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November 14, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Navigating Central Texas Land Use: A New Practice at Bingham Group

🟪 City announces timeline for 2026 proposed amended budget (City of Austin)

 🟪 With Prop Q’s Defeat, an era of austerity begins (Austin Chronicle)

🟪 Central Texas home sales cool in October after September surge (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 ACC expects strong enrollment growth in years ahead (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin's airport sees passenger growth in third quarter (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 ERCOT forecasts stable Texas power grid this January (Community Impact)

🟪 Texas lawmakers say colleges have to balance free speech with duty to keep discourse civil (Texas Tribune)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

Bingham Group is proud to announce the launch of our Land Use & Entitlements Practice, expanding our ability to support clients navigating policy, development and permitting challenges across Central Texas.

The practice is anchored by Senior Consultant Anaiah Johnson, who brings two decades of land development and urban planning experience, including senior leadership at the City of Austin’s Development Services Department and private-sector entitlement management for one of the nation’s largest homebuilders.

For nearly nine years, Bingham Group has represented clients ranging from Central Texas–based firms to national and international companies before municipal governments in the region.

With this new practice, we now provide integrated support across both the political and technical aspects of moving land use policy and development projects forward.

Learn more about Bingham Group’s new practice — and review all of our services here: binghamgp.com/services

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

• Memo Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Revised Budget Recommendation

• FY 2025-2026 Amended Budget Recommendation

• MEETINGS: 

  • Ten Tough Budget Questions — November 17, 6–7PM

    • Hosted by Mayor Pro Tem Fuentes and Council Member Siegel
      📍Texas AFL-CIO, 1106 Lavaca St #200

🏛️ 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]

✅ City announces timeline for 2026 proposed amended budget (City of Austin)

The Proposed Amended FY26 Budget Timeline:

• Tuesday, Nov. 18: City Council Work Session and Budget briefing. Online speaker registration will open on Friday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. Online speaker registration closes on Monday, Nov. 17 at 12 p.m. In-person speaker registration closes 45 minutes before start of the meeting.

• Wednesday, Nov. 19: City Council Work Session and public hearing on the Proposed FY26 Amended Budget. Online speaker registration will open on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. Online speaker registration closes on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 12 p.m. In-person speaker registration closes 45 minutes before start of the meeting.  

• Thursday, Nov. 20: City Council to consider action on Proposed FY26 Amended Budget.  Online speaker registration will open on Monday, Nov. 17 at 10 a.m. Online speaker registration closes on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. In-person speaker registration closes 45 minutes before start of the meeting.

• Friday, Nov. 21: Special called meeting on Proposed FY26 Amended Budget, if needed. Online speaker registration will open on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. Online speaker registration closes on Thursday, Nov 20 at 12 p.m. In-person speaker registration closes 45 minutes before start of the meeting.

• Monday, Nov. 24: Special called meeting on Proposed FY26 Amended Budget, if needed. Online speaker registration will open on Friday, Nov 21 at 5 p.m. Online speaker registration closes on Sunday, Nov 23 at 12 p.m. In person speaker registration closes 45 minutes before start of the meeting… 🟪 (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)

✅ Central Texas home sales cool in October after September surge (Austin American-Statesman)

After a September surge that marked the strongest sales growth of the year, the Central Texas housing market cooled in October with sales mostly down across the region.

The number of homes sold across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro area fell nearly 10% from a year earlier, even as growing inventory and an uptick in pending sales signaled a market settling into a more balanced pace between buyers and sellers. Austin and Travis County, where sales have outpaced the rest of the metro area in recent months, continued to perform slightly better than the region overall in October, though sales were largely flat.

According to the latest data from Unlock MLS, 2,238 homes sold across the metro area in October, down 9.6% from a year ago. The median sale price rose 1.4% to $439,000, marking the seventh-straight month of price stability. The total dollar volume of all sales declined about 5%, while the supply of homes rose to 5.3 months, near the six-month mark that industry veterans say indicates a market balanced between buyers and sellers… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Zilker Holiday Tree Lighting returns to Austin, illuminating the skyline on November 30 (CBS Austin)

One of Austin’s most beloved holiday traditions is returning to Zilker Park later this month.

The 2025 Zilker Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 30, marking the official start of the city’s holiday season.

