BG Reads // July 21, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
July 21, 2025

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Number of missing from July 4 floods drops to 3, Kerr County officials say (KUT)

🟪 Elgin leads Austin area's hottest housing markets, study finds (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin ISD to evaluate resources after $9M in federal funding cuts (KXAN)

🟪 Appeals court upholds Texas law limiting cities' enforcement of local ordinances (Texas Tribune)

🟪 The Texas Legislature is back for a special session. Here’s what we’re watching. (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Joe Rogan urges Texas Democrat to run for president (The Hill)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Memos:

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Elgin leads Austin area's hottest housing markets, study finds (Austin Business Journal)

The hottest housing market in the Austin area in the second quarter was one that's become a target of homebuilders — Elgin.

In the past 12 months, the average sale price for houses in Elgin's 78621 ZIP code jumped about 57% from $339,590 in the second quarter last year to $532,419 in the second quarter of 2025.

That's according to The Business Journals' second-quarter analysis of the country’s hottest housing markets based on quarterly listing and sales data from Intercontinental Exchange. The rankings aren’t meant to highlight the most expensive or the most popular markets, although some of those are on the list. Instead, rankings spotlight ZIP codes where activity is surging, prices are dramatically rising or homes are selling at a faster pace.

The ranking is intended to emphasize sales and pricing momentum in each ZIP code, using a weighted formula that includes quarterly and year-over-year data. Only ZIP codes with complete data were included in the analysis, and they had an average sale price of at least $422,800 — the national average — and 10 listings sold in the quarter. In the Austin area, the median sales price was $450,000 in June, according to the latest data from Unlock MLS… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Number of missing from July 4 floods drops to 3, Kerr County officials say (KUT)

The number of missing victims of the massive floods through Kerr County has precipitously diminished.

The Kerr County Flood Disaster Joint Information Center confirmed in a statement on Saturday that three individuals remain unaccounted for after the deadly floods of July 4.

At various points in recent days, reports estimated that there were 160 missing. Later reports said over 100 were missing.

This drop to three missing people, was explained in a statement by Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.

"We are profoundly grateful to the more than 1,000 local, state, and federal authorities who have worked tirelessly in the wake of the devastating flood that struck our community," said Rice. "Thanks to their extraordinary efforts, the number of individuals previously listed as missing has dropped from over 160 to three."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin braces for third round of gas‑rate increases in 12 months (Austin Monitor)

Texas Gas Service (TGS) has filed for its third rate increase in approximately 12 months, affecting customers in Austin and surrounding areas.

On Thursday the Austin City Council is expected to approve a 90-day delay of the proposal, though the city has limited authority to block it. The city does not own its gas utility and, Unlike Austin Energy or Austin Water, cannot control its rates. Final approval lies with the Texas Railroad Commission, which often sides with industry during rate cases.

TGS initiated a rate case last summer, citing the need to fund infrastructure and maintain its gas delivery system. Austin and other cities challenged the increase, but higher bills still took effect in January. In February, Texas Gas Service (TGS) introduced another hike under the state’s Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program (GRIP), meant to recover recent capital costs. That increase, also delayed but not denied, took effect this summer.

Now, TGS has filed for a third increase, seeking to raise $41.1 million in revenue, which is about a seven percent system-wide increase including gas costs (or nearly 10 percent excluding them)… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD to evaluate resources after $9M in federal funding cuts (KXAN)

Austin ISD might need to find more than $9 million in funding, following the loss of some federal grants, according to a letter sent out by Superintendent Matias Segura. The letter said that at the end of last month, the district learned a number of grants were on hold with no timeline or indication of when they’ll become available. The grants included multi-lingual support and after-school programs.

“We believe every student deserves a high-quality education that affirms their identity, supports their mental health and prepares them to succeed in a global society,” Segura said in the letter.

“We believe in the power of bilingualism and biliteracy. We believe in the importance of social-emotional development and caring relationships in every classroom. These beliefs are not negotiable.” The superintendent said, given the district’s ongoing budget deficit, they’ll need to have discussions about how they’d operate without the money… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ The Texas Legislature is back for a special session. Here’s what we’re watching. (Texas Tribune)

When Texas state lawmakers convene Monday for a special legislative session, they will already be strapped for time.

Members of the Legislature will have 30 days to work through a crowded agenda set by Gov. Greg Abbott defined largely by two items: legislation in response to Central Texas floods that killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, and a redrawing of the state’s congressional districts ordered up by President Donald Trump.

It appears there is wide consensus among lawmakers that the Legislature must pass laws aimed at preventing another flooding disaster like the Fourth of July one that’s become one of the deadliest in modern state history and raised serious questions about emergency preparedness in a state where millions of people live in areas vulnerable to flash floods.

There is far less agreement on redistricting, which Democrats argue will further silence the voices of the state’s marginalized communities as the GOP tries to gain seats in the U.S. House… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Appeals court upholds Texas law limiting cities' enforcement of local ordinances (Texas Tribune)

Two years after a district court declared that a new state law diluting the policy-making power of blue urban areas was unconstitutional, an appeals court on Friday overruled that decision.

Texas lawmakers in 2023 passed House Bill 2127, dubbed the “Death Star” bill by opponents, which aims to overturn cities’ progressive policies and prevent them from enacting future ordinances that aren’t aligned with broad swaths of state law.

