BG Reads // October 9, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
October 09, 2025

faustin a

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

October 9, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Today’s Austin Council Agenda

🟪 Nonprofits, labor groups and council members top donors in support of Austin's Proposition Q (Community Impact)

🟪 Almost $300 million in public property is at stake as Austin ISD looks to close 13 schools (KUT)

🟪 Commission calls for full audit of police training academy (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Massive data center in Taylor will move forward, despite deed promising land would become park (KUT)

🟪 Texas’ blue-state deployments shred relations between governors (New York Times)

🟪 Metro to remove pride crosswalk after Abbott threatens to withhold funding from Texas cities (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 Trump fires Black officials from an overwhelmingly white administration (New York Times)

READ ON!

[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]

✅ Nonprofits, labor groups and council members top donors in support of Austin's Proposition Q (Community Impact)

Organizations supporting and opposed to Austin's tax rate increase ballot measure, Proposition Q, have tens of thousands of dollars on hand a month before the Nov. 5 election.

The setup

Austin City Council members in August passed a $6.3 billion city budget for the new fiscal year, supported by a property tax rate roughly 20% higher than this year's. The median homeowner would face about $300 in added taxes and a more than $100 increase from utility charges and other city fees, according to city projections.

The approved FY 2025-26 rate of $0.574017 per $100 in property value is 5 cents above the city's voter approval rate, the limit at which local governments must ask voters to approve greater tax increases. That process is required under a state-imposed cap on cities' ability to raise more than 3.5% new tax revenue year-to-year without seeking voter approval.

Austin's tax rate election, or TRE, would bring in almost $110 million in extra revenue for homelessness response, public health and safety, public space upkeep, employee pay increases and other purposes. If Proposition Q passes, Austin's budget and tax rate will stand as approved. If the measure is rejected, council members will reconvene to cut the budget down to a level supported by a lowered tax rate of $0.524017 per $100 valuation… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Commission calls for full audit of police training academy (Austin Monitor)

Members of Austin’s Public Safety Commission approved a resolution on Monday calling for a full audit of the progress made on police training academy reforms.  

In November, 2020, the city hired Kroll Associates to review and evaluate the Austin Police Department (APD) on the extent to which discrimination, racism and bigotry are present in the protocols and practices of the department, beginning with an assessment of the academy. As the resolution notes, Kroll recommended that the academy shift away from “stress-oriented military style curricula toward a resiliency -based approach.”

According to the resolution, the Kroll final report in 2022 found a lack of buy-in from academy staff related to the mandated reform efforts and a continued prevalence of “military style culture” at the academy… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Massive data center in Taylor will move forward, despite deed promising land would become park (KUT)

A state district court judge dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Blueprint Data Centers and its proposed project in Taylor.

The lawsuit, which was filed by five residents who live near the site, claimed the data center is being built on land that was supposed to become a park. It sought to stop all commercial development and construction on the land, referencing a deed from 1999 that shows the previous owners granted the property to a nonprofit "to be held in trust for future use as parkland."

The lawsuit also mentioned concerns about the potential environmental, health and safety impacts of bringing a data center to the neighborhood.

Judge Ryan Larson granted Blueprint's motion to dismiss the case, agreeing with the company that the residents lack jurisdiction in the matter.

Larson also denied the residents' request for a temporary injunction against the project. He had previously blocked Blueprint from moving forward with any work on the site while he considered the case… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Almost $300 million in public property is at stake as Austin ISD looks to close 13 schools (KUT)

If the Austin Independent School District closes 13 schools as planned, what happens next could remove some of the most valuable public land nestled among residential neighborhoods across the city.

The Austin ISD board — made up of nine elected officials — meets Thursday for the first time since staff unveiled the school consolidation plan last Friday. AISD leaders said their proposal will better balance enrollment and save money in a district where almost half the local property taxes are redistributed across Texas under the state's school finance system.

Board members, also known as school trustees, will also face the outrage of parents and teachers planning to protest outside AISD headquarters, urging trustees to slow down before a vote on the plan scheduled for Nov. 20.

