- The BG Reads
- Posts
- BG Reads // August 25, 2025
BG Reads // August 25, 2025
A.J. Bingham
August 25, 2025
Presented By
www.binghamgp.com
August 21, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Travis County officials outline priorities for $2.2B budget (Community Impact)
🟪 City fees will be higher for almost everything this year (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Delta adds 3 nonstop routes at ABIA, eyes continued Austin growth (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Austin ISD adopts policy banning student cellphone use under new state law (Community Impact)
🟪 Texas Senate approves GOP congressional map, sending plan to Abbott’s desk (Texas Tribune)
🟪 Fresh off Texas Senate’s approval, new congressional map is target of lawsuit (Texas Tribune)
🟪 Trump looks to Chicago next in federal crackdown (Wall Street Journal)
READ ON!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart
|
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Travis County officials outline priorities for $2.2B budget (Community Impact)
Emergency reserves, mental health and voter services take the forefront of increased funding as Travis County officials weigh community needs this month for the next budget year.
The Travis County $2.2 billion preliminary budget was published July 28—roughly 12% more than the fiscal year 2024-25 adopted budget—outlining priorities for the coming year as County Commissioners move closer to a final vote on the FY 2025-26 budget in September.
The budget includes funding for a variety of county responsibilities, such as:
Essential administrative and operational costs
Justice system
Health and Human Services
Community and economic development
Corrections and rehabilitation
Public safety
Infrastructure 🟪
✅ City fees will be higher for almost everything this year (Austin Monitor)
Like so many other costs, city rates and fees are going up in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in October. Overall, the projected yearly impact of all the fee increases will be $417 for the average homeowner in Austin.
Those increases include fees for water, trash service, drainage, the Clean Community Fee and the Transportation User fee. The monthly charge from Austin Energy will also increase slightly, but the utility is lowering the overall customer bill by reducing the amount per kilowatt-hour used. (For example, a customer using 860 KWh of electricity per month will save about $59 next year.)
Austin Resource Recovery has four different sizes of trash carts. The smallest one, 24-gallons, will cost $28.50 per month next year, up from the current charge of $26.20. The largest cart holds 96 gallons. Currently the charge for that cart is $58.40 per month. That charge will increase to $64.10 per month, the largest increase among the cart sizes. Austin Resource Recovery will exchange your cart for a larger or smaller one if you ask.
The cost of parking in the wrong spot will also go up, but just a little. The old rate for non-consent towing for an average vehicle was $272. The new rate adopted by Council will be $275… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Delta adds 3 nonstop routes at ABIA, eyes continued Austin growth (Austin Business Journal)
Delta Air Lines is adding more options for passengers at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in an effort to keep growing in Austin, and it's also planning to open a permanent flight attendant base here.
The airline announced Aug. 22 that it's launching three nonstop routes from ABIA to Denver International Airport, Kansas City International Airport and John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio.
The route to Denver will launch Nov. 9 and run twice daily.
The Columbus and Kansas City routes both launch June 7, 2026. The Columbus route will run once a day, while the Kansas City route will run twice daily.
Amy Martin, vice president of network planning for Delta (NYSE: DAL), said the new routes reflect the airline’s desire to grow in Austin and to serve destinations sought by passengers.
“Typically, when we're looking at what we want to add in Austin, we talk a lot to the local business community, kind of getting where they need to go, making sure that we've got good, usable patterns to top markets, and also supplementing that with top leisure destinations as well,” Martin said… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin ISD adopts policy banning student cellphone use under new state law (Community Impact)
Austin ISD students are no longer allowed to use their cellphones or personal devices on campus.
The AISD board of trustees approved a new device policy at an Aug. 21 meeting to comply with House Bill 1481. The legislation—passed by state lawmakers this spring—requires districts to adopt policies banning the use of personal communication devices during the school day.
Under AISD’s new device policy, students must keep their personal devices turned off and stored out of sight in their backpacks or bags for the entirety of the school day. The school day includes any time before the first bell until the last bell of the day but does not encompass before- or after-school activities, according to the district’s updated student code of conduct.
The policy prohibits the use of any personal communication devices on school property, including cellphones, headphones, earbuds, smartwatches, tablets, personal laptops, wearable technology or “any device capable of digital communication or telecommunication.” Students may still use devices provided by the district… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin wants to create a central hub for trash before it goes to landfills (Austin Monitor)
Austin Resource Recovery has released new details on plans to build a central hub where city garbage and composting trucks transfer their loads to bigger trucks before the waste is hauled to out-of-town disposal sites.
Department officials said the hub, also called a transfer station, would help improve city services and reduce emissions from disposal trucks. But questions remain about the location and cost of the proposed facility.
Right now, when city waste collection trucks fill up on their routes, the drivers need to go long distances — sometimes more than 30 miles — to empty out at landfills and composting sites.
The transfer station would be closer to the central city, where city sanitation workers would move the loads into much bigger trucks before the long haul… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[TEXAS/US NEWS]
✅ Texas Senate approves GOP congressional map, sending plan to Abbott’s desk (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Senate early Saturday morning approved a new congressional map gerrymandered to maximize Republican representation, sending the plan to the governor’s desk after weeks of intense partisan clashing.
Republican lawmakers pushed the plan through over fierce Democratic opposition, launching a national redistricting war from Albany to Sacramento while positioning the GOP to net up to five additional seats in Texas.
The Senate adopted the new lines on a party-line vote, 18 to 11, just after 12:30 a.m. Saturday following more than eight hours of at times tense debate.
Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, had planned to filibuster the map well into Saturday as a last stand against the effort, but a rare procedural motion by Senate Republicans just after midnight ended the debate and killed the filibuster, moving the chamber straight on to the final vote. Some observers in the gallery were removed for shouting “shame,” and “fascist,” shortly after the vote… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Fresh off Texas Senate’s approval, new congressional map is target of lawsuit (Texas Tribune)
Hours after the Texas Senate approved a new congressional map early Saturday morning that more heavily favors Republicans — legislation Gov. Greg Abbott plans to “swiftly” sign into law — a lawsuit against the governor was filed, alleging that the redrawn districts are racially discriminatory.
The 67-page complaint against Abbott and Secretary of State Jane Nelson supplements legal action filed by LULAC in 2021 challenging the state’s original maps and argues that redrawing districts mid-decade is unconstitutional.
Redistricting usually happens at the start of the decade after U.S. census data comes out. The complaint argues that because the new map was drawn based on the same data used for the initial map passed by the Legislature in 2021, the measure was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
“Even if racial and partisan considerations are an unavoidable part of redistricting, there is no need for legislatures to take those considerations into account a second time in a single decade,” the complaint reads… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Gov. Moore says he is looking into redistricting Maryland: ‘All options are on the table’ (The Hill)
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in a Sunday interview that he is actively looking into redistricting options in his state, as the partisan effort expands across the country. “When I say all options are on the table, all options are on the table,” Moore said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Asked if he’s “actively looking” at redistricting now, Moore told moderator Margaret Brennan, “Yes, and I think we have to because I think what’s happened is this is what people hate about politics in the first place.” Moore blamed President Trump and his insistence that Texas Republicans move forward with rewriting their congressional lines in order to give the GOP five more pickup opportunities in the next election cycle.
He compared that push to Trump’s notorious call to Georgia election officials after losing the 2020 presidential race, asking them to find 11,780 votes to overturn the president’s loss in the state. “The fact that the president of the United States — very similar to what he did in Georgia, where he called up a series of voter registrants and said, ‘I need you to find me more votes’ — we’re watching the same thing now, where he’s calling up legislatures around the country and saying, ‘I need you to find me more congressional districts,’” Moore said. With Texas poised to approve its newly redrawn maps, Republicans are plowing forward with plans for redistricting in several other states, including Florida, Indiana and Missouri, signaling a new phase of the fight. Democrats have undertaken a similar endeavor in California, as the partisan effort expands throughout the country. Moore, an up-and-coming star in the Democratic Party, said his commitment is to making sure “we have fair lines and fair seats, where we don’t have situations where politicians are choosing voters, but that voters actually have a chance to choose their elected officials.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Trump looks to Chicago next in federal crackdown (Wall Street Journal)
Chicago will likely be the next target in what President Trump has called a crackdown on crime, the president said Friday, prompting pushback from city and state leaders who called the possible deployment of National Guard troops an overreach of federal power. “Chicago’s a mess,” President Trump said Friday. “We’ll straighten that one out probably next.” And then, he added, “we’ll help with New York.” The Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., this month and to Los Angeles earlier this year.
The president describes the tactics as part of an effort to make cities safer. These actions have elicited questions over the role of military power on U.S. soil and criticism from local Democratic leaders. When asked by a reporter, Trump said he hadn’t taken steps to bring the crackdown to Chicago. “When we’re ready, we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” Trump said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Friday that city leaders haven’t heard from the Trump administration about the possible deployment of federal law enforcement. Johnson pushed back on the president’s comments and said crimes, including homicides, robberies and shootings, have declined in the city over the past year. “There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them,” Johnson said. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Saturday that Trump “wants every city across the country to be safe for everyday Americans.”
The Trump administration has deployed more than 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., as part of a campaign to increase security and decrease crime in the nation’s capital, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the soldiers to carry weapons. Trump also asserted more control of the D.C. police force, invoking laws that temporarily give the federal government such powers in the nation’s capital when an emergency exists… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Why a landmark settlement on realtor fees hasn’t cut costs (Wall Street Journal)
The real-estate industry’s landmark settlement reworked how real-estate agents get paid, raising hopes that the costs associated with home buying and selling would come down. A year later, it hasn’t happened. The average commission paid to a buyer’s agent in the second quarter of 2025 was 2.43% of the home’s sale price, up from 2.38% a year earlier, according to an analysis by real-estate brokerage Redfin. “Nothing’s changed,” said Jack Miller, chief executive of real-estate consulting firm T3 Sixty. “This is a very durable industry in terms of the fees that it charges. It really is.” The $418 million settlement was reached between the National Association of Realtors and plaintiffs’ attorneys to settle allegations that the system for paying agents kept their fees artificially high. The new system, which took effect in August 2024, is intended to make it easier for buyers to directly negotiate fees with their agents.
There is no comprehensive source of data on commissions, and some surveys conflict. But separate surveys of real-estate agents from tech company Clever Real Estate by real-estate media company HousingWire and by Rice University also found little change in agent commissions in the past year. The settlement has had at least one benefit: It led to more transparency for home buyers, agents say. While buyers used to rarely discuss fees at all with their agents, they now have to sign agreements about how much their agent will get paid before touring any homes together. But why hasn’t the settlement moved the needle on U.S. real-estate commissions, which are some of the highest in the world?
Before the settlement, listings of homes for sale in industry databases included information on what the seller intended to pay the buyer’s agent. Buyers rarely negotiated fees with their own agents, because the fee was essentially set by the seller. In the new system, these databases no longer include information about fees. This is so buyers and their agents can discuss fees upfront without being swayed by what a seller is willing to pay. But agents can still communicate about fees off the database. Some sellers say that their agents have warned them that buyers might avoid their home if they don’t make an offer to cover the buyer’s agent cost… 🟪 (READ MORE)
Have comments or questions? 📩 Contact me
