BG Reads // November 13, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
November 13, 2025

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

November 13, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin budget meeting canceled over Texas Open Meetings Act concerns (CBS Austin)

 🟪 With Prop Q’s Defeat, an Era of Austerity Begins (Austin Chronicle)

🟪 The longest government shutdown in U.S. history comes to a close (NPR)

🟪 President Donald Trump endorses Gov. Greg Abbott for reelection (Texas Tribune)

🟪 In Texas, these booming housing developments come with hidden costs: 'It's an illusion' (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 Democrats lose shutdown battle — as Trump, Republicans risk losing war (Washington Post)

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 budget meeting canceled over Texas Open Meetings Act concerns (CBS Austin)

The Austin City Council's budget meeting scheduled for Thursday has been canceled following a claim by a local attorney that the city failed to post a required link to the meeting, potentially violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.

In a letter addressed to the mayor, city council, and city attorney, Bill Aleshire stated, "Your November 13, 2025, City Council meeting notice is a blatant violation of Section 551.043(c) of the Texas Open Meetings Act."

He emphasized that the city did not provide proper notice of the budget discussion, which includes a "copy of the proposed budget" and a "taxpayer impact statement," as mandated by the act.

Aleshire criticized the city's decision to consult outside legal counsel, questioning their advice.

"So, the City PAID outside legal counsel to see if they could get away with posting the meeting to discuss the budget, but without linking the budget (as TOMA now requires), so the public could see what’s in it. And the outside legal counsel said 'Yes'? They need a new lawyer," Aleshire said.

CBS Austin has reached out to the city for a response, and a City of Austin Spokesperson sent the following statement:

The City of Austin believes that the budget work session meeting noticed for November 13, 2025, was posted correctly and appropriately. The City Attorney’s Office consulted with outside legal experts prior to posting the agenda and believes it meets all legal requirements. However, our goal with the budget is to restore trust in the City, so we are willing to take additional steps to achieve that goal.

We will cancel the meeting for tomorrow, November 13, and will re-post an agenda for the Tuesday work session and subsequent meetings related to the budget… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ With Prop Q’s Defeat, an Era of Austerity Begins (Austin Chronicle)

“I don’t think the voters appreciate how deep the cuts are going to have to be,” Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel told the Chronicle last week as Prop Q, the ballot measure to increase property taxes to fund a variety of city services, went down in flames. 

Siegel was talking about the cuts that will have to be made to the city’s 2025-26 budget with the defeat of Prop Q, which was envisioned as an opportunity to get homeless people off the streets and fix holes in the social safety net torn open by the federal government. City Manager T.C. Broadnax released a new proposed budget last Friday which showed the depth of the cuts. The proposed budget eviscerates funding for homelessness programs, compared with what would have been available with Prop Q. It cuts tens of millions of dollars from other social services.  

The cuts to homeless services include over $10 million intended for more emergency shelter beds and long-term supportive housing. Additionally, $1.6 million is cut from public health initiatives like free vaccinations; $1.3 million is cut from the Family Stabilization Grant, which helps families avoid becoming homeless; and $1 million is cut from community violence intervention programs. Millions more are cut from programs for food pantries, city libraries, and wildfire prevention, to name just a few… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ The longest government shutdown in U.S. history comes to a close (NPR)

President Trump has signed a bill to fund the government, bringing a close to the longest government shutdown in history, one that saw millions of Americans affected and ended with little political gain.

The bill passed Wednesday night despite Republicans' narrow margin in the House. Six Democrats joined their Republican colleagues to get the bill over the finish line 43 days after the shutdown began: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Adam Gray of California, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Tom Suozzi of New York.

Two Republicans -- Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida -- voted no. The final vote was 222 to 209.

President Trump signed the bill shortly after the House vote. Trump blamed Democrats for the shutdown at the signing event in the Oval Office.

"This was an easy extension but they didn't want to do it the easy way," Trump said. "They wanted to do it the hard way."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ President Donald Trump endorses Gov. Greg Abbott for reelection (Texas Tribune)

President Donald Trump endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott for reelection on Tuesday, applauding the governor’s help in redrawing congressional redistricting maps this summer in his stamp of approval.

Abbott announced his bid for an unprecedented fourth term on Sunday. 

“Greg Abbott has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election,” Trump said on his social media site, TruthSocial. “He is an exceptional Governor and man — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Abbott thanked Trump for the early endorsement Tuesday, saying they would work together to “build a stronger, safer, more prosperous Texas and America.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Former state Rep. Chris Paddie fined $105,500 for violating revolving door lobbying law (Texas Tribune)

Former state Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, was fined $105,500 for violating a revolving door lobbying law designed to prevent legislators from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving office, according to an order from the Texas Ethics Commission.

A state law passed in 2019 forbids former elected officials from registering as lobbyists if they contributed money to officeholders less than two years before their registration. Paddie, who decided not to seek reelection in 2021, contributed $54,000 to House representatives and candidates late that year while he was still in office before registering as a lobbyist in May 2022, according to the ethics commission report. 

