Presented By

December 12, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin's light-rail is on the verge of clearing a major hurdle with the Trump administration (KUT)

🟪 Dozens of Lake Austin properties move to disannex; city to lose nearly $300M value (Community Impact)

🟪 National Democrats put Texas House on list of legislative targets for 2026 (Texas Tribune)

🟪  Mayor Ortiz Jones call to move elections gets chilly reception from council (San Antonio Report)

🟪 Texas AG probe of nearly 1,000 cities’ finances to seek violations of new property tax law (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump signs executive order blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around AI (CNN)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

[Blog] Austin 2026: The New Rules of Economic Development at City Hall

Learn more about Bingham Group’s new practice — and review all of our services here: binghamgp.com/services

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Todauy @10AM: Austin City Council Meeting

• Agenda

• Video Link (ATXN 1)

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of July 2025)

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin's light-rail is on the verge of clearing a major hurdle with the Trump administration (KUT)

Austin's long-promised light-rail line is poised to clear a major bureaucratic hurdle within days, giving new momentum to a project that has pushed through years of political and legal resistance. Federal transportation officials are expected to issue a final environmental ruling by the end of the month, a sign that Washington still views Austin's plan as viable after years of uncertainty. The decision won't settle the project's fate or lock in the billions of federal dollars it depends on. Those grants would come only after the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) completes the most detailed designs of the system and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) scrutinizes them.

That process is expected to take about 18 months. ATP is hoping for more than $4 billion in grants to cover almost half the project's price tag: $7.1 billion in construction costs plus more than $1 billion in interest payments. The sprawling document — known in government-speak as a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision — would move Austin's light-rail line into its most consequential phase since the 2020, when voters approved the city's largest ever transit expansion by authorizing a similarly historic property tax increase. Clearing the environmental review would allow ATP to award three major contracts that will define how the system is built. The biggest of those contracts is a multibillion-dollar deal to design and build the 9.8-mile light rail line, including everything from the tracks and stations to the bridges and new sidewalks. The second contract is to build a 62-acre operations and maintenance facility near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The third is to procure the first light-rail vehicles, expected to run as often as every five minutes… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dozens of Lake Austin properties move to disannex; city to lose nearly $300M value (Community Impact)

Lake Austin property owners are disannexing from Austin under a new state law years after their land was added into the city's full purpose jurisdiction. A series of properties along Lake Austin totaling nearly $300 million in taxable value to the city are slated to exit its full jurisdiction under a new state law, following years of complaints over lacking public services and taxation by Austin in that area. The Lake Austin properties have been at the center of jurisdictional questions stretching back to the late 1800s when some land along the shoreline was first added into city limits. Residents in those areas later experienced public safety and infrastructure service issues while facing "substantial confusion" over their local government representation, according to city documents.

Some of the property was added to Austin's tax rolls in 1985, but city officials reversed course the next year by declaring the outcome was made in error and that tax collections wouldn't resume without offering full public services. That decision was again reversed in 2019, when City Council unanimously voted to resume taxing hundreds of tracts despite property owners' opposition and persisting concerns over the services they received. Officials at the time cited concerns over unequal levels of taxing in city limits under the Texas Constitution, with then-council member Greg Casar stating the Lake Austin properties had long enjoyed civic representation without taxation. “Not only was the 1986 ordinance unconstitutional, but we’ve been in an unconstitutional situation for decades," he said in 2019. Area residents went on to sue the city over the taxing update, litigation that remains in progress as of this year. Past state legislation meant to address the issue stalled out, but lawmakers this spring passed Senate Bill 1844 allowing property owners to disannex from a city if they aren't fully connected to its infrastructure systems… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ National Democrats put Texas House on list of legislative targets for 2026 (Texas Tribune)

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the party’s national arm that targets legislative races, announced Wednesday that it plans to put resources into Texas next year for the first time since 2020.

The national interest reflects Democratic optimism that the 2026 cycle will provide a favorable political climate for the party, amid President Donald Trump’s flagging approval ratings and voter dismay over the state of the economy.

In Texas, the effort to flip GOP-controlled state House districts will be led by the House Democratic Campaign Committee. The group announced Wednesday that state Rep. Christina Morales of Houston will serve as its chair for the 2026 cycle, replacing state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat who is running for governor… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Mayor Ortiz Jones call to move elections gets chilly reception from council (San Antonio Report)

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ last-minute push to move San Antonio’s municipal elections to November got a chilly reception in its first public council hearing Wednesday, casting serious doubt over whether it would pass when it comes to a vote next week. The Texas legislature gave Dallas permission to make the change this year, and in a move that went largely unnoticed, opened it up to other cities to follow suit without having to change their city charters.

The catch is that they have to do it before a Dec. 31 deadline, or risk the possibility the legislature won’t agree to reopen the policy in a future legislative session. A long list of voting rights groups and civic leaders are now urging San Antonio to jump on what they see as a rare opportunity to help boost turnout, yet member after member on a overwhelmingly progressive council raised concerns about the way it had been pitched and the short timeline to make a decision.

