BG Reads // August 7, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
August 07, 2025

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

August 7, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Today @9AM - Austin City Council Budget Work Session: Agenda + Livestream

🟪 As state considers further constriction, Council wrestles with how high to go on tax rate election (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Austin considers civilian staff to fill police roles amid officer shortage (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 The eastern part of Central Texas is growing faster than the west (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Texas lawmakers revive plan to replace STAAR test for public schools (KUT)

🟪 Increased attention on Texas House Democratic leader Gene Wu comes with more anti-Asian insults (Texas Tribune)

🟪 FBI responds to request for help in finding Texas House Democrats, Sen. John Cornyn says (Dallas Morning News)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Memos:

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

CMO Executives and Advisors_July 2025.pdf519.20 KB • PDF File

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ As state considers further constriction, Council wrestles with how high to go on tax rate election (Austin Monitor)

Ahead of today’s comprehensive budget discussion, there is almost no question that a tax rate election to fund essential city services will be on the ballot come November. At least nine City Council members have expressed support for some level of one, and Council’s Audit and Finance Committee voted unanimously to hold a tax rate election (TRE) on Wednesday. The question remains: How much will the city ask of Austinites – and what will happen if they get nothing in return?

Council members are currently weighing three options for tax rate election increase: 3.5 cents, 5.75 cents and 6.75 cents.

Mayor Kirk Watson has settled on the lowest increase, advocating 3.5 cents over the state cap on the message board last Friday, urging CMs to consider the everyday Austin voter’s struggles with affordability.

“Even if we believe we can win an election at a higher amount, we need to take care both to reduce the risk of losing an election and to provide the best possible balance with affordability,” he wrote.

Still, most CMs are partial to a higher increase, though some that originally advocated in a message board post for 7 cents, Mike Siegel and Zo Qadri, have come down a bit, instead joining Krista Laine, Paige Ellis at 5.75 cents. 

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the state Senate passed Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s Senate Bill 9, which would further lower the rate at which Austin (and other cities with a population above 75,000) can levy taxes without an election from 3.5 percent to 2.5 percent… 🟪 (READ MORE) 


✅ Austin considers civilian staff to fill police roles amid officer shortage (Austin American-Statesman)

A week before the Austin City Council is set to vote on a lean city budget constrained by rising police costs, a new report is raising fresh questions about how the Austin Police Department is allocating its workforce.

The draft report, prepared by the consulting firm BerryDunn, recommends the department move more sworn officers out of support and investigative roles and back onto patrol — replacing them with civilian “professional staff.”

The approach, long supported by police reform advocates, is gaining traction nationwide as departments face staffing shortages and growing personnel costs. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis has already started implementing parts of the reorganization.

The Statesman previously reported she plans to shift about 70 officers into patrol by Aug. 24.

It’s unclear how the department will backfill the positions those officers are vacating. The Police Department declined to comment on the report, but spokesperson Anna Sabana said its recommendations are under review.

“In some cases, that may involve shifting certain duties and responsibilities to non-sworn staff, assuming those staff are available and that they have capacity,” Sabana said in a statement. “

APD is actively looking at alternative response models for key areas of operation, which would build upon BerryDunn recommendations.” Nelly Paulina Ramírez, who chairs the city’s Public Safety Commission, said she welcomed the report’s findings but questioned why it wasn’t made public sooner.

The Police Department received the report June 3 but didn’t share it with commissioners until Aug. 4 — the same day the commission was scheduled to discuss public safety budget priorities and the deadline for City Council members to submit budget amendments… 🟪 (READ MORE) 


✅ The eastern part of Central Texas is growing faster than the west (Austin Business Journal)

Manor's economic development director, Scott Jones, acknowledges his city has been a bedroom community for "years and years." But there are prominent signs that that's starting to change.

Retail hubs are popping up along U.S. Highway 290. Industrial developments are bringing jobs in the semiconductor, logistics and warehousing industries. Manor is even moving forward with a new city hall that'll be big enough to administer for 100,000 residents — about five times what the city has now.

Manor, which is about 15 miles northeast of downtown Austin, is one of the latest suburbs to benefit from the Texas capital's changing winds of population growth. It's a prime example of how the metro appears to be evolving on a macro level. The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of residents is falling in western Travis County, whereas the gains are becoming prominent on the east side of the metro, where bedroom communities are being transformed into dynamic cities where residents work where they live.

That's been good news for cities like Hutto, Bastrop, Manor and Lockhart. Caldwell County, southeast of Austin, was among the fastest growing counties in the country. Meanwhile, cities like Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Jonestown and Rollingwood actually lost residents between 2023 and 2024, even if the raw numbers were minuscule, while others like Cedar Park and Lago Vista stalled. To be sure, some outliers like Dripping Springs, Leander and Liberty Hill reported population gains, and cities on the north end of the metro, such as Georgetown, are still stars… 🟪 (READ MORE) 


✅ Apple boosts investment in Austin and across Texas (Austin Business Journal)

Apple Inc. is tacking $100 billion of new investment onto the $500 billion it has already committed as it expands its manufacturing operations in the U.S.

It could be a significant benefit for Texas.

The Cupertino, California-based company said Aug. 6 that its new American Manufacturing Program will include several projects across the state.

Some of that work will be happening in Austin. Apple said it is working with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. at its North Austin factory on a new way to manufacture chips. The process, Apple said, has never been used before anywhere in the world. Local representatives from Samsung declined to comment.

