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- BG Reads // November 19, 2025
BG Reads // November 19, 2025
A.J. Bingham
November 19, 2025
✅
faustin a
Presented By
www.binghamgp.com
November 19, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Today: Special Austin City Council Meeting @10AM: Agenda + Livestream Link
🟪 Austin takes step back from firefighter contract after union launches petition (KXAN)
🟪 Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett will run for reelection after court blocks Texas' congressional map (KUT)
🟪 Austin ISD shares final school consolidation plan; vote on Nov. 20 (Community Impact)
🟪 Austin's first Korean bank aims to take advantage of wave of Korean businesses, transplants (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Federal court blocks Texas from using new congressional gerrymander in 2026 midterms (Texas Tribune)
🟪 Texas appeals ruling that Trump-backed redistricting is racial gerrymandering (KUT)
🟪 Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to ban two Muslim groups and their members from owning land in Texas (Texas Tribune)
🟪 What happens to California's Prop 50 maps if Texas redistricting efforts are blocked? (NBC)
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]
🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart
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[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)
✅ Austin takes step back from firefighter contract after union launches petition (KXAN)
During an Austin City Council work session Tuesday, city negotiators were directed to reengage the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) over a tentative labor agreement that was supposed to be voted on by city council Thursday.
The issue — city staff said — is that after the tentative labor agreement was reached, the firefighters union launched a petition to get staffing minimums on the ballot in May. That petition also impacts Austin’s budget.
“If the AFA had an issue with the staffing, which is a mandatory subject of bargaining, we believe as a city that they should have brought it to the bargaining table as an outstanding issue, but they didn’t,” the city negotiator said… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett will run for reelection after court blocks Texas' congressional map (KUT)
Longtime Austin Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett said he intends to run for reelection after a federal court blocked Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map in the 2026 midterm elections.
"To borrow from Mark Twain, the reports of my death, politically, are greatly exaggerated," Doggett said in a statement. "This federal court order means that I have a renewed opportunity to continue serving the only town I have ever called home, as democracy faces greater challenges than at any point in my lifetime."
Doggett had previously said he would not seek reelection if the state's newly drawn congressional map went into effect.
The map was passed by the Texas Legislature earlier this year in a special session after President Trump said he wanted five more Republican seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The map eliminates one of Travis County's two Democrat-held seats.
If it had gone into effect, it would have pitted Doggett and Democratic Rep. Greg Casar against each other in the race for the remaining seat that represents Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin ISD shares final school consolidation plan; vote on Nov. 20 (Community Impact)
As the Austin City Council begins deliberating over a new austerity budget proposal Tuesday, public safety spending has become a major flashpoint.
While the three public safety unions are pushing council to infuse millions of dollars into the fire department and emergency medical services, a coalition of nearly two dozen progressive organizations is advocating for a more equitable approach so that homeless services, parks and other programs don’t have to suffer cuts amid a nagging budget shortfall. The coalition also is calling for a reduction in police spending, which it described as “one of the few viable ways” to achieve its goal.
The wrangling began in earnest last week after City Manager T.C. Broadnax released a revised budget proposal that reduced the Austin Fire Department and Austin-Travis County EMS budgets by a combined $14 million-plus. Leaders of the Austin Firefighters Association and Austin EMS Association, along with the Austin Police Association, were quick to blast the cuts and warn they would put Austin residents at risk by slowing response times and weakening the ability of their agencies to respond to severe fires and medical emergencies… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Austin's first Korean bank aims to take advantage of wave of Korean businesses, transplants (Austin Business Journal)
Since Woori America Bank opened its first Austin-area location in August, patrons have been excited about the familiarity of coming in and speaking Korean while making a bank transaction, and doing so in a place that looks like a bank does back home, according to Senior Vice President Joongmo Kim.
"Many Koreans visit here and it feels like a Korean bank branch," said Kim, who leads the Lakeline-area branch.
Woori America, a subsidiary of Seoul-based Woori Bank, is already growing its customer base at the Williamson County branch north of Austin, where Asian businesses and employees have flocked. In the three months since they opened the doors to the 2,000-square-foot branch at 14028 U.S. Highway 183, executives said they've already signed up more than 100 personal accounts, five business customers, two loan customers and two home mortgage customers… 🟪 (READ MORE)
[TEXAS/US NEWS]
✅ Federal court blocks Texas from using new congressional gerrymander in 2026 midterms (Texas Tribune)
Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and will instead need to stick with the lines passed in 2021, a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday.
The decision is a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who pushed through this unusual mid-decade redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump. They were hoping the new map would yield control of 30 of the state’s 38 congressional districts — up from the 25 they currently hold — and help protect the narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling striking down the new lines. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
Brown ordered that the 2026 congressional election “shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021.” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that his office would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the ruling and allow the map to go into effect. But time is short: Candidates only have until Dec. 8 to file for the upcoming election… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Texas appeals ruling that Trump-backed redistricting is racial gerrymandering (KUT)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has quickly appealed to the Supreme Court a ruling that the redistricting passed by lawmakers at the urging of President Trump was based on racial gerrymandering.
“Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during ten days of hearings,” said Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement. “This ruling is clearly erroneous and undermines the authority the U.S. Constitution assigns to the Texas Legislature by imposing a different map by judicial edict.”
A three-judge panel had earlier Tuesday placed temporary block on the map that Republican lawmakers passed this summer and ordered the state to use the district maps from the last two elections.
The map that was overruled was made to give Republicans an advantage in flipping as many as five seats held by Democrats… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to ban two Muslim groups and their members from owning land in Texas (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday named two Islamic groups as terrorist and criminal organizations, banning them and those associated with the groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas.
Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, as transnational criminal organizations.
In announcing the designation, Abbott accused the two groups of supporting terrorism across the world and of subverting Texas laws through harassment, intimidation and violence.
“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable,” Abbott said in a statement… 🟪 (READ MORE)
✅ What happens to California's Prop 50 maps if Texas redistricting efforts are blocked? (NBC)
Even after a panel of federal judges ruled on Tuesday that Texas cannot use new mid-census congressional maps intended to favor Republicans, California's counter-plan still stands barring any future court rulings.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders earlier this year announced Proposition 50 as a way to offset Texas' plans to try to send five more Republicans to Congress. The voter-approved measure redrew California's district maps to try to send five more Democrats to the Lower House.
When Prop 50 was initially introduced, there was language in the measure that stated California would only move forward with its redistricting — also known as gerrymandering — efforts if Texas proceeded with its plans. That language was removed from the measure before it reached Newsom's desk for him to sign into law.
When asked to clarify if California would move forward with Prop 50 even if the courts strike down Texas' gerrymandering efforts, Newsom provided the following response during an Aug. 21 news conference:
"We're moving forward. Texas moved forward. Texas acted. Texas is moving forward. You're suggesting — people are suggesting — Texas is not going to move forward because of what we just did? Come on," Newsom said.
The first court date for Prop 50 is set for Dec. 3… 🟪 (READ MORE)
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