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October 24, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Early voting has started for the Nov. 4 election. Here's what to know for the Austin area. (KUT)

🟪 Report shows pedestrian crash deaths in Austin have not decreased (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Conversation around $1.6 billion convention center heats up at city council meeting (CBS Austin)

🟪 Austin's skyscraper vision reshaped amid new state law challenges (KVUE)

🟪 What F1’s Extension Means for Austin (Austin Monthly)

🟪 A costly radio system faltered when Texas needed it most (New York Times)

🟪 Federal immigration crackdown slowing Texas job growth (Texas Public Radio)

🟪 Texas Education Agency takes over Fort Worth ISD, replacing its elected school board (Texas Tribune)

READ ON!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of July 2025)

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Early voting has started for the Nov. 4 election. Here's what to know for the Austin area. (KUT)

Voters across the Austin area will decide on funding for city services, some mayoral and city council races, and — along with the rest of the state — changes to the Texas Constitution.

Here's what you need to know about when, where and how to vote.

Austinites will get to vote on Proposition Q, a proposed tax rate increase funding a variety of city programs that has faced controversy and a lawsuit in the months leading up to the election.

Voters will also get to weigh in on 17 constitutional amendments that cover property taxes, bail, water infrastructure, dementia research funding and more. Here's our guide to the proposed amendments and how they would affect the state.

KUT has put together voter guides for Travis and Williamson counties with more detailed information and links to sample ballots:

• Travis County voter guide

• Williamson County voter guide

🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Report shows pedestrian crash deaths in Austin have not decreased (Austin Monitor)

Although Austin has fewer overall automobile crashes than other major Texas cities, the percentage of crashes involving serious injury or death of a pedestrian is still at the same rate — 27.9 percent– as other large Texas cities. That is one conclusion of the special report from the Austin City Auditor’s Office. Council members Zo Qadri and Paige Ellis requested the report to try to understand how Austin police officers respond to crashes, especially those involving pedestrians and enforcement of the Lisa Torry Smith Act.

The law was passed in response to the death of Smith, who was killed while walking her child to school in a crosswalk in 2017. Under the law, officers in Texas are required to file a special report within 10 days for crashes that involve injury, death or $1000 or more in property damage.

Between September 2021 and July 2025, auditors reported that there were more than 52,000 crash reports in Austin. Although pedestrians were involved in only about 3 percent of those crashes, about 28 percent of those that involved pedestrians resulted in serious injury or death… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Tesla reports slump in net income but touts good returns on self-driving in Austin (Austin Business Journal)

Tesla Inc.'s third-quarter financial results were far from stellar, but there nonetheless was some good news for the Austin metro in the company's latest report.

That's because CEO Elon Musk continued to tout the region as a launch pad for growth of Tesla's self-driving electric robotaxis and AI-powered future.

“We're really just at the beginning of scaling, quite massively, full self-driving and robotaxi and fundamentally changing the nature of transport,” Musk told investors on a post-earnings conference call Oct. 22. “I think people just don't quite appreciate the degree to which this will take off, where honestly it's going to be like a shock wave.” 

The Austin-based company, which has a massive gigafactory in eastern Travis County, reported that third quarter net income slumped 37% from the year-ago period to $1.4 billion, even as quarterly revenue climbed 12% to $28 billion. Tesla attributed the drop in net income primarily to increased research and development costs in artificial intelligence and other areas.

Shares of Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) were down close to 4% in pre-market trading Oct. 23, at about $439.

Musk spent little time on the conference call discussing the quarterly financial results, instead focusing on the robotaxi service — which launched in Austin in June and has expanded in recent months — and the company's other AI efforts.

He said Tesla hopes to pull its safety monitors from its robotaxis in parts of Austin by the end of this year, although he noted that the company is proceeding cautiously because "even one accident will be front page headline news worldwide." Tesla's robotaxis, which also have launched in California's Bay Area, will expand to 10 U.S. metros in Nevada, Arizona and Florida by the end of 2025, he said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Conversation around $1.6 billion convention center heats up at city council meeting (CBS Austin)

The Austin City Council has approved several items related to the funding of a $1.6 billion convention center redevelopment project, despite mixed public opinion.

During the public comment period, Betsy Greenberg opposed the project, stating, "We do not need another one, especially one that costs billions." In contrast, Tom Noonan, president of Visit Austin, supported the expansion, saying, "We have a great plan, it's working, let's not break it."