The towering 155-foot tree, wrapped in more than 3,300 colorful LED bulbs and topped with a 10-foot double star, has been a centerpiece of Austin’s winter festivities for more than five decades... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ ACC expects strong enrollment growth in years ahead (Austin Business Journal)

Austin Community College has seen double-digit growth this year and expects to keep growing significantly in the years ahead. 

ACC has seen its enrollment total surpass 44,000 students this year, which is a 10% increase from the fall of 2024 and a 23% increase from its 2023 numbers. On that trajectory, ACC will soon be educating more people than the University of Texas at Austin, which clocks enrollment at about 55,000.

Brandon Whatley, ACC’s associate vice chancellor of workforce education, said the school expects to continue to see its annual enrollment increase in the 5%-to-10% range, adding that the trend could track booming areas of Central Texas. 

“If you look at all that's going on that I-35 corridor, there’s no end in sight,” Whatley said. “We're just kind of matching suit, if you will, where you see the construction growth and where businesses are going in, that's where people tend to migrate to, and that's where we're seeing them come from.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's airport sees passenger growth in third quarter (Austin Business Journal)

Passenger traffic through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has been on an upward trajectory in the past few months, although the latest statistics available don't include the impact on air travel of the federal government's recent 43-day shutdown that began Oct. 1.

Statistics for September show that roughly 1.73 million passengers flew through ABIA, a nearly 4% uptick compared to the same month last year.

The figure helped ABIA to a strong third-quarter performance after a slow start to the year. A total of 5.54 passengers flew through ABIA in July, August and September combined, up about 2% compared to the same period last year. The third quarter was the only quarter of 2025 in which ABIA passenger traffic topped its 2024 quarterly performances.

Passenger traffic through ABIA was down about 5% and 4%, respectively, during the first and second quarters, compared to the same periods last year.

Air travel had a slow start to the year amid a drop-off in international passengers and economic uncertainty caused in part by the Trump administration’s rollout of tariff policies… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Austin FC 2027 game schedule changing with MLS move (Austin Business Journal)

Austin FC fans will need to update their calendars. 

That’s because Major League Soccer announced Nov. 13 it will shift its 34-game season schedule in 2027 to a summer-to-spring season, meaning the season will start in mid-to-late July and end in April with playoffs in May. The new schedule format will also include a winter break where no games will be played from mid-December through early Februrary.  

Austin FC's 2025 season ran from February to October, according to its website.

Austin FC was supportive of the schedule change because it aligns better with Austin’s hot climate, said Austin FC President Andy Loughnane. 

“Today’s announcement is a good result for Austin FC fans,” Loughnane said in a statement. “The evolution to a summer-to-spring MLS calendar reflects the ongoing progress of our League, lines up better with Austin’s climate and will help us deliver an even better experience for our players and fans. It also means the playoffs will have premier placement on the sports calendar, ensuring uninterrupted maximum attention and visibility for the league’s most important matches.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 'It shouldn't be this dangerous to do business': Royal Blue Grocery robbery revives downtown safety concerns (Austin American-Statesman)

Just 10 minutes before closing time Tuesday night, a masked gunman rushed into Royal Blue Grocery with his gun already drawn and demanded money from employees before fleeing the scene, store owner George Scariano said, an incident emblematic of what he believes to be downtown’s worsening crime problem.

According to Scariano, the robbery occurred around 11:50 p.m. at the store located on the intersection of Nueces and Fourth streets downtown.

“The corridor between Republic Square and the Shoal Creek pedestrian bridge is an absolute hotspot that my business partner, Craig Staley, and I have been ringing the alarm bell about,” Scariano said. “That area needs serious attention.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 36-mile regional trail project to spur economic growth across Austin (Community Impact)

A 36-mile trail initiative could be the next economic railway plodding through neighborhoods across the Austin metropolitan area.

Leaders of what’s known as the Red Line Parkway Initiative are heralding a renewed effort to plot out the remaining 29 miles of trail that would connect neighborhoods from across Austin, extending up into the suburbs.

The Red Line Parkway, conceived over two decades ago, is poised to become the largest trail system north of Lady Bird Lake, connecting major Austin trails in a unique way, said Tom Wald, executive director of Red Line Parkway Initiative.

