BG Reads // December 22, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
December 22, 2025

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

December 22, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 City of Austin to cut $5.28M in social services contracts (KVUE)

🟪 Austin's 'Central City District' planning efforts to expand in 2026 (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin rents may not rise significantly until 2027 (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Texas’ next top lawyer: What does the attorney general do and how has Paxton remade the office? (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Texas lawmakers from both parties oppose Trump’s order targeting state AI laws (Texas Tribune)

 🟪 RFK Jr. wants states to ban junk food. No one knows what counts. (Politico)

🟪 Turning Point’s annual gathering turns into a gripefest (New York Times)

🟪 U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela pushes Cuba toward collapse (Wall Street Journal)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

Honored to share that I’ve been appointed to the Austin Chamber of Commerce 2026 Board of Directors, where I’ll serve as Co-Chair of Regional Policy and on the Executive Committee.

Central Texas is at a pivotal moment. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to conversations around workforce development, infrastructure investment, and long-term regional competitiveness, alongside business and civic leaders committed to the region’s future.

Looking forward to the work ahead and to supporting a strong, resilient Central Texas economy.

📷: W/ Denise Davis (of Davis Kaufman PLLC) 2026 Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Board Chair.

READ: Austin Chamber Confirms 2026 Board Chair, Chair Elect, and Board
Leadership -> http://bit.ly/4ji2maU

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

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

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

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ City of Austin to cut $5.28M in social services contracts (KVUE)

The City of Austin is planning to reduce and reallocate more than $5 million from its social services contract budget, Austin City Manager T.C Broadnax wrote in a memo to Mayor Kirk Watson and the city council last week.

In November, the Austin City Council approved an amended budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The city revised its budget after voters rejected Proposition Q, which would have permanently increased Austin's property tax rate and generated about $110 million a year. 

Changes from the original budget included more than $38 million in cuts to social services, $6 million from EMS, $5 million from parks and at least $1 million each from public health and fire departments. 

In the memo sent Dec. 17, Broadnax said the city needs to reduce the social services budgets in economic development, municipal court/community court, and public health by 10% and reallocate Homeless Strategies and Operations by 4%.

“As part of this adjustment, limited resources will be aligned with Homeless Strategies and Operations to address immediate operational requirements, while maintaining a balanced and coordinated approach across the full continuum of social service investments,” Broadnax wrote.

The total general fund social services contract budget for fiscal year 2026 is $74.2M, and the total amount of social services contracts being reallocated is $5,277,003… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's 'Central City District' planning efforts to expand in 2026 (Community Impact)

A new plan for the future of Austin's core is coming together, and residents will be able to provide several rounds of input on their desires for the downtown area throughout 2026.

Last summer, City Council called to update the more than decade-old Downtown Austin Plan to reflect current conditions and goals for the area. Since then, the planning effort expanded to include the West Campus area north of downtown and the South Central Waterfront district across Lady Bird Lake.

The city will continue to gathering input on what's now called the Central City District Plan before its planned adoption next December. Council member Zo Qadri, who represents the area, said the initiative represents a key opportunity to shape Austin's growth and codify local goals for the years ahead… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin rents may not rise significantly until 2027 (Austin Business Journal)

Over the next year, the Austin metro’s rental market should still be friendlier for tenants as the market continues to stabilize. 

Austin’s rental market exploded during and after the pandemic as the metro area saw many businesses and people move to the area, which caused rents to spike, said Israel Linares, an analyst for CoStar. Rental construction since then has outpaced demand from Austin’s growing population. As a result, landlords have decreased their asking rents and offered more concessions. 

“We've been going through this development phase the last few years. It hit a high point in 2024. We had over 32,000 units delivered,” said Linares. “And so that's created a lot of pressure on operators who are trying to lease up their spaces.”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Billboard on Bee Caves Road set for January court case (Community Impact)

The city of Austin is taking legal action against what the city has described as an unauthorized billboard on Bee Caves Road, with one of two potential upcoming court dates set for Jan. 7.

An Austin Development Services Department representative confirmed Aug. 18 that the billboard’s owners, Media Choice, had not taken the appropriate action required in the city’s Notice of Violation within 14 days of its issuance July 30.