The project aims to generate $650 million from special tax revenue bonds. Noonan emphasized Austin's growth, noting, "We are the 13th largest city in America. We had the 61st largest Convention Center. If we build the new one, we'll be 35." Matt Geske, VP of Public Affairs for Downtown Austin Alliance, warned that without approval, "many small businesses and their jobs will close and leave downtown."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin's skyscraper vision reshaped amid new state law challenges (KVUE)

Austin leaders want to fill downtown with more skyscrapers and were hoping to get it done under the downtown density bonus program, but a new law is forcing them to change plans.

On Thursday, council members listened to feedback from Austinites about their proposal to set a 350 ft height cap on buildings for the Central Business District (CBD) density bonus program to preserve affordable housing.

Under SB840, which took effect on Sept. 1, the state got rid of Texas cities’ ability to regulate floor-to-area ratios (FAR) for residential and mixed-use projects.

“We need some time to work through [the state law] and get to a good solution that encourages skyscrapers in downtown, but I want to make sure and preserve our affordable housing dollars that generate the great streets requirements,” said District 4 leader, Chito Vela.

District 9 leader Zo Qadri released the following statement:

“We know this outcome is not ideal for anyone. Once again, Austin is constrained by state law and court rulings. I want to assure our downtown community that I am committed to working with staff to fast track the Downtown Density Bonus update for the areas most affected. Together, we can create a stronger program that encourages investment downtown and reflects our community’s goals for a more vibrant, walkable, and inclusive Austin.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What F1’s Extension Means for Austin (Austin Monthly)

The Circuit of The Americas track is anything but straightforward: A 12-story incline into Turn 1 kicks off the race, which has a total of 20 corners—among the most across all F1 courses. As drivers navigated those curves, the Austin Grand Prix itself faced a turning point over the weekend, with officials negotiating whether the event would stay in the Texas capital, since the deal was set to expire next year. However, news broke on Sunday morning that the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin will indeed stay in the capital city through at least 2034 under a new contract.

That’s good news for Central Texas, since the economic impact of a single F1 weekend purportedly hovers around a billion dollars, putting it on par with an entire season of an NFL football franchise. The event brings in over 400,000 attendees, who spend money on hotel stays, restaurant visits, and retail purchases (the sales tax revenue alone is in the millions).

Each year since the pandemic has seemed bigger for the annual racing event, but this past weekend felt like a major turning point. Nights were dominated by massive parties with iconic brands like Glenfiddich, Aston Martin, Patrón, Sports Illustrated, and Red Bull as well as newcomers like Uber. And the race itself saw the introduction of new key sponsorships for major brands, including MSC Cruises and Louis Vuitton. The former is a Switzerland-based cruise line that has recently expanded service to Texas and is upending the market with its rapid growth. The global renown of these companies underscores the sweeping reach of Formula 1 as well as the ever-increasing size (and enthusiasm) of the American fan base… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Developer files suit against Liberty Hill over access to water it says it paid to reserve (Austin Business Journal)

As worries about Williamson County’s limited water supply mount, one team of developers has taken its concerns a step further and filed a lawsuit against Liberty Hill for access to water it says it paid to reserve years ago.

Developers of a nearly 250-acre residential project in Liberty Hill called The Mansions Project — three entities that go by 4400, 5500 and 6600 CR 277 Investments LLC — filed suit against Liberty Hill on Sept. 11, alleging the development team paid a $9.3 million reservation fee to secure 882 “living units equivalents” of water per a 2023 development agreement but the water now is being allocated to other projects in Liberty Hill.

The suit contends Liberty Hill’s actions have imperiled years of effort and tens of millions of dollars worth of investment in The Mansions Project and public improvements, based on the promise to reserve water capacity. It was filed in 425th District Court in Williamson County… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ A costly radio system faltered when Texas needed it most (New York Times)

After a deadly flash flood swept through Kerr County in central Texas this summer, rescuers combed dozens of miles along the Guadalupe River, looking for survivors. The grueling job was made more difficult because the radio system they needed to coordinate the response was not up to the task. Some rescuers got busy signals. Others got garbled messages. At Camp Mystic, the summer camp where 25 children died in the flooding, there was little to no coverage.

Temporary radio towers eventually were brought in to extend service into the disaster zone. It was a frustrating mix of problems, made even more troubling because Kerr County had just spent $7 million to overhaul its radio communication system. But the deficiencies were no accident: The new network installed by Motorola Solutions excluded about a quarter of the county’s sprawling territory from reliable coverage for portable radios, leaving dead zones around Camp Mystic and other areas along the river.

