BG Reads // May 30, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
May 30, 2025

Presented By

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

  • On July 18th, 2024, Austin's City Council directed the City Manager to bring a comprehensive bond package for Austinites to approve through an election by November 2026.

  • The 2026 General Obligation (GO) Bond is an opportunity to invest in the future of our city, but it’s important that it reflects the priorities and needs of our community.

  • That’s why we’re asking for your input. Whether you attend a community meeting, fill out a survey, or engage with us online, your feedback will help shape the projects that move forward. Additionally, tell your family and friends to participate too!

We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Wednesday's storm was the third worst for outages since 2012, Austin Energy says (KUT)

At least one person is dead as a result of the severe storm that hit Austin on Wednesday.

The person was walking in a creek bed with two others in the 2200 block of West North Loop Boulevard. The adult was pronounced dead on the scene after being submerged in water for over 20 minutes, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a news conference Thursday morning.

There were nine water-rescue calls during the storm. The calls included vehicle rescues and pedestrians swept away by water, city officials said.

Around 13,000 Austin Energy customers were still without power at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday. A single utility customer typically represents 2.5 people, so the outage is impacting around 32,500 residents.

The utility said it could take a few days to get service back for everyone. It said it would update estimated restoration times once the damage was fully assessed.

So far, crews have seen extensive property damage, Stuart Riley, interim general manager of Austin Energy, said. Strong winds as high as 77 mph and fallen trees pulled down power lines and poles, leading to a peak of 72,500 customers, or around 181,250 people, without power. More than 100 utility poles were broken in the storm… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Advocates want to create some FOMO magic for downtown Austin (Austin Business Journal)

Downtown Austin has undergone a 15-year period of rapid development, but it now faces some challenges.

The Downtown Austin Alliance put out its 2025 State of Downtown report on May 27, highlighting its efforts to buoy the region at a time when office vacancies have been elevated and overall activity in the area has yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

To address issues facing downtown, it needs to cater to locals, visitors and businesses as more cities in Central Texas develop and compete for them, said Davon Barbour, CEO of the DAA, a nonprofit that advocates for and promotes downtown as a business and entertainment district.

“Consumers have choices — residents, workers, businesses and visitors are all consumers,” Barbour said, speaking at the DAA's Future of Downtown event. “We cannot take our consumers for granted as nationally urban centers, suburban locations have increasingly become a competitive alternative to the perceived untamed city center.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Northrop Grumman invests $50 million in Cedar Park’s Firefly Aerospace (Community Impact)

Northrop Grumman, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, announced May 29 that it will invest $50 million in Cedar Park’s Firefly Aerospace to develop new rocket technology.

The cash infusion will go towards furthering development on Eclipse, a medium-lift launch vehicle that combines technology from Northrop Grumman’s Antares and Firefly’s Alpha rockets. The Eclipse project will be used to carry cargo into low-Earth orbit, and will have a payload capacity of up to 16,000 kilograms, according to Firefly’s website.

The Eclipse mission is slated to launch in 2026, and will be used for space station resupply missions, commercial spacecraft, national security missions and scientific payloads for the domestic and international market, according to the website… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas lawmakers strike deal on $8.5B school funding package (Community Impact)

Texas public schools will likely see an $8.5 billion funding boost this fall after state senators approved a bipartisan bill that would provide permanent raises for educators and support staff; invest in early learning initiatives; and set aside money for fixed costs, such as utilities and insurance.

“House Bill 2 delivers what Texas students and educators truly need and have been asking for,” bill sponsor Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said on the Senate floor May 22. “This is not just a funding bill, it's a long-term commitment to the future of public education.”

If HB 2 becomes law, Texas will spend “north of $17,700” per student, Creighton said May 22. During the 2022-23 school year, the average Texas public school received $15,503 in state, local and federal funds, according to Texas Education Agency data.

The bill differs substantially from what House lawmakers approved in April, although bill author Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, expressed his support for the updated legislation in a conversation with reporters May 21… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bill to curb abuses of affordable housing tax breaks in Texas signed into law (Austin Business Journals)

A measure aimed at stopping abuses of tax breaks for affordable multifamily housing in Texas has been signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott and takes effect immediately.