Following this, the city is pursuing legal action on two municipal court cases:

  • A land use violation for the property owner, scheduled for a Jan. 7 bench trial

  • A Notice of Violation for a Structure Violation, for both the property owner and billboard owner Media Choice; although scheduled for a Dec. 17 hearing, the judge postponed consideration of the case but a new court date was not scheduled as of press time.

The billboard at 8414 Bee Caves Road, Austin, is owned by Media Choice, an advertising company based in Westlake that offers billboards across the country, according to its website… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas’ next top lawyer: What does the attorney general do and how has Paxton remade the office? (Texas Tribune)

Next year, Texans will go to the polls to elect a new attorney general, and for the first time in more than a decade, Ken Paxton won’t be on the ballot. This leaves a wide-open field, in which four Republicans and three Democrats will vie to become Texas’ next top lawyer.

Attorneys general have gained political prominence in recent decades, and Texas, as the largest state with a Republican attorney general, has taken the lead on advancing conservative ideology through the courts. But the agency also handles a wide range of legal issues that impact everyday life for Texans, from consumer protection to child support.

“You want to pay close attention to this office, even if you haven’t necessarily before,” said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University who studies attorneys general. “The impact that they can have, on the state, nationally, and really on any issue that you care about, is immense.”

But what exactly does an attorney general do, and what should Texas voters consider as they go to the polls next year to select our next one?… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas lawmakers from both parties oppose Trump’s order targeting state AI laws (Texas Tribune)

An executive order by President Donald Trump may bring Texas into conflict with the federal government over a new state law regulating the use of artificial intelligence.

Trump signed an executive order last week that threatens to cut off federal broadband funding to states that pass AI regulations the federal government deems “onerous and excessive.”

Texas, which has passed one of the most comprehensive attempts to regulate AI in the country, was appropriated up to $3.3 billion through the federal broadband program to expand broadband across the state… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ RFK Jr. wants states to ban junk food. No one knows what counts. (Politico)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long-heralded food stamp reform is coming Jan. 1, but everyone’s confused about how to implement it. Eighteen states have adopted restrictions on using food aid to purchase soda and other processed foods, prompted by the Health secretary’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. The bans vary widely from state to state, and the absence of detailed guidance has left local officials, retailers and participants of the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative struggling to determine which foods are still allowed. The Agriculture Department, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and oversees states’ plans, has yet to offer definitive enforcement guidelines and did not give a timeline on when it would provide guidance on the bans. Some states have already announced implementation delays amid a rush to define what’s banned.

“It’s just a classic government operation where they’ve thrown this out there, and well-meaning though they may be, it’s caused mass confusion, and it’s making some retailers question whether they’re going to stay with the program or not,” said Joe Lackey, president of the Indiana Grocery and Convenience Store Association. Kennedy’s push for SNAP restrictions has won support from members of both parties and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. But the bans are expected to place a heavy burden on retailers and local economies already bracing for other changes to the nutrition program that serves 40 million Americans.

Retailers could be required to ban as many as 120,000 food and drink items depending on the state, according to an estimate from the National Grocers Association. That could impose hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs for retailers each year, because the lists must be continually updated as manufacturers introduce new products and propose reformulations, said Stephanie Johnson, NGA’s vice president of government relations and political affairs… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Immigration crackdown creates fault lines among Baptists (New York Times)

When federal agents descended on Louisiana this month to pursue their aggressive deportation campaign, a group of Roman Catholic priests privately brought the Eucharist to the homes of immigrants too worried to step outside. But Lewis Richerson, the pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, planned to take an opposite approach. “I would not knowingly extend communion to an illegal immigrant who is visiting our church,” he said. “That person would be in sin by being in this country illegally, and Christians should obey the law of the land.” Instead, the main way he would minister to them would be “to help them submit themselves to the authorities,” he said. “They should absolutely deport themselves.” Mr. Richerson’s church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with about 12.7 million members.

