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December 4, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 New limits on Austin City Council spending take shape in key committee (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Bar owners struggle as Austin alcohol sales plummet: 'We've been self-funding for 3 years' (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Austin airport hits record with over 2 million passengers in October, busiest month ever (CBS Austin)

🟪 Austin Public Library Director search narrows to four candidates (Austin Chronicle)

🟪 Texas exodus underscores the state’s fading relevance in the House GOP (Politico)

🟪 Stephanie Muth, former foster care head, named Texas health commissioner (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Only scratching the surface’: Texas just became the first state to purchase bitcoin (Dallas Morning News)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

(Sunday) // I had the honor of representing the Austin Trail of Lights Foundation Board as President at one of our city’s most beloved traditions, the Zilker Tree Lighting.

Now in its 59th year, the Tree Lighting continues to bring our community together, marking the start of a season defined by connection, celebration, and Austin spirit.

[New 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]

🏛️ 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]

✅ New limits on Austin City Council spending take shape in key committee (Austin American-Statesman)

An Austin City Council committee on Wednesday offered the first substantive look at how new rules governing council members’ discretionary spending may take shape, following American-Statesman reporting that revealed lax oversight and questionable expenses in some offices.

During a morning meeting, the Audit and Finance Committee reviewed the findings of a council-initiated assessment of Austin’s existing expense and reimbursement policies for elected officials. The review was ordered in November as part of a push to craft clearer, more uniform rules around how City Council members use their taxpayer-funded office budgets.

After receiving the assessment, committee members began sketching out what a future policy might include, drawing on examples from peer cities and the state.

Mayor Kirk Watson said the preliminary review underscored the need for greater clarity and transparency in council spending — and exposed how fragmented Austin’s current rules are. 

Unlike some cities, Austin has no comprehensive spending policy and no unified set of guidelines specific to council offices. Instead, Watson noted, the standards council members must follow are scattered across several different documents, ranging from administrative bulletins to travel rules and procurement manuals.“Austin has it far more dispersed than what you see in some other cities,” Watson said. “There are about 10 policies or regulations governing city spending.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bar owners struggle as Austin alcohol sales plummet: 'We've been self-funding for 3 years' (Austin American-Statesman)

Bars across the city, including those in restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues, have collectively experienced a decline in sales every year since 2022, according to an American-Statesman analysis of alcohol tax receipts that businesses must report each month.

The decline is remarkable because, absent a dramatic drop during the pandemic, alcohol sales in Austin had increased steadily every year between 2007 – the earliest year for which data was available – and 2022.

The trend is mirrored at the statewide level, the Statesman analysis found.

But why?

There’s no single explanation, according to industry experts. But some of the biggest contributing factors are affordability concerns, the coming of age of a generation that doesn’t drink as much and national health trends… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin airport hits record with over 2 million passengers in October, busiest month ever (CBS Austin)

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport set a new record in October with more than 2 million passengers, marking the busiest month in the airport's history.

The airport served 2,086,037 total passengers in October, an 8.92% increase compared to October 2024, according to officials. The milestone surpassed the previous record of 2,068,404 travelers set in May 2024.

The airport also set a single-day record in October with 45,048 departing passengers screened by the TSA on the Monday following the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin Public Library Director search narrows to four candidates (Austin Chronicle)

On Monday, Dec. 1, the Austin Public Library hosted the public at its Central Library location for a meet-and-greet with the four finalists for the APL director position, Cedric Clark, Kathy Donellan, Hannah Terrell, and John Trischitti. 

Terrell, the assistant library director, has been operating as the interim director since 2024 after former director Roosevelt Weeks departed after serving since 2017. Clark currently serves as the Manhattan borough director for the New York Public Library, Donellan is the assistant library director for the San Antonio Public Library and has served as its interim director for a year, and Trischitti previously worked as the director for Midland County Public Libraries. Along with their official titles, each candidate has a slew of professional experience and accolades within the public library sector.

Each candidate was given about 20 minutes to answer questions brought forward from the audience, focusing mainly on teen involvement in the public library and the recently established city budget… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas exodus underscores the state’s fading relevance in the House GOP (Politico)

The Lone Star State is used to having a Texas-sized impact on the House Republican Conference. And, by the numbers, its influence should be larger than ever.

If a bold redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump goes forward, Texas could have a massive 30-member GOP delegation come 2027. And yet by the measures of clout and seniority — the real markers of power inside the House — the state is clearly on the wane.

Six members are retiring — some to pursue other political ambitions, others quitting cold turkey. Assuming the redistricting plan is approved — a Supreme Court ruling on the matter could come as soon as Thursday — another five Republicans would be freshman back-benchers from a state that once racked up committee gavels.