House Bill 21, which previously passed the Texas House and Senate with more than two-thirds support of both chambers, is designed to plug a loophole that enabled what are derisively known as "traveling" housing finance corporations to proliferate across the state and remove billions of dollars from tax roles without the input of local governments.

Such entities have done so by using their legal status to buy apartment complexes and designate them affordable housing — often hundreds of miles from where they're based — in exchange for fees from developers, investors and others that they partner with to operate them.

Both Williamson County and Hays County filed lawsuits earlier this year against what they contend are traveling HFCs that have attempted to gain footholds within their jurisdictions… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bill that gives Texas increased oversight of largest energy users wins Legislature’s approval (Texas Tribune)

A bill that gives Texas oversight over energy transactions between power generators and the state’s largest consumers of electricity heads to Gov. Greg Abbott after the Texas Legislature agreed on changes Thursday.

Senate Bill 6 also proposes new ways to assess the amount of electricity that is available to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the main manager of the state’s grid, giving them the authority to shut off power to industrial consumers in an emergency.

"What we’ve done here today may become the model for the rest of the country," said state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the bill’s author.

The bill would give ERCOT the power to oversee energy transactions between power generators and large consumers that don’t involve the state’s grid. ERCOT would also have the authority to cut their power and use it during an emergency… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[US and World News]

✅ What happens to Trump’s tariffs now that a court has knocked them down? (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products.

Now a federal court has thrown a roadblock in his path.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and plaster taxes – tariffs – on imports from almost every country in the world.

The ruling was a big setback for Trump, whose erratic trade policies have rocked financial markets, paralyzed businesses with uncertainty and raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth. On his Truth Social platform Thursday, he wrote: “The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.”.

Trump’s trade wars are far from over. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed the president to temporarily continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade court’s decision… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ American doctors look to relocate to Canada to avoid the Trump administration (NPR)

The Medical Council of Canada said in an email statement that the number of American doctors creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca, which is "typically the first step" to being licensed in Canada, has increased more than 750% over the past seven months compared with the same time period last year — from 71 applicants to 615. Separately, medical licensing organizations in Canada's most populous provinces reported a rise in Americans either applying for or receiving Canadian licenses, with at least some doctors disclosing they were moving specifically because of Trump.

"The doctors that we are talking to are embarrassed to say they're Americans," said John Philpott, CEO of CanAm Physician Recruiting, which recruits doctors into Canada. "They state that right out of the gate: 'I have to leave this country. It is not what it used to be.'"

Canada, which has universal publicly funded health care, has long been an option for U.S.-trained doctors seeking an alternative to the American healthcare system. While it was once more difficult for American doctors to practice in Canada due to discrepancies in medical education standards, Canadian provinces have relaxed some licensing regulations in recent years, and some are expediting licensing for U.S.-trained physicians… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Elon Musk officially leaves the White House (CNBC)

Elon Musk's days working at the White House are over. Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO whom President Donald Trump enlisted to cut waste in the federal government, started offboarding from his role Wednesday, a White House official told NBC News, a day after he criticized a Republican bill to fund much of Trump’s agenda. Two sources later confirmed to NBC News that Musk's more than 114-day long tenure as a special government employee officially concluded Wednesday evening. Musk commented on his exit Wednesday on X, his social media platform. He called for the “DOGE mission” to become “a way of life throughout the government,” referring to his Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” wrote Musk, the richest person in the world. While a senior White House official has previously stressed that Musk is a friend of Trump’s, the White House did not provide an on-the-record comment Wednesday about Musk’s departure. NBC News has reported that special government employees, a class of temporary worker that included Musk, can typically work up to 130 days in a calendar year, though the days can be split up.

The White House first publicly acknowledged Musk’s role on Feb. 3, so he was most likely nearing the end of that tenure. Musk’s official departure came at a charged moment in his relationship with Trump. On Tuesday, CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” shared a clip of him sharing his disappointment in the “massive spending bill,” which he said “undermines” the work of his DOGE operation, which has aimed to reduce federal spending by slashing the size of the federal workforce, cutting government programs and eliminating grants deemed wasteful… 🟪 (READ MORE)

Have questions ?

📩 Contact me at: [email protected].

Learn more at: ⬇️