The 13 campuses slated for closure next year are Barrington, Becker, Bryker Woods, Dawson, Maplewood, Oak Springs, Palm, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley and Widén elementary schools — along with Bedichek and Martin middle schools and Winn Montessori.

Together, those campuses are worth almost $296 million and contain more than one million square feet of air-conditioned space, according to Travis County Central Appraisal District records analyzed by KUT News. Property values range from $62 million for Dawson Elementary in South Austin to $10.8 million for Widén Elementary in Southeast Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin home battery energy startup Base Power raises $1B (Austin Business Journal)

One of Austin's fastest growing tech startups raised the largest venture capital funding round in the city's history and is developing a factory inside the former Austin American-Statesman building at the edge of Lady Bird Lake.

Now, where printing presses and machines once assembled daily newspapers for the city's readers, a robotic manufacturing and assembly line is being developed by residential battery energy company Base Power. The company will test its products and put them together there, to be shipped to homes across the state.

The roughly 90,000-square-foot portion of the building that Base Power is leasing will serve as its factory for a couple of years until it opens a new plant in Southeast Austin.

The plans are coming together as the company announces a $1 billion series C funding round led by Addition, a New York-based firm that previously led Base's $200 million series B funding round in April.

The massive investment easily eclipses the biggest rounds previously raised by Austin-area startups. Until now, defense tech startup Saronic held that distinction with its $600 million funding round earlier this year — not counting a $675 million series C investment raised by The Boring Co. in 2022 shortly after it moved its headquarters to the area.

Base's previous investors also re-upped and joined the new funding round. They include Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, StepStone, Elad Gil, 137 Ventures, Terrain and Waybury. The company also added new investors to its cap table, including Ribbit, CapitalG, Spark, BOND, Lowercarbon, Avenir, Glade Brook, Positive Sum and 1789… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Texas’ blue-state deployments shred relations between governors (New York Times)

The deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois at the behest of President Trump has divided the nation’s governors, severing the bonds between state leaders who have long portrayed themselves as above the partisan fray. The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, along with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, both Democrats, have threatened to leave the once-chummy National Governors Association, a group formed more than 100 years ago and dedicated to finding areas of bipartisan agreement even in fractious political times.

Instead, Democratic governors are accusing Republicans, especially Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, of a betrayal, even an “invasion” of their states. “Greg Abbott is a tool of Donald Trump, he’s his lackey,” said Mr. Pritzker in an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC this week. Mr. Abbott returned fire, calling Mr. Pritzker “clueless.”

Such animus would once have been considered unusual or out of bounds for governors, who generally have seen themselves as pragmatic politicians, required to balance budgets and find solutions for their states, regardless of party. The governors have hosted “disagree better” road shows in between twice-annual meetings and White House galas marked by bonhomie. But the deployment of about 200 troops from Texas to the Chicago area, and the threatened movement of Texas troops to Portland, Ore., have ruptured such comity.

“The president wants to call up National Guard troops in a way that we don’t believe is lawful,” Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon, a Democrat, said in an interview. “That should concern every governor, Republican or Democrat.” Democratic governors pleaded with Mr. Abbott to rebuff the president’s troop request.

The Texan in turn castigated his Democratic colleagues as weak on crime and illegal immigration. For Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Abbott, the rift over Texas troops is only the latest in an ongoing and bitter public feud that has not been a model of respectful debate… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Metro to remove pride crosswalk after Abbott threatens to withhold funding from Texas cities (Houston Chronicle)

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday threatened to withhold road funding from cities and counties if they do not remove “political ideologies” from their streets, joining the Trump administration in declaring rainbow crosswalks a dangerous distraction. Abbott directed the Texas Department of Transportation to crack down on cities and counties with symbols, flags or other markings on any roads that convey social, political or ideological messages.

That includes Houston, San Antonio and Austin, which all have rainbow crosswalks. “Texans expect their taxpayer dollars to be used wisely, not advance political agendas on Texas roadways," Abbott said in a statement. "To keep Texans moving safely and free from distraction, we must maintain a safe and consistent transportation network across Texas.”