The turnover has left many in the already huge delegation unsettled and wondering how the state’s clout declined so precipitously. Rep. Pete Sessions, Texas’ longest-serving Republican, said in an interview that it’s “the biggest change of any redistricting period” he has been through in a nearly 30-year career.

“The timing of this across the board has been difficult to get your hands around,” Sessions said. He noted the redistricting and other retirements will “add youth and opportunity to the Texas delegation but a lot of the inexperience and a lot of things that come at a time when my party needs a lot of teamwork and collegiality.”

A younger colleague, Rep. Jake Ellzey, also said the delegation is facing a “drastic change” over the coming years: “There’s going to be a lot of introductory lunches, that’s for sure.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Stephanie Muth, former foster care head, named Texas health commissioner (Texas Tribune)

Stephanie Muth, the former commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, has been named Texas’ next health commissioner. Her first day will be on Jan. 3. 

On Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he has appointed Muth to take over Texas Health and Human Services Commission after the agency’s current head Cecile Erwin Young announced her retirement this week. 

“Stephanie Muth is a dedicated public servant who brings over 25 years of experience working in state government and at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission,” said Abbott.

Muth left DFPS at the end of July after helming the agency that oversees child protective services and the foster care system since 2023. Since her departure, Muth started her own consulting firm, and she serves as a senior fellow with Meadow’s Mental Health Policy Institute. 

She has worked in state government for over 25 years and held senior executive-level positions at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for more than 15 years. 

Young, who was appointed during one of the state’s earliest and worst waves of COVID-19 cases, gave no reason for the retirement. 

“This agency impacts every Texan, and I have been honored to serve the people of this state alongside our dedicated staff,” she said in a news release… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ‘Only scratching the surface’: Texas just became the first state to purchase bitcoin (Dallas Morning News)

The state of Texas recently purchased about $5 million worth of bitcoin through a BlackRock-administered exchange-traded fund, a representative for the state comptroller’s office confirmed in an email to The Dallas Morning News on Monday. The purchase came several months after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 21, a high-profile and controversial legislative effort that enabled the Texas comptroller’s office to establish a publicly funded strategic cryptocurrency reserve. It also amounts to one of the first-ever cryptocurrency transactions by a state government amid a broader federal and state government embrace of the recently surging crypto industry. Other states, including New Hampshire and Arizona, have passed similar crypto reserve bills.

And last year, Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s pension funds also purchased crypto, although with the comptroller’s purchase Texas has now become the first state to actually fund such a reserve. “The industry is maturing and growing — it’ll continue to become more mainstream, and I think Texas staking out a leadership position will be very beneficial to Texans over time, similar to what the oil and gas industry has done over the last century,” said Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, a crypto lobbying group that championed the state legislative effort. “I think we’re only scratching the surface,” Bratcher said.

The state made the roughly $5 million purchase through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), a fund managed by the major asset management firm that trades in U.S. dollars but generally reflects the price of bitcoin. As of early afternoon Monday, IBIT was trading around $48, reflecting a roughly 20% loss over the past month and a 13% decrease since the beginning of the year. Those valuations broadly align with the recently highly volatile price of bitcoin: Early this year — amid a crypto frenzy inspired largely by the new, extremely crypto-friendly Trump administration — the world’s predominant cryptocurrency soared to above $100,000 for the first time in its history, and then in early October reached an all-time high above $126,000… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Donald Trump to pardon Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar (Texas Tribune)

President Donald Trump announced he will pardon U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and his wife, ending the congressman’s multi-year federal legal battle. Cuellar had faced a dozen charges of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.

In Trump’s pardon, shared Wednesday morning via Truth Social, the president said that the Democratic congressman had been punished by a weaponized Department of Justice under former president Joe Biden for speaking out against the administration’s border policy.

“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” Trump wrote… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Affordable Care Act premiums are set to spike. A new poll shows enrollees are already struggling (Associated Press)

Fifty-two-year-old Dinam Bigny sank into debt and had to get a roommate this year, in part because of health insurance premiums that cost him nearly $900 per month.

Next year, those monthly fees will rise by $200 — a significant enough increase that the program manager in Aldie, Virginia, has resigned himself to finding cheaper coverage.

“I won’t be able to pay it, because I really drained out any savings that I have right now,” he said. “Emergency fund is still draining out — that’s the scary part.”

Bigny is among the many Americans dependent on Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance plans who are already struggling with the high cost of health care, according to a new survey from the health care research nonprofit KFF.

Most of the more than 1,300 enrollees surveyed in early November say they anticipate that their health costs will be impacted next year if Congress doesn’t extend expiring COVID-era tax credits that help more than 90% of enrollees pay for health insurance premiums, per KFF. The possibility of an extension looks increasingly unlikely… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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