BG Reads // November 12, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
November 12, 2025

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

November 12, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Council Budget town halls this week and next

 🟪 Austin City Council looks at cuts to EMS, public health and parks services after Prop Q fails (KUT)

🟪 As SNAP delays continue, Austin-area food banks are seeing demand soar (KUT)

🟪 City initiative shelters 181 homeless, clears 674 tons of encampment debris (CBS Austin)

🟪 Cash-strapped Texas city defies AG warning not to raise taxes (Texas Tribune)

🟪 On day 43 of the shutdown, a vote in the House could bring the impasse to an end (NPR)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

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[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]

✅ Austin City Council looks at cuts to EMS, public health and parks services after Prop Q fails (KUT)

The Austin City Council will spend the next nine days trying to balance the city’s budget. That's after residents voted down a controversial property tax rate increase known as Proposition Q, which was expected to generate nearly $110 million.

Last weekend, staff in Austin’s budget office proposed cuts that reach across many city departments, including nearly $6.3 million in cuts to emergency medical services.

James Monks, president of the Austin EMS Association, said money from Prop Q could have meant hiring more staff and purchasing new equipment.

“[Now] it’s going to mean less paramedics on the street, and more work for the paramedics we already have out there, who are already struggling, who are already dealing with overwork burnout, mental health issues and constant stress,” Monks said.

He said the department is at a breaking point, and something has to change, especially as medics work to reduce response times and serve a growing population.

“If you have a medical emergency in Travis County as a whole, you're going to be getting one of our ambulances,” Monks said. “And so, whether you work here, whether you live here, whether you visit here, you are going to be impacted by this.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ As SNAP delays continue, Austin-area food banks are seeing demand soar (KUT)

The Central Texas Food Bank has seen demand soar exponentially since the government shutdown began on Oct. 1. The food bank is offering 10 more distribution events this month than it usually does to accommodate for the roughly 270,000 people in Central Texas experiencing SNAP delays and more than 74,000 federal employees in Central Texas who haven’t received a paycheck in over a month due to the government shutdown.

In Travis County, there are about 87,000 people who receive food stamp benefits and about 9,000 federal employees.

Beth Corbett, vice president of government affairs and advocacy at the Central Texas Food Bank, said the organization has spent an additional $1 million each week of the government shutdown, and it has seen at least a 50% increase in demand at its food distributions.In some cases, it’s been far greater… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City initiative shelters 181 homeless, clears 674 tons of encampment debris (CBS Austin)

The city of Austin completed a three-week operation Saturday aimed at connecting homeless individuals with services and clearing encampments across the city.

The initiative, which began Oct. 20, addressed 669 encampment locations and moved 181 people into shelters, according to city officials. An additional 87 individuals were connected with social, medical and behavioral health services.

Crews removed approximately 674 tons of debris during the operation, which was led by Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations and involved multiple city departments and community partners.

"This effort demonstrates what's possible when City departments unite around a shared purpose," said David Gray, director of Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations. "It's about more than clearing sites, it's about creating pathways to safety, stability, and dignity."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Cash-strapped Texas city defies AG warning not to raise taxes (Texas Tribune)

When Barbara Holly evaluated La Marque’s financial reports on her first day as interim city manager in August, she was shocked: the city had nearly no money.

The city of nearly 19,000 residents in Galveston County, which operates on a nearly $20 million annual budget, was down to just $1.2 million in September. For a city that spends about $60,000 a day, that meant La Marque had just over two weeks before it was out of money.

Holly said it felt “like being on the Titanic.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it, I was horrified,” said Holly, a certified urban planner of 40 years. She worried “that the community was just going to fold.”

The city sent a notice out to the community in September, warning of its “serious financial situation.” Residents have grown increasingly frustrated with city leaders, and trust seems to be eroding: A tense town hall meeting last month turned into a shouting match.

After that meeting, the city council approved a multi-pronged emergency response plan to reduce spending and bring in more revenue, including a 2-cent property tax increase for every $100 of property, which would add about $364,000 to the estimated $5.64 million the city would have collected before the tax increase, Holly said.