The law prevents cities and counties from creating local ordinances that overstep state laws, such as those passed in Dallas and Austin mandating water breaks for construction workers.

The bill, long sought by Gov. Greg Abbott, marks Texas Republicans’ biggest attempt to undercut the power of the state’s largest metropolitan areas, home to the most Democratic-leaning constituents and leaders… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Joe Rogan urges Texas Democrat to run for president (The Hill)

odcast host Joe Rogan offered high praise for state Rep. James Talarico (D) on his podcast Friday, telling the Texas lawmaker he should launch a White House bid.

“You need to run for president. We need someone who is actually a good person,” Rogan said at the end of a multihour interview.

Talarico, who has been in office since 2018, has been considered a rising star by some for his Christian faith and popular TikTok account where he pushes back on Texas GOP policy on education and public schools. 

Appearing on Rogan’s podcast is a coveted opportunity for politicians, notably for Democrats looking to recapture the young, male audience the party feels it has lost.

Talarico is considering a dark-horse bid for Senate in a crowded Democratic primary that includes former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas). He laughed after Rogan told him to run for president and pushed back on the host’s suggestion…  🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas goes back to future with controversial congressional redistricting (Washington Post)

It’s easy to forget these days, given the more than three-decade dominance of Republicans in Texas, that Democrats began 2004 with a majority of the state’s delegation to the U.S. House. Holding just 15 of the state’s 32 seats in the House, Republicans then kick-started one of the most important strategic moves to help determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Republicans in the state legislature worked hand in hand with their congressional delegation to launch a mid-decade redrawing of House district lines.

This being Texas, it was a political soap opera that involved a criminal investigation into money laundering, a Democratic decampment from Austin to Oklahoma, and a Supreme Court case argued by a young Texas lawyer named Ted Cruz. After the dust settled in 2004, the GOP had secured a dominant 21-11 advantage in their Texas delegation, even as the state turned into a “majority-minority” state.

“It was a classic power play,” recalled Martin Frost, a 13-term veteran who was Texas’s most prominent House Democrat. Frost lost by more than 10 percentage points in the new district.

“When you have the votes, you can do whatever you want,” Frost, 83, said in an interview Thursday. Today’s Texans provide a crucial bloc for determining power in the House: 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats. That Lone Star State margin essentially provides the buffer that allows Republicans to cling to the narrow 220-212 majority in the House. Three vacancies, including one from the Houston area, will be filled later this year from heavily Democratic districts, further narrowing the GOP edge and feeding fears that next year’s midterm elections will follow the recent trend of handing the opposing party control of the House.

Now, without much planning, Republicans in Washington have essentially ordered Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and his allies to start a special session in the next few days to draw a new map with a goal similar to the one in 2003: gerrymander the districts in hopes of a net gain of about five seats. Some politically safe incumbents voice optimism about shoring up the majority, but also express worries that they would have to give up so many of their solidly Republican voters to other districts that they would draw themselves into competitive seats… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ The IRS says churches can endorse political candidates. In Texas, many already were. (Texas Monthly)

For nearly thirteen years, Steve Bezner tiptoed a fine line between being “political and partisan” from the pulpit. The pastor of Houston Northwest Church knew his Baptist congregation leaned Republican, but he felt that taking political sides could divide churchgoers and denigrate the organization’s mission. Then Bezner and the church decided to close during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, partnered with Black congregations and local police on racial-reconciliation initiatives.

About 100 of the 2,100 congregants left. The exodus was manageable, if disheartening. “I’ve always said that there is a difference between speaking about issues and candidates,” Bezner told me this week. “And I certainly received pressure from church members to endorse or denounce candidates. But there was always the protection of the Johnson Amendment,” the federal rule that bars tax-exempt nonprofits, including churches, from overt political activity. Now he worries that protection is fading. Last year, two Texas churches—Sand Springs Church in Athens and First Baptist Church Waskom—filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging that their constitutional rights were being violated.

Then, earlier this month, the new, Trump-appointed head of the IRS wrote in a court filing that the agency would not revoke the churches’ nonprofit status. The filing does not end the prohibition—and has already sparked at least one legal challenge—but some churches are celebrating what they see as a major victory that ends 71 years of religious persecution.Passed in 1954 and strengthened under President Ronald Reagan, the Johnson Amendment has not stopped churches on either side of the political aisle from throwing their weight behind candidates, particularly in presidential elections.

By some estimates, only one congregation has ever lost its tax-exempt status for violating the rule. And Texas provides myriad examples of the hands-off approach that the IRS has historically taken to enforcement. Megachurches across the state have routinely faced criticism—but not crackdowns—for hosting political candidates on Sundays, blasting politicians they dislike, or promoting certain ballot measures. And a 2022 investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica found that at least twenty churches, most of them in Texas, had likely violated the Johnson Amendment without consequence over the previous two years. Some of those instances were less overt.

At Gateway Church in the Dallas area, for example, former pastor Robert Morris told his congregation from the stage that the church didn’t make endorsements—though he showed them the names of specific candidates for local office at least three times, according to the Tribune. Other churches have pulled no punches in their political activities, framing opponents as demonic while hosting and endorsing candidates—in one case, a candidate who also pastored at the church—on Sundays… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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