For years, the denomination has supported immigration reforms, especially given its extensive missionary work and theological commitments to helping “the least of these,” as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew. But while Catholic bishops this year have repeatedly rebuked the Trump administration over its deportation actions, Southern Baptists are contending with an increasingly loud contingent in their ranks that, like Mr. Richerson, supports the immigration crackdown. Even as many rank-and-file churches continue to support immigrant ministries, signs of fracture are emerging. In April, leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups came together to ask the denomination’s leaders “to stand firm for religious liberty and speak on behalf of the immigrant and refugee,” and to request that the Trump administration consider penalties other than deportation. At the Southern Baptists’ annual convention in June, the topic was largely absent. Delegates considered resolutions with positions on abortion, pornography and sports betting, not immigration. But delegates also held a vote on dismantling the Southern Baptists’ public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which has spearheaded action on immigration for the convention… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Turning Point’s annual gathering turns into a gripefest (New York Times)

Since 2021, Turning Point USA’s annual gathering, AmericaFest, has featured a star-studded roster of conservative influencers and politicians who have been virtually unified in their focus on a common foe, one that Charlie Kirk, the group’s co-founder, called the “woke” left. But this weekend in Phoenix, speakers at AmericaFest have scarcely mentioned Democrats and other liberal foils. Instead, some of the most prominent right-wing leaders in the country have been criticizing members of their own movement, accusing them of being “frauds,” “pompous” and a “cancer.”

Driving the enmity have been some of the most explosive and unresolved issues confronting the MAGA movement: resurgent antisemitism, the prevalence of conspiracy theories and the rise of the concept of “heritage Americans” and what that concept — considered by some to be a thinly veiled racist dog-whistle — means for nonwhite conservatives.

Notably, in the wake of the revolt against left-wing “cancel culture,” there have also been questions about what kinds of ideas might be grounds for cancellation within conservatism itself. It has been a snapshot of a powerful movement in an uncharacteristic state of discord just three months after the assassination of Mr. Kirk, a gifted communicator who had helped construct a big tent under which American conservatives of many stripes could coexist in the Trump age. Without Mr. Kirk, the movement’s boldface names have appeared to be jockeying this weekend to influence the direction of the MAGA movement at a time when its most towering figure, President Trump, is in his second term.

For some true believers, it has been hard to watch. On Saturday, Benny Johnson, a podcaster, pined for a time just a few months ago when conservatives were unified in grief and purpose after Mr. Kirk’s killing. “I’m sick of the division. I am calling it out,” he said, as he flashed photos from the memorial service held for Mr. Kirk. “Don’t let them steal this from us. We have to recapture this!” The first sparks came on Thursday night, with a blistering speech from Ben Shapiro, a founder of the media company The Daily Wire, who bemoaned the “frauds” and “grifters” in the movement, and went on to savage by name a roster of powerful right-wing figures… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela pushes Cuba toward collapse (Wall Street Journal)

Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights. A quarter of the population has fled during the island’s most prolonged economic crisis. And it’s about to get worse. The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana’s key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil.

Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers—the kind that carry about 70% of the country’s crude. One tanker that the U.S. has already seized was en route with almost two million barrels of Venezuelan oil. The blockade adds to a U.S. pressure campaign on Maduro that also includes a major military buildup in the Caribbean, airstrikes on boats allegedly connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking and threats of bombing the country itself.

Were Venezuela’s oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating. “It would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it,” said Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island’s energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin. Venezuela has been vital for Cuba’s economy since 1999, when then-President Hugo Chávez described the two countries as bound together “in a sea of happiness.” Cuba deployed sports trainers, doctors and counterintelligence agents to Venezuela, the latter to root out traitors who might overthrow Chávez. Venezuela responded with 100,000 barrels of oil shipped to Cuba daily. The heavily subsidized oil shipments have fallen to 30,000 barrels a day.

Agents from Cuba’s vaunted intelligence service remain in Venezuela, where they have worked to purge disloyal military officers and government officials, helping ensure Maduro remains ensconced in power. Cuba’s deep reliance on Venezuela means Cuba’s Communist government is doing all it can to prevent Maduro—who trained in Cuba as a young man—from being forced from office in his greatest challenge after nearly 13 years in office. That means ensuring he is always surrounded by security and loyal aides, with no one carrying cellphones or other electronic devices… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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