BG Reads // September 16, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
September 16, 2025

Presented By

www.binghamgp.com

September 16, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Texas Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit challenging Austin's tax rate election ballot language (KUT)

🟪 Texas AG Ken Paxton claims legal win over Austin ISD over critical race theory teachings (KVUE)

🟪 State Board of Education OKs Texas-heavy social studies plan, setting stage for clash over history lessons (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Four city council members buck Mayor Jones in latest policymaking fight (Texas Public Radio - San Antonio)

🟪 Driverless semis are taking over Texas roads, but regulations struggle to keep pace (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 White House plans broad crackdown on liberal groups (New York Times)

🟪 A record number of congressional lawmakers aren't running for reelection in 2026. Here's the list (NPR)

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]

✅ Texas Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit challenging Austin's tax rate election ballot language (KUT)

The Texas Supreme Court has denied a petition in a lawsuit challenging Austin's ballot language for its upcoming tax rate election. The decision comes after Texas' Third Court of Appeals also dismissed the lawsuit.

The original lawsuit was filed in August by former Austin mayoral candidate Jeff Bowen. Bill Aleshire, Bowen’s attorney, said the ballot language doesn’t specify how much money the city is committing to each project, and that means it can use the money however it wishes. The ballot language also says the increase is for the 2025-26 fiscal year budget. Aleshire argues the increase would continue to affect tax bills going forward, and that is misleading to voters.

“Jeff Bowen and I have done everything we can in court to try to stop voters from being misled, and that is still a concern,” Aleshire said. “This is another huge tax increase coming on top of fee increases the City Council also adopted.... We all love Austin, but we want it to be affordable so people can stay here and keep the homes they’ve got.”

The Austin City Council approved its $6.3 billion budget last month, including a property tax rate hike that will require voter approval. The city approved a rate of 57.4 cents per $100 of taxable value, which is 5 cents above what is allowed by state law without triggering an election… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas AG Ken Paxton claims legal win over Austin ISD over critical race theory teachings (KVUE)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday announced a legal victory against Austin ISD after claiming the district violated state law by allowing the teaching of concepts related to critical race theory, or CRT.

Paxton’s lawsuit accused the district of not adhering to a state law that requires teachers to address controversial or widely debated issues “objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”

While the law does not explicitly name CRT – an academic framework typically taught in graduate-level courses that examines how race and racism influence laws and institutions – the teaching has been at the center of political debate in Texas and other states.

The lawsuit was based in part on a 2022 video published by conservative media outlet "Accuracy in Media." In the video, former AISD equity officer Dr. Stephanie Hawley referenced instructional materials from the education platform Newsela, which she said helped the district “stay out of trouble” with the Legislature. Hawley has since retired from the district… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin launches free graffiti removal for private properties funded by utility fees (CBS Austin)

Getting rid of graffiti in Austin is about to get easier and cheaper. Starting October 1, property owners can call 311 and get graffiti removed from private property for free.

The Austin City Council came up with a creative way to make the pilot program work in a tight budget year.

'The money comes from the Clean Community Fee, and it is in everybody's electric bill," said Dedric Knox, a division manager with the City of Austin Development Services/Code Compliance Department.

The City of Austin is using part of the $5.45 monthly fee collected in Austin utility bills to fund the one-year pilot program. Until now, if a house or fence was targeted by vandals, the cost of removing graffiti was the responsibility of the property owner. Starting next month, it will be a free service paid for by the City of Austin.

“Until now, there was no resource for the community to remove the graffiti on private property. This ordinance redo will assist the community with doing that,” said Knox… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ State Board of Education OKs Texas-heavy social studies plan, setting stage for clash over history lessons (Texas Tribune)

The State Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies teaching plan that will dedicate more time across school grades to Texas and U.S. history while placing less attention on world history and cultures.

The Republican-dominated board voted 8-7 in favor of the proposal, which marks only one step in a longer effort by the group to revise Texas’ social studies standards and set new guidelines for what students should learn before they graduate. Republicans Evelyn Brooks and Pam Little joined Democrats in opposition to the plan.

The final tally was a reversal from a preliminary vote on Wednesday, when a board majority signaled support for a different teaching plan that included what educators considered a more inclusive approach.