To identify the system’s shortcomings, The New York Times digitized proposed coverage maps for Kerr County, reviewed contracting records and obtained data about the radio network’s performance through public records law. The Times found that a nonprofit public utility had also sought to bid on the project and had proposed more extensive portable radio coverage that would have reached more than 90 percent of the county’s territory, including the Camp Mystic area. That alternative system proposed by the utility, the Lower Colorado River Authority, would also have offered more capacity. And it could have been cheaper. But Motorola won the contract anyway, aided by a process that was tilted in the company’s favor.

Thomas Gilbert, a radio system manager who was brought in by the state to help coordinate communications, said a combination of coverage shortfalls and compatibility problems proved frustrating for responders who were struggling to find victims of the flooding. Some searchers had to hike out of the search areas to communicate when they found themselves upriver with little or no radio coverage. “That was a huge gap,” Mr. Gilbert said in an interview. The communications challenges raise questions not just about Kerr County’s new radio system, but also about the broader role played by Motorola Solutions, a company that dominates the emergency communications business in the United States, generating large profits from taxpayer-funded projects… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Federal immigration crackdown slowing Texas job growth (Texas Public Radio)

The federal immigration crackdown is contributing to weak Texas job growth. That's according to recent Texas Business Outlook Surveys by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The findings from the surveys suggest federal policy changes on immigration will negatively impact one out of five Texas businesses this year when it comes to hiring and retaining foreign born workers.

Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida, said there is a lot of fear among the migrant community, especially among those without legal status. "They're afraid to go shopping. They're afraid to take their kids to school. They're afraid to go to church, and perhaps most importantly right now, they are afraid to go to work," she said.

Zavodny was one of the authors of a report that grew out of the surveys that found 40% of businesses reported their migrant employees missed work out of fear of immigration enforcement. She said employers worry a lot they are losing a trained workforce that is hard to get back. "They're very worried about how many foreign-born workers are staying home and even just leaving. Either leaving the state or even leaving the country," said Zavodny. Zavodny said migrants contribute to population growth, which in turn leads to economic growth.

Zavodny said Sun Belt states can offset some of that migrant population loss by U.S. citizens moving in from other states. She said she expected the slower job growth in Texas to continue as long as the same federal immigration policies are in place. Slower economic growth comes from less immigration—even if it doesn't affect unemployment rates… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas Education Agency takes over Fort Worth ISD, replacing its elected school board (Texas Tribune)

The Texas Education Agency will boot the democratically-elected board of the Fort Worth Independent School District and appoint a new slate of leaders to oversee its campuses, marking the second-largest takeover in state history, Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday morning. 

The decision to assume control of the North Texas district follows months of speculation about how the state would respond to one of the Fort Worth campuses not meeting academic accountability standards for five consecutive years. The district closed the campus, Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade, at the end of the 2023-24 school year, but Morath indicated in the spring that state law still required him to intervene. 

Dallas’ local news station WFAA first reported news about the takeover Wednesday evening. 

In a letter sent to the district Thursday, Morath said that through “action and inaction,” the current school board has “failed the students of Fort Worth ISD.” The commissioner pointed to data showing that only 34% of students across all grades and subjects are performing at grade level on Texas’ standardized exams and that 20 campuses have been considered “academically unacceptable for multiple years in a row.”... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dan Patrick calls for resignation of Alamo Trust president over views on how the Alamo’s history should be told (Texas Tribune)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Thursday called for the president of the Alamo Trust, which manages the historic site, to resign over views she expressed in a doctoral dissertation in 2023 suggesting she disagrees with Republican leaders.

“These writings are incompatible with the telling of the history of the battle of the Alamo,” Patrick, a Republican, wrote in an Oct. 23 letter to the Alamo Trust’s board of directors about President and CEO Kate Rogers. “I believe her judgment is now placed in serious question and makes clear she has a totally different view of how the history of the Alamo should be told.”

In the excerpt of her dissertation that Patrick posted on social media, Rogers described the competing politics of Republican state leaders, who want the 1836 battle to be the primary focus of the Alamo’s redevelopment, and of local officials from Bexar County and the City of San Antonio, who have pushed for the project to “tell the full story of the site including its beginning as a home to Indigenous people.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ US hits $38 trillion in debt, after the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion outside of the pandemic (PBS News)

In the midst of a federal government shutdown, the U.S. government’s gross national debt surpassed $38 trillion Wednesday, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on America’s balance sheet. It’s also the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the U.S. hit $37 trillion in gross national debt in August this year.

