- The BG Reads
- Posts
- BG Reads // August 6, 2025
BG Reads // August 6, 2025
A.J. Bingham
August 06, 2025
Presented By
www.binghamgp.com
August 6, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Austin considers tax hike as leaders aim to cover $33M shortfall (KVUE)
🟪 Tamara Atkinson to step down as CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Austin Water reports progress and challenges as drought persists (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Arrest warrants issued for Texas Democrats who fled the state to break quorum (KUT)
🟪 Pritzker says Texas Democrats who fled state will be protected amid arrest threats (The Hill)
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🏛️ Memos:
Bingham Group will be following the budget process, including the City Manager and department presentations to City Council, through its approval in August.
» Click Here for our high-level summary of the FY2025-26 Proposed Budget. «
🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart
|
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Austin considers tax hike as leaders aim to cover $33M shortfall (KVUE)
A tax rate election could be in the cards for Austinites.
During a special called meeting, members of the Audit and Finance Committee, which included Mayor Kirk Watson, unanimously voted to recommend the election this November. However, city council members have to first decide what exactly will be on the ballot.
The goal of the tax increase is to make up for the $33 million shortfall in next year's budget. Some city leaders have argued federal funding cuts under the Trump administration have forced their hand and they believe a tax increase will help benefit from the loss.
Under the current budget proposal, there is a 3.5% tax increase, which is the state limit for cities to collect without voter approval. In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that reduced the maximum annual tax rate increase for cities from 8% to 3.5%.
On Tuesday, Council Members Krista Laine, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis and Zo Qadri said they were proposing a 5.75 cent tax increase.
"This isn’t just a tax rate election; it’s a shield against deep cuts to the services that hold our city together. It’s our collective stand to defend Austin’s people, priorities and values in the face of targeted interference," said Qadri in a news release.
During the meeting, some Austinites raised concerns about what city programs would be prioritized, and how the rise of property taxes could impact them.
"We know that there are a lot of people that don't want property taxes raised at all, and we have to keep the rails on this thing: We ask for too much, we may get nothing, but I also understand that if we ask for too little, we're scrambling again next year," said Austinite David Gomez.
City leaders will meet again for a work session this Thursday to go over all of their options… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Tamara Atkinson to step down as CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area (Austin Business Journal)
One of Austin’s key nonprofits that focuses on workforce development is undergoing a leadership transition.
Tamara Atkinson, the longtime CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area, is stepping down from her role on Sept. 19, the group announced Aug. 5. Yael Lawson, the organization's chief operations officer and a longtime employee, will step into the role in an interim capacity on Sept. 22.
No specific reason was given for Atkinson’s departure, but the announcement said she is departing with the full support of Workforce Solutions’ board and that “details about her next professional chapter will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Atkinson couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Her tenure at Workforce Solutions started in 2000, and she became CEO in 2016. Recently, she oversaw the launch of the Austin Infrastructure Academy, a collaborative effort between Workforce Solutions, Austin Community College, local governments and other institutions that's aimed at increasing Central Texas’ infrastructure and construction workforce at time when the region has several multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects underway… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin Water reports progress and challenges as drought persists (Austin Monitor)
Amid a second year of drought restrictions, city leaders are navigating community debates about whether water conservation goals are aggressive enough.
In a presentation to the City Council’s Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee, Austin Water shared its first quarterly progress report following updates to the city’s Water Forward, Drought Contingency, and Conservation plans last November. Water advocates have previously raised concerns that the conservation targets in the plans do not go far enough as the city faces climate change and increasingly severe droughts.
Austin has been under Stage 2 drought restrictions since August of 2023. Austin Water Assistant Director Kevin Critendon noted that the recent heavy rainfall, which led to disastrous flooding in Kerrville and parts of the Austin area, had somewhat replenished water storage. “But in the… context of 100-year water supply planning, you know, this is in fact a marathon and not a sprint,” he added.
Austin Water Director Director Shay Ralls Roalson, who has overseen the utility since shortly after Winter Storm Uri, spoke to the city’s ongoing restructuring around emergency preparedness and conservation strategies… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ TEA approves turnaround plan for 3 failing Austin ISD middle schools (KVUE)
The Texas Education Agency has approved a turnaround plan for three failing middle schools within the Austin Independent School District, KVUE has learned on Tuesday.
Burnet, Webb and Dobie received their first unacceptable rating in 2019 and a second consecutive unacceptable rating in 2023.
The plan sets goals for each campus to earn acceptable ratings. If reading and math scores do not improve by the middle of 2026, the district has developed a contingency plan.