“This suggests intent to cultivate or maintain influence with the Legislature in advance of his retirement, which is what the statute was intended to prohibit,” the ethics commission’s order said of the $54,000 in donations… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ In Texas, these booming housing developments come with hidden costs: 'It's an illusion' (Houston Chronicle)

When Sandra Wilson sold her townhouse near downtown Dallas and moved to Josephine, a small city 40 miles outside the metroplex, she looked forward to quieter streets and cheaper taxes. Then she got her first property tax bill. “I came unglued,” she said. Wilson, who is 71 and retired, was aware when she bought her new home that it was in a municipal utility district, or MUD, and that she would have to pay a special tax. But what she didn’t know was how much that tax would be — more than $2,400 annually, double what she paid to the county — nor that she would be charged it essentially indefinitely. Lawmakers and developers have sold municipal utility districts as a way to provide affordable homeownership quickly and efficiently as the state’s population booms.

But homeowners who buy in MUDs, lured by affordable sales prices, often are saddled with high property tax bills, with double or triple the tax rates charged by neighboring cities, in addition to monthly fees for basic services like trash pickup or police protection. And the surrounding cities and counties are often on the hook to maintain infrastructure and provide services, without fully recouping the costs. “The developers and their lobbyists have become huge advocates for MUDs and they’ve really convinced the state that this is a great solution to affordable housing,” said Lisa Palomba, the city administrator in Josephine, which has struggled to keep up with the growth of MUDs outside city limits.

“We know that in the long run, it is not affordable. Not for the residents, not for the city.” The state’s MUDs have historically been clustered in the Houston region — in Harris County, one in four homeowners lives in one. But over the last decade, the districts have proliferated throughout fast-growing counties in Central and North Texas. Today, there are more than 1,440 MUDs statewide, up from 960 in 2018, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In Rockwall County, just south of Josephine, county judge Frank New said developers are “dropping cities out of the sky … with no services.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Democrats lose shutdown battle — as Trump, Republicans risk losing war (Washington Post)

The votes by a handful of Democratic senators this week to end a government shutdown without key concessions from Republicans have left the party bruised and divided, struggling to explain to a furious base why they folded without securing the health care subsidies they called essential. For many this was a head-scratching defeat, just days after election triumphs showed voters were on their side. But the closing chapter to the more than 40-day standoff, and the underlying fight over extending tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, could prove perilous for Republicans in the long term. President Donald Trump’s own pollsters and allies have warned that not extending the health care subsidies would amount to a major political risk in the midterms, and the public has shown it will blame a shutdown on the party in power — making any future breakdowns risky for Republicans.

The result: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history has no clear ultimate political victor as the House prepares to vote Wednesday on the deal to reopen. Polling shows the public disapproves of both parties’ approach. Democrats are bearing the brunt of the political losses in the immediate term, while Republicans are bracing for longer-term consequences. Trump took a victory lap on Fox News, saying Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) “thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”

Democrats, he boasted, are “not getting much.” Schumer said Republicans now “own” the health care fallout. “They knew it was coming,” said Schumer, who opposed the deal but is facing intense criticism from his base for the outcome. “We wanted to fix it. Republicans said no, and now it’s on them.” Most polls have found more Americans blaming Trump and Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though that margin decreased over time. A Washington Post poll on the first day of the shutdown found 47 percent of the public blaming Trump and Republicans in Congress more for the shutdown, while 30 percent blamed Democrats; by late October, the margin was 45 percent to 33 percent… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Democrats push for a ‘ruthlessly pragmatic’ approach to counter Trump (Washington Post)

The fury at eight Democratic-aligned senators who voted with Republicans to end the longest-ever government shutdown highlights the dramatic shift in the Democratic Party less than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, as voters and lawmakers argue that the party needs to adopt more ruthless tactics to counter the president and claw its way back to power.

The reaction to the two votes on Sunday and Monday, which provide a pathway for the government to reopen after more than 40 days, was fierce. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) called for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) to be replaced, suggesting he was an ineffective leader even though Schumer opposed the government funding measure.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) blasted the eight senators and said House Democrats would not support a government funding bill that did not include the health care measures the party has demanded. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential 2028 presidential candidates and voters all followed suit, lambasting those in their party they saw as caving.

The desire for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted by the shutdown — even though the party’s prior posture was that shutdowns are self-destructive — was the latest sign that the party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook given Trump’s willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate and maintain power.

Rather than try to uphold norms as the president shatters them, they have decided to fight Trump with tactics they previously disdained — and have excoriated those who have stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates with problematic pasts.

“Early on, there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and Constitution,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who opposed the government funding deal. “That has changed.” Van Hollen said there were a few senators in what he dubbed the “no business as usual caucus” at the beginning of Trump’s term, but it has since grown dramatically in response to energy from the party’s base.

“The lesson is there is power in unity and in members of Congress working in partnership with the grassroots community,” he said. “This is why so many people are feeling let down at this moment, because that unity was important.”…  🟪 (READ MORE)

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