The tech giant is also partnering with Applied Materials Inc. to boost the production of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Austin, home to Applied's largest manufacturing and logistics facility. That partnership will supply chipmaking equipment to Texas Instruments Inc. for its U.S. factories, Applied Materials said in a separate announcement. The Santa Clara, California-based equipment maker also plans to invest over $200 million in a new manufacturing facility in Arizona.

As part of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) continued focus on Austin, it also noted that it is still building its billion-dollar second campus in North Austin, where it already has three completed office buildings totaling over a million square feet… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

[TEXAS/US NEWS]


✅ Increased attention on Texas House Democratic leader Gene Wu comes with more anti-Asian insults (Texas Tribune)

In late May, House lawmakers were hours into a debate over a proposal to teach Texas school children about the dangers of communism.

Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat, stepped up to the podium of the House floor. He shared a story about when his family had its land confiscated by the communist Chinese government. During the Cultural Revolution, his father, 13 years old at the time, was dispatched alone to fields and “and basically told to either farm or die,” Wu said.

His father survived. Many others did not.

“When I hear people call me a communist spy, or when members of this body say those things, I get a little offended,” Wu said, clasping his hands atop of a podium and looking across the room at his fellow lawmakers. “Because our family has been the victims of communism for a very long time, and we fled to this country as fast as we possibly could.” Wu was opposing the bill which he said could lead to the stigmatizing and stereotyping of people who fled communist countries… 🟪 (READ MORE)


✅ FBI responds to request for help in finding Texas House Democrats, Sen. John Cornyn says (Dallas Morning News)

The FBI responded to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s request to help locate the Texas House Democrats who left the state to prevent the Legislature from passing a new congressional map, the senator said Wednesday afternoon. In a social media post, Cornyn said FBI Director Kash Patel had responded to his Tuesday letter in which the Texas senator requested the agency’s assistance in locating the more than 50 Democrats who left the state to deny the Texas House a quorum. Cornyn did not reveal the specifics of the agency’s response. It’s unclear whether the FBI would actually arrest Democrats, who have been near Chicago, in Massachusetts and New York this week, so they can delay the Legislature’s ability to pass a congressional redistricting map that would shift five districts to the GOP’s favor.

The FBI declined comment Wednesday when asked about Cornyn’s post and whether the agency can arrest the lawmakers. Cornyn’s office did not respond to an email asking if the FBI said it would arrest Democratic lawmakers.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott hinted that the FBI was going to assist in the search. Abbott told a conservative podcast, “It’s my understanding that the FBI is going to search for these derelict Texas House members in whatever state they may be in” and help identify them. Wednesday’s development comes a day after Cornyn asked Patel to have FBI agents assist in bringing Democratic lawmakers back to Texas.

“Since these state legislators are currently outside of Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety may need support to arrest the fleeing lawmakers,” Cornyn wrote in a letter Tuesday to FBI director Kash Patel. Many Democrats are in the Chicago area, where they have been giving interviews, spreading their message that the proposed map is an illegal and unfair silencing of minority voices. The Texas House voted Monday along party lines to issue civil arrest warrants, allowing law enforcement to detain and force Democrats to return to the Capitol… 🟪 (READ MORE)


✅ Texas lawmakers revive plan to replace STAAR test for public schools (KUT)

Texas lawmakers are making another push to get rid of the STAAR test — a plan that died during the regular legislative session earlier this year.

Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 8, filed Monday, would scrap the state's long-used standardized test for public schools and introduce three shorter tests throughout the school year, with results delivered within 48 hours. The identical bills were filed by Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston and Rep. Brad Buckley of Salado.

According to Buckley, chair of the House Public Education Committee, the goal is to shift the focus "away from teaching to a test and back to real learning in the classroom."

"We begin the process of eliminating the STAAR test and replacing it with meaningful, student-centered assessments that are instructionally actionable and provide real insight for teachers and parents," Buckley said… 🟪 (READ MORE)


✅ U.S. trading partners race to secure exemptions From Trump’s tariffs (Wall Street Journal)

U.S. trading partners are lobbying the White House for exemptions to sweeping new tariffs that went into force on Thursday, as countries seek ways to muffle the impact on their economies of President Trump’s push to reorder global trade. The diplomatic effort shows months of trade talks are far from over despite the run of agreements trumpeted by the White House in the past month.

The European Union, Japan and South Korea are among those that have agreed pacts with Trump, while behind the scenes their negotiators continue to argue their case with U.S. officials for further relief for prized export sectors. Dozens of exemptions and carve-outs have already been allowed, for products including Brazilian orange juice and Chilean copper. At the same time, negotiators are seeking further clarity on U.S. tariff plans. Key details of many of the pacts agreed so far are still not finalized, or in some cases are being interpreted differently by each side.

Referring to the reciprocal tariffs that took effect at midnight, Trump said in a social-media post that “billions of dollars in tariffs are now flowing into the United States of America.” The president said Wednesday that tariffs on imported semiconductors would be set at around 100%—with exemptions for companies such as iPhone maker Apple that invest in U.S. manufacturing. Promised new levies on other sensitive sectors such as pharmaceuticals are still to be officially announced. This confusion—and the president’s willingness to adjust tariffs spontaneously in pursuit of a variety of political goals—mean that uncertainty over access to the U.S.’s vast domestic market is becoming a key feature of the emerging economic order, with knock-on effects for business investment, hiring and prices.

Trump on Wednesday said imports from India would be hit with an extra 25% levy as punishment for buying Russian oil, on top of a 25% tariff it already faces. Administration officials for months insisted there would be “no exemptions, no exceptions” to country-specific tariffs that Trump in April announced were coming down the pike, targeting allies and adversaries alike in what the president said was the U.S. hitting back at decades of unfair treatment in international trade… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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