Officials said the schools will stay open, but there will be staffing changes.
All staff members were required to reapply for their positions while meeting certain ACE Model criteria. The district said 61% of Burnet teachers were asked to return, with 47% from Webb and 16% from Dobie.
If the schools continue to receive failing grades, the state can then take over the school district… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[TEXAS/US NEWS]
✅ Abbott, Paxton will seek court orders to have Democrats who broke quorum thrown out of office (KUT)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that he plans to seek a court ruling declaring that state House Democrats who have broken quorum and left the state have "abandoned their offices." The move could open the door for Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint their replacements.
Abbott had no intention of waiting. He filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court of Texas later Tuesday seeking the removal from office of state Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, whom he styled the “ringleader” of the quorum break.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows has given Democratic lawmakers who broke quorum until Friday to return and present themselves to the House.
"Starting Friday," Paxton said in a statement, "any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable for vacating their office. The people of Texas elected lawmakers, not jet-setting runaways looking for headlines. If you don't show up for work, you get fired."
Abbott filed his petition a few hours after Paxton’s statement… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Donald Trump says FBI ‘may have to’ get involved in ending Texas quorum break (Texas Standard)
President Donald Trump said the FBI “may have to” get involved to end a walk out by Texas Democrats over redistricting.
During an unrelated event, Trump was asked whether the FBI should “get involved” in the quorum break. He answered that “they may have to” and “it almost looks like [Democrats have] abandoned the state.”
“I know they want them back. Not only the attorney general, the governor wants them back,” Trump said. “So a lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about.”
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called for the FBI to help “locate and arrest” Texas Democrats who left the state on Sunday afternoon… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Texas House committee discusses flood bills despite standstill (Texas Tribune)
Texas House members on a special committee for disaster preparedness met Tuesday to discuss for the first time specific bills filed in response to the deadly Central Texas flooding.
The hearing included bills that would require flood disaster plans for vulnerable camps, establish a licensing requirement for emergency management coordinators and create a program for groups to be certified with the state to show potential donors during declared disasters that they are legitimate.
The discussion came two days after dozens of House Democrats left the state so that the chamber wouldn’t be able to vote on a draft of a new congressional map meant to give Republicans five more U.S. House seats — a map the House Democratic leader characterized as racist. Republicans have condemned the members for shirking their duties.
Committee Chair Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, vowed that the disaster committee would keep developing bills to fix problems even with many House members gone. Only one of three Democratic members on the committee was absent from the Tuesday hearing, Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Public schools try to sell themselves as more students use vouchers (New York Times)
A decline in the number of babies being born and a boom in private school vouchers and home-schooling have combined to create an enrollment crisis for public education. The threat is so great that some school districts are trying something that would have once seemed unthinkable. School systems in Orlando, Newark, Memphis and dozens of other cities and towns have hired consultants who aggressively woo parents to convince them to enroll their children in local public schools. Brian J. Stephens has built a business around this new reality.
Mr. Stephens, a political consultant based in Memphis, runs Caissa K12, a consulting firm for public school districts with the tag line “We recruit students.” Caissa K12 has taken off, with over 100 district clients. Its popularity illustrates some of the challenges facing public education. Two-thirds of traditional public schools lost enrollment between 2019 and 2023, according to federal data. Low fertility rates mean that the number of children in the United States is starting to shrink. At the same time, policymakers have introduced more competition than ever, meaning many families have options beyond their neighborhood school.
Even public schools in Florida, one of only a handful of states with a growing population of children, are facing significant declines. Families have been attracted there by the warm climate, new housing construction and the increased ability to work remotely. They can now choose from an array of alternatives to public education. Florida has the nation’s largest school voucher program, known as a universal education savings account, and over 400,000 Florida children now use public dollars to pay for some form of private schooling.
The program is part of Governor Ron DeSantis’s larger agenda to remake education. He has attacked what he calls liberal orthodoxy in the public school curriculum and restricted what schools can teach. In Florida, 71 percent of children continue to attend a district school. But that share has rapidly declined as enrollment in charter schools, home-schooling and private education increases.
Similar demographic shifts could come soon to the rest of the country. Republican-leaning states are quickly expanding access to private-school vouchers, and, in July, President Trump signed into law the first national voucher program, funded by a federal tax credit. Some Democrats are urging their own party to reconsider private school choice, arguing that vouchers appeal to working-class voters… 🟪 (READ MORE)
Have comments or questions? 📩 Contact me