Then Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Pro-gambling interests struggling to gain foothold in Texas after Senate special election loss (Texas Tribune)

After a string of legislative defeats in 2025, a test of the political power of those pushing to legalize gambling in Texas fell flat again in last week’s elections.

Republican John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake, finished in third place behind Democrat Taylor Rehmet and Republican Leigh Wambganss, missing the runoff for the Senate District 9 special election. Huffman received 16% of the vote, according to unofficial results, despite being the race’s best-funded candidate thanks to about $3.5 million in donations and in-kind political spending on Huffman’s behalf by casino tycoon Miriam Adelson and her casino empire, Las Vegas Sands.

Huffman’s defeat in the Tarrant County district comes after sports gambling legislation that had managed to receive narrow approval from the Texas House in 2023 failed to advance out of committee earlier this year… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones join 100 other Dallas investors to launch $5 million nonprofit fund (D Magazine)

A star-studded group of investors, families, entrepreneurs, corporations, and nonprofits have pooled $5 million to launch a GreenLight Fund in Dallas. With the capital, GreenLight—a nonprofit founded in Boston in 2004—plans to address some of Dallas’ most critical unmet needs tied to racial, social, and economic inequities.

The Dallas outpost marks the organization’s 15th fund in the United States. Across its 14 cities, the nonprofit has invested $42 million in 63 organizations and helped draw $400 million in additional funding. Last year alone, it reached more than 1.3 million individuals and families.

“We want to be an addition, not a substitution, for all the great things United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and all the other organizations in Dallas are doing,” said longtime private equity investor John Simon, who also serves as the co-founder and board chair of GreenLight Fund. “From the very beginning, we always wanted to come to Dallas. The city has big companies moving in, the economy is growing and diversifying, and a lot of amazing things are going on. But certain populations are falling further and further behind with less economic mobility.”

GreenLight has expanded to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and now Dallas. Houston, Phoenix, Cleveland, and Seattle are all potential cities on the roadmap, according to Simon.

“I invested because I thought this was a positive for the city,” Mark Cuban told D CEO. “I didn’t get into the specifics on where they’d invest the funds—they can make the decision they think is best. All I’ll say is: I like helping Dallas.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Age is the issue that Democrats can’t shut down (New York Times)

The Democratic unity and good feelings after the party’s big election victories lasted under a week. Now, the knives are back out. As eight Democratic-aligned senators with an average age of about 70 voted with Republicans to end the 40-day government shutdown without the health care concessions Democrats had demanded, the party again convulsed with two questions that have long racked its members: How old is too old and how vigorously should they fight Republicans?

Democrats are still dealing with the fallout of Joe Biden’s calamitous decision to seek re-election at age 79. What has been less discussed is the fallout of having so many members of Congress who are at (and well beyond) retirement age.

And as liberal voters just found out, it’s a lot easier to vote for something your base hates if you’re too old to worry about re-election. Of the Democratic-aligned senators who voted for the shutdown deal, two are not running again: Dick Durbin of Illinois, 80, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, 78. Angus King of Maine is 81 and Jacky Rosen of Nevada is 68. Both Tim Kaine of Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire are 67. All would be past 70 years old if they decide to run again when their terms end.

The other “yes” votes were from Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, 61, who represents a state where the Las Vegas tourism industry feared taking a major hit from canceled flights, and from John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who is just 56 but has already alienated much of his party by embracing Trump on a slew of issues.

“This is the problem with the gerontocracy,” said Amanda Litman, the leader of Run for Something, a group that recruits young progressive candidates to run for office. “When you have older leaders who are never going to face re-election again, you make decisions that are disconnected from what their voters believe.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ On day 43 of the shutdown, a vote in the House could bring the impasse to an end (NPR)

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a funding bill on Wednesday that would bring an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The measure, which extends funding levels for much of the government through Jan. 30, also includes a trio of appropriation bills that would fully fund some federal programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through Sept. 30, 2026. Payments for SNAP, which provides food assistance to nearly 42 million people, have been locked in a court fight as a result of the shutdown.

The Senate approved the legislation late Monday, with seven Democrats and one Independent joining most Republicans. The bill includes a provision to reverse the layoffs the Trump administration imposed during the shutdown… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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