may be that no bill has suffered the kind of instant whiplash as the one Republican Senator Bryan Hughes christened the “Life of the Mother Act.” Senate Bill 31, which Hughes filed exactly one hour before the deadline on March 14, was presented as one that would free Texas doctors to provide abortions when their pregnant patients were suffering from medical emergencies—without fear of the career-killing, prison sentence-inducing penalties for violating Texas law.
“The intent of this bill is to remove any excuse, when a mom is in danger . . . that’s always been an exception we have recognized,” Hughes said. “We want to love them both. There’s a mom and a baby. We want to love and respect and protect them both.” The bill was championed by fervent abortion opponents, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who named its passage one of his top priorities.
Also supporting the Life of the Mother Act: notable reproductive rights advocates. Its coauthors in the Senate and joint authors of the companion House Bill 44, including three of the most liberal surviving Democrats, Senator Carol Alvarado and Representative Ann Johnson of Houston and Representative Donna Howard of Austin, got to savor the rarest of bipartisan triumphs.
All in all, March 14 seemed like the happiest of days in the capital, when legislators across the political spectrum could feel good about doing good. Republican Representative Charlie Geren from Fort Worth, another abortion foe who is cosponsoring the bill in the House, put it best when he declared, “Too many women have suffered. Too many women have died.” Well, yeah.
In hospitals and doctors’ offices across the state, chaos and tragedy have ensued since the Legislature enacted a series of restrictive laws including 2021’s Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue individuals who “aid or abet” an abortion after about six weeks of gestation, and the “trigger law,” which outlawed most abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. In combination, these laws made virtually all abortions illegal, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or fetal abnormalities and included only a vague passage referring to “medical emergencies” that place “a woman in danger of death or serious risk of substantial impairment of a bodily function.”
Doctors who didn’t follow the law could be charged with a felony, fined $100,000, lose their medical license, and be sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, those who reported doctors and others who assisted with abortions—anyone from nurses to neighbors to Uber drivers—could reap a $10,000 “bounty,” as the cash reward came to be known. The Life of the Mother Act would, in the words of its proponents, save women’s lives—in a state where the government seems only marginally interested in doing so. But the bill isn’t far reaching.
For instance, it excludes exemptions for abortions in the case of fatal birth defects or complications that damage a woman’s future fertility. It doesn’t address pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Democratic leaders know that trying to get such changes through the GOP-dominated Legislature would be counter-productive. So, to mix metaphors, those working to even slightly to expand reproductive rights here have to crawl over glass to grab what crumbs they can… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[US and World News]
✅ Trump, back in rally mode, marks 100 days in office with boisterous Michigan speech (NPR)
Donald Trump's Michigan rally celebrating the 100th day of his second term wasn't a campaign rally, but it resembled one in many ways. He spoke for almost an hour and a half, falsely claimed to have won the 2020 presidential election, danced to "YMCA," and acknowledged the regulars that have shown up to his rallies for years.
"I miss you guys," he said to the Front Row Joes, one group of Trump faithful. "I miss the campaign."
While the Tuesday night rally had been billed as a way to celebrate his 100-day record, it served many more purposes. Trump also used his time on stage to luxuriate in the crowd's adoration, blame Joe Biden for various national problems, and insist that he, as president, is not getting the credit he deserves for his accomplishments… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ US consumer confidence plummets to Covid-era low as trade war stokes anxiety (Associated Press)
Americans’ confidence in the economy slumped for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as anxiety over the impact of tariffs takes a heavy toll.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 7.9 points in April to 86, its lowest reading since May 2020. Nearly one-third of consumers expect hiring to slow in the coming months, nearly matching the level reached in April 2009, when the economy was mired in the Great Recession.
The figures reflect a rapidly souring mood among Americans, most of whom expect prices to rise because of the widespread tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. About half of Americans are also worried about the potential for a recession, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Trump complained to Bezos before Amazon said it scrapped idea to display tariff cost (CNBC)
President Donald Trump personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to complain about about a report that the online retail giant was considering displaying U.S. tariff costs on its product listings, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Within hours of the call, Amazon publicly downplayed the scope of its plan — and then announced that it had been scrapped entirely.
The pressure campaign on Bezos by Trump and the White House came after Punchbowl News reported earlier Tuesday that Amazon will soon show consumers how much of an item’s cost comes from tariffs… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ UPS to cut 20,000 jobs, close some facilities as it reduces amount of Amazon shipments it handles (Associated Press)
UPS is looking to slash about 20,000 jobs and close more than 70 facilities as it drastically reduces the amount of Amazon shipments it handles.
The package delivery company said Tuesday that it anticipates making the job cuts this year. It anticipates closing 73 leased and owned buildings by the end of June. UPS said that it is still reviewing its network and may identify more buildings to be shuttered.
“The actions we are taking to reconfigure our network and reduce cost across our business could not be timelier,” CEO Carol Tomé said in a statement on Tuesday. “The macro environment may be uncertain, but with our actions, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS.”
In January UPS announced that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026… 🟪 (READ MORE)
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