“I can perhaps describe it as a central business district combined with Main Street, with Rainey Street on steroids,” Wald said, adding that there are not any other trail system that will connect major trails north of the Colorado River in this way… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ ERCOT forecasts stable Texas power grid this January (Community Impact)

Texas’ power grid will likely remain stable in December and January, recent reports from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas show. Grid conditions could become tight if a winter storm hits large swaths of Texas, driving up demand for electricity.

What you need to know

ERCOT, which operates the electric grid for 90% of Texas, found in a Nov. 7 report that there should be “sufficient generating capacity available” to serve customers throughout January. The grid operator said the same thing in an Oct. 3 report analyzing expected grid conditions for December, Community Impact previously reported.

In the winter, demand for electricity spikes when people get up in the morning and return home in the evening. Less solar and wind power are available during these “higher-risk” periods, which can cause tight grid conditions, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said last year… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dallas’s next election will be November 2027 (D Magazine)

The other major item on the City Council’s agenda today was an initiative to move city elections from May to November of odd-numbered years. That means our next election will be on November 2, 2027, on the same ballot as any constitutional amendments the state legislature might cook up in the next session.

All 15 council members and Mayor Eric Johnson voted in favor of the move, but some expressed concerns about it. Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn pointed out that it would mean their terms would be extended by six months. The council’s budget discussions typically occur in August and September, which means the budget will be decided upon by councilmembers who could be voted out just a couple of months later, she said. Others had similar concerns about appointments to commissions, too, as well as what happens if there is a runoff, particularly in the mayoral election. However, in the end, they all acknowledged that voters approved this move during last year’s charter election.

Longtime advocates pointed out that this will save the city money because it won’t be on the hook for as much of the cost. And cities that have moved their elections to November have seen better turnout, moving from single digits to low double digits. State Rep. Rafael Anchia, who sponsored the House version of the bill authored by state Sen. Nathan Johnson, explained it’s not a “silver bullet”: Turnout in the teens still low turnout, it’s not the abysmal turnout the city currently has in May elections… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Federal THC ban is an 'extinction-level event' for Texas hemp industry, economist says (KUT)

The newly passed federal ban on hemp-based products containing THC could have a significant negative effect on the Texas economy, hitting a wide range of Texas industries that rely on hemp in any form, according to leading economists studying the hemp industry.

Language included in the spending legislation that just ended the federal government shutdown would dramatically lower the legal amount of THC — the psychoactive component of cannabis — permitted in hemp-derived products. Advocates, including a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general, argue this is necessary to close a loophole in the 2018 Federal Farm Bill that has led to the widespread marketing of intoxicating products, including to children.

Notably, the coalition did not include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite the significant push by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas lawmakers over the past year to ban such hemp-based products containing THC… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas lawmakers say colleges have to balance free speech with duty to keep discourse civil (Texas Tribune)

Texas lawmakers on Thursday opened a sweeping review of campus speech with a call to restore civil discourse, saying student reactions to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk exposed deeper problems with intimidation, hostility and uneven responses from universities.

“Freedom of speech is not the freedom to threaten, harass or disrupt,” said Rep. Terry Wilson, R-Georgetown. “Academic freedom is not the license to defy public accountability.”

Kirk was killed Sept. 10 while speaking at a college in Utah. State leaders announced the formation of bipartisan committees to discuss campus speech and related policies two days later. The Senate and House Select Committee on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education convened jointly Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Austin. 

Lawmakers heard from 11 invited witnesses, including University of Texas at Austin leaders, state higher education officials, law enforcement representatives and the student body presidents from UT-Austin and Texas A&M… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas A&M System approves new policy that could limit 'race or gender ideology' courses (Texas Public Radio)

Courses at Texas A&M University System schools that advocate "race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity" will only be allowed with pre-approval, following a policy change approved Thursday.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents voted unanimously to approve two policy changes that limit curriculum related to sex and gender identity and prohibit faculty from teaching material outside of the approved course syllabus. While the policy changes go into effect immediately, they will not be enforced until the spring semester, according to the board.

Several former and current faculty members spoke against the changes ahead of the board's vote. Two faculty members spoke in favor of the change, and nearly 150 letters were also sent to the board regarding the proposal…🟪 (READ MORE)

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