“When I received the memo from the mayor about the work that the City of Dallas had did and how they adopted this unanimously, I reached out to a Dallas City Council member to understand the context in which this was initiated and the work that was done,” said Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), a reliable member of the council’s progressive bloc. “What [they] shared with me is that there was a lot of work put in, in terms of, their City Council took this to the voters of Dallas [for approval],” she said. “… San Antonio residents deserve that same type of engagement.”

Among many councilmembers’ top concerns was the potential impact on local school districts, seven of which currently partner with the city to hold their elections in May. Those districts would either need to move their elections to November as well or find another municipality to partner with if they want to keep it in May. Districts aren’t on the same deadline to decide, but many choose that quieter election as a way to attract voters they believe are more focused on local issues, and say that staying there would cost them more money… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Henry Cuellar will retake key spending post after Trump pardon (Politico)

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership position on a powerful spending panel following his pardon on federal corruption charges.

“We got ratified,” Cuellar told reporters following the vote. The veteran Texas lawmaker overcame private concerns inside his party about restoring him as the top Democrat on the Homeland Security subpanel after President Donald Trump granted him clemency in a surprise move last week. But Cuellar remains popular in the Democratic Caucus, particularly among longtime colleagues — some of whom argued that with the pardon wiping away his bribery indictment, the legal process had run its course and there was no reason to bar Cuellar from the post under caucus rules.

“Just look at the rules,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.). “There’s nothing more to say.” Still, the fact that the vote even happened meant that at least one Democratic appropriator privately objected to reappointing Cuellar by acclamation. If his party retakes the House majority next year, Cuellar would be in line as subcommittee chair to directly oversee more than $60 billion in annual spending on agencies including Customs and Border Protection and ICE.

Democrats have made a high-profile push in recent weeks to police ethical transgressions in the party’s ranks. Nearly two dozen Democrats led by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington broke ranks to reprimand Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) for apparently engineering his retirement announcement to ensure a favored ally would succeed him. Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood has served as the top Democrat on the subpanel since Cuellar’s indictment last year alleging he took some $600,000 in bribes from foreign entities. Cuellar has denied wrongdoing and cast his indictment under President Joe Biden as political retribution for his moderate immigration stances… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Always on my mind: Trump’s enduring focus on Joe Biden (New York Times)

Of all the statistics that came out of President Trump’s economic address on Tuesday night in Mt. Pocono, Pa., surely one of the most striking was this: He mentioned Joe Biden 30 times. That would be 31 times, if you count “sleepy son of a bitch,” which the audience surely did. “Sleepy Joe Biden — have you heard of him?” Mr. Trump asked at one point.

At various other points: “So you have Biden food price increases … You know what you did during the Biden era for Thanksgiving? … I had a news conference, unlike Biden … Stupid Joe … Sleepy Joe … Crooked Joe.” Joe. Joe. Joe. Hardly a day goes by that Mr. Trump does not talk about his predecessor. Even still, his performance at Mt. Pocono seemed to represent some kind of new summit being reached. According to a review of all his speeches throughout the year, Tuesday’s was the one in which he mentioned Mr. Biden the most.

Mr. Trump has been in office for nearly 11 months, but his fixation with the guy who had the job before him has not diminished as time has gone on. It actually seems to be growing more intense. An analysis of his first 50 days in office conducted back in March by The New York Times found that Mr. Trump mentioned the name “Biden” 6.32 times a day on average.

At a cabinet meeting last week — 316 days into his second term — he spoke about Mr. Biden eight times during one 20-minute window. It’s also notable that this fixation has become more acute as Mr. Trump has started facing scrutiny over some of the same issues for which he attacked Mr. Biden — namely, his handling of the economy and his age. It’s like a rhetorical Chinese finger trap: The more that Mr. Trump’s troubles resemble Mr. Biden’s troubles, the more Mr. Trump talks about Mr. Biden. “He’s like a bad gambler who just can’t stop doubling down on the same bet, and that bet was that cost of living and age was killing Biden,” said James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump signs executive order blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around AI (CNN)

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that blocks states from enforcing their own regulations around artificial intelligence and instead aims to create a “single national framework” for AI. “This is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive action to ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country, as opposed to being subject to state level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry,” White House aide Will Scharf said of the executive order in the Oval Office. The order could have far-reaching effects on US efforts to dominate the nascent technology, which has already become a significant part of the economy and the stock market but which also still remains untested in many ways.

David Sacks, the White House crypto and AI czar, said during the signing ceremony that the executive order would have the administration create a “federal framework” on AI in conjunction with Congress. “In the meantime, this EO gives your administration tools to push back on the most onerous and excessive state regulations,” Sacks said. Notably, Sacks emphasized that the administration will not push back on state-level regulation around child safety and AI. He later wrote in a social media post that the EO “does not mean the Administration will challenge every State AI law.” Congress killed an earlier attempt by Republicans to prevent states from regulating AI in July. The US Senate voted nearly unanimously to remove a 10-year moratorium on the enforcement of state artificial intelligence regulations from Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill before the bill passed. Lawmakers also declined to add an AI moratorium to the National Defense Authorization Act, despite Trump’s suggestion that they do so... 🟪 (READ MORE)

Have comments or questions? 📩 Contact me