In an email Wednesday evening, Metro said that it would re-stripe the pavement at the intersection of Westheimer and Taft to ensure the crosswalks are in compliance with federal design and safety standards. It said the decision came after Abbott's statement and recent correspondence from the Texas Department of Transportation. The city of Houston had just repainted the rainbow crosswalks earlier this month after they were removed temporarily for construction.

"We recognize the significance this crosswalk has to the community, which is why our project team restored the infrastructure to its pre-construction condition," the email read. "However, given the recent directive, we will comply with the order to preserve support that is essential to our mission of providing safe, clean, reliable, and accessible transit to all communities that depend on our services."

The directive comes after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this summer wrote to governors urging them to join a national roadway safety initiative aimed at removing artwork and political messaging from streets… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas companies threatened with boycotts amid National Guard deployment (Houston Chronicle)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized the deployment of hundreds of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois and Oregon to "safeguard" U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, despite pushback from those state leaders. Now, consumers in his home state and beyond want to wield their purchasing power to show their disapproval of Abbott's troop deployment.

A list of Texas companies to boycott in response to the deployment is catching steam. In what's being dubbed "the Governor Abbott Boycott," consumers are holding back from purchases with the most recognizable Texas-based companies, such as Tesla, Exxon Mobil and Southwest and American Airlines.

A 1903 law says the president can call upon the National Guard in instances of invasion, a rebellion (or the threat of one), or if the federal government cannot enforce laws "with the regular forces." But some democratic leaders argue the deployment of the soldiers, who the Texas Military Department oversees with Abbott as its commander-in-chief, is unlawful. Guard members are often deployed in response to natural disasters, but have previously been used for non-traditional deployments such as Operation Lone Star in 2021, the Texas Tribune reports.

Consumers are now hoping to hurt the pockets of Texas companies to grab Abbott's attention. "Good luck with your next quarterly reports," a statement attached to the list reads. It also warns that any other state that deploys its National Guard can "expect the same fate."

This boycott is the latest effort to persuade state leaders to take a different policy approach by invoking a potential economic impact. For example, after a 2021 law passed that banned abortions after six weeks, before many know that they're pregnant, some companies reacted with swift opposition, saying restrictions on reproductive health are "bad for business."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump fires Black officials from an overwhelmingly white administration (New York Times)

Robert E. Primus, the first Black board chairman of the federal regulator responsible for approving railroad mergers, at first thought there was something wrong with his work phone. When he couldn’t unlock it he switched to his personal phone, only to learn that President Trump had fired him by email, effective immediately.

“I didn’t see it coming at all,” Mr. Primus, a Democrat, said in a recent interview. In January, the Trump administration had put a Republican in his place as the chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, which Mr. Primus saw as the president’s prerogative. But he had been appointed to the independent board by Mr. Trump in his first term and expected to remain on it, as had been the longstanding practice. Instead, he heard a White House spokesman say the day after his firing in August that he did not “align” with the president’s agenda.

Mr. Primus, a longtime congressional staff member and former lobbyist on transportation and national security matters, was reminded, he said, of Mr. Trump’s widely condemned comment during the 2024 campaign that immigrants were taking “Black jobs.” “Maybe he felt that this job was not intended for Blacks," said Mr. Primus, 55. He acknowledged he was speculating, he said, but “it’s legitimate speculation. Because if you look across the board, there is a pattern.” Mr. Primus is part of a series of firings of Black officials from high-profile positions in an overwhelmingly white administration that has banished all diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government.

And while there are no statistics on firings by race, an examination of the people Mr. Trump is appointing to fill those and other jobs shows a stark trend. Of the president’s 98 Senate-confirmed appointees to the administration’s most senior leadership roles in its first 200 days, ending on Aug. 7, only two, or 2 percent — Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Earl G. Matthews, the Defense Department’s general counsel — are Black… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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