The $38 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report, which logs the nation’s daily finances. Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, told The Associated Press that a growing debt load over time leads ultimately to higher inflation, eroding Americans’ purchasing power.

The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of rising government debt on Americans — including higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services. “I think a lot of people want to know that their kids and grandkids are going to be in good, decent shape in the future — that they will be able to afford a house,” Smetters said. “That additional inflation compounds” and erodes consumers’ purchasing power, he said, making it less possible for future generations to achieve home ownership goals.

The Trump administration says its policies are helping to slow government spending and will shrink the nation’s massive deficit. A new analysis by Treasury Department officials states that from April to September, the cumulative deficit totaled $468 billion. In a post on X Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that’s the lowest reading since 2019… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ After others departed, Pentagon announces 'new' press corps filled with conservative news outlets (Associated Press)

Several conservative news outlets said Wednesday they had agreed to a new press policy rejected by virtually all legacy media organizations and will take their place in the Pentagon to cover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the U.S. military. The new Pentagon press corps will include the Gateway Pundit, the National Pulse, Human Events, podcaster Tim Pool, the Just the News website founded by journalist John Solomon, Frontlines by Turning Point USA and LindellTV, run by “MyPillow” CEO Mike Lindell. The Pentagon’s announcement came less than a week after dozens of reporters from outlets like The New York Times, The Associated Press, CNN and the Washington Post turned in their access badges rather than agree to a policy the journalists say will restrict them to covering news approved by Hegseth.

Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, announced the “next generation” of the Pentagon press corps with more than 60 journalists who had agreed to the new policy. He said 26 journalists who had previously been part of the press corps were among the signees. The department wouldn’t say who any of them were, but several outlets reposted his message on X saying they had signed on. There isn’t even unanimity among organizations that appeal to conservative consumers. Fox News Channel, by far the most popular news source for fans of President Donald Trump, was among the walkouts, as was Newsmax. In a post on X, Parnell denounced the “self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon.” “Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media,” Parnell wrote.

“We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps.” The journalists who left the Pentagon haven’t stopped working covering the U.S. military. Many have been reporting aggressively, for example, on stories about strikes against boats in central America alleged to be part of the drug trade. By not being in the Pentagon, “reporters will have to work harder, there’s no question about it,” said Barbara Starr, a longtime Pentagon reporter retired from CNN… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ White House releases list of donors for Trump’s multi-million-dollar ballroom (CNN)

Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, Coinbase, Comcast and Meta are just some of the major companies who have made donations to build President Donald Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom, according to the White House.

Trump has repeatedly said that work on the ballroom is privately funded by himself and donors and will cost nothing to taxpayers. On Wednesday, Trump discussed his plans for the ballroom, saying it will cost “about $300 million.” The administration previously put the cost of the ballroom project at $200 million.

Additional donors include co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family; and the Adelson family. Trump awarded Miriam Adelson, a Republican megadonor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Mamdani and Cuomo trade barbs in tense New York City mayoral debate (Wall Street Journal)

The New York City mayoral candidates got in their last licks Wednesday night at the final debate before the Nov. 4 election, with the three contenders taking jabs at their opponents. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo focused his attacks on the race’s front-runner, the democratic socialist assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, calling him a “divisive figure in New York.” Mamdani slammed Cuomo as “a desperate man, lashing out because he knows that the one thing he’s always cared about—power—is now slipping away from him.” Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee who trails the two, compared his opponents’ feuding to “two kids in a schoolyard.” Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, a crime-fighting organization.

The freewheeling debate covered public safety, the rise in antisemitism in the city and affordable housing. Candidates vied for speaking time, scoffed at their opponents’ answers and called out one another for allegedly dodging questions from moderators. Cuomo and Mamdani tussled when they were asked how they would stop the growing number of New York City school students who are homeless. Both said they would build additional affordable housing. Mamdani added that he would freeze rent on the city’s rent-regulated apartments.

“Zohran is a great actor. He missed his calling,” Cuomo scoffed, saying rent freezes have proven ineffective and only help a fraction of New Yorkers. He also called out Mamdani’s record as a state assemblyman. “This man never even proposed a bill on housing or education,” he contended. Cuomo and Sliwa pounced on Mamdani when he avoided giving an answer on whether he supported housing-related proposals on the ballot. “What is your opinion, Zohran, c’mon?” Sliwa sniped. “Yes or no,” Cuomo chimed in. When a moderator pressed for an answer, Mamdani said, “I’ve not yet taken a position on those ballot amendment questions.” “Oh, what a shocker,” Cuomo sniped… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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