Some members who voted Friday for the new plan, which was championed by conservative groups, did not participate in the preliminary vote on Wednesday. Will Hickman, a Houston Republican board member, voted with the majority Friday after having supported the former plan earlier in the week, telling his colleagues that he did not think there was “one right answer.”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Four city council members buck Mayor Jones in latest policymaking fight (Texas Public Radio)

Members of the San Antonio City Council are bucking Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones once again. Four members of the council signed a memo on Friday calling for a vote by September 18 to enshrine certain rules regarding council members’ primary policymaking tool, the council consideration request (CCR), in response to an attempt by Jones to prevent an animal abandonment ordinance from receiving a vote last week. Jones has said all CCRs proposed before the current council was sworn in should be considered expired and gave this as the rationale for her removal of the animal abandonment ordinance from last week’s agenda.

“The current CCR process as outlined in the current CCR ordinance does not address the expiration of CCR’s,” the council members said in their memo. “Accordingly, and despite the language used by the Mayor regarding 'expired CCR’s', all CCR’s should continue through the committee process regardless of whether a new Council has been elected.” The memo calls for a vote to make clear in the CCR ordinance language that it can only be amended by a full council vote, and that CCRs do not expire even after an election. Jones has in the past cited other legislative bodies like the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress which must refile bills every session, even if they were filed previously, as examples she is following.

The council members’ memo said there was no such “precedent” in San Antonio and emphasized that the mayor lacks the authority to make unilateral changes to the council’s policymaking process. Friday’s memo, signed by District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo, District 7 Councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito, District 9 Councilmember Misty Spears, and District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte, is now the third time the procedural tool has been used against Jones and is a signal of the ongoing turmoil in City Hall between the council and the mayor largely surrounding its legislative process… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Driverless semis are taking over Texas roads, but regulations struggle to keep pace (Dallas Morning News)

On a recent July afternoon, Sasko Cuklev’s eyes swept over a color-coded map of the United States. Just outside, a black Volvo semi — hitched to a bright yellow DHL trailer — idled in the dirt-and-gravel lot, still muddy from the previous night’s downpour. Cuklev, who heads the on-roads solutions unit for Volvo Autonomous, eyed a large light-blue outline toward the bottom center of the map. “Of course, Texas [is a] very friendly regulatory environment, and that is one of the reasons why we started here,” Cuklev told a group of reporters gathered nearby. For the occasion, executives from Volvo and partner Aurora had invited journalists from across North Texas to witness the deployment of a driverless semi from its launch center in Palmer. By that time, it was a familiar sight.

Autonomous trucking companies have been strategically relocating their headquarters to Texas to test driverless long-haul trucks across the region. They cite what industry giants describe as the state’s laissez-faire approach to the next frontier of trucking. But state lawmakers have recently signaled they’re paying more attention to the flock of driverless trucks that increasingly traverse Texas roadways — and changes are coming. Driverless companies have been testing their tech on Texas roads for years.

Back in 2021, Kodiak Robotics celebrated their first Dallas-to-Houston trips relying on their proprietary driving system, more than a year after the company’s first initial freight delivery. It’s since partnered with other major transportation players like Martin Brower and U.S. Xpress to deploy freight from its base in North Texas. Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovations recently began regular customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston, using a driverless truck in May along Interstate 45, though it had long been testing the tech in the area. It made Aurora the first company to operate a commercial self-driving service with heavy-duty trucks on public roads without a safety driver — a human behind the wheel who can take over if things go wrong… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ White House plans broad crackdown on liberal groups (New York Times)

President Trump and his top advisers threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents. Investigators were still working to identify a motive in the death of Mr. Kirk, a prominent conservative activist who was shot last week in Utah.

The Republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has said that the suspect had a “leftist ideology” and that he acted alone. But Mr. Trump and his top allies suggested that the suspect was part of a coordinated movement that was fomenting violence against conservatives, without presenting evidence that such a network existed. America has seen a wave of violence across the political spectrum, targeting Democrats and Republicans.

Mr. Trump, who has downplayed violence from right-wing or other supporters, said that he would like to designate a range of groups, including the loosely affiliated group of far-left anti-fascism activists, known as “antifa,” as domestic terrorists and bring racketeering cases against people funding protests.

“We have some pretty radical groups and they got away with murder,” Mr. Trump said, without naming additional groups. He added that he was talking to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, about bringing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against “some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation.”

He did not specify who or what he was talking about.

It was unclear by Monday evening how these plans would unfold, or how the White House could legally formalize such an effort without curbing First Amendment rights. Democrats have warned that the Trump White House could be using Mr. Kirk’s killing as a pretense to go after political dissent, not just hate speech or violence… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Why New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Trump get along (Gothamist)

People familiar with their relationship said the Democratic governor gets along better with the Republican president than other leaders from her party because he doesn’t perceive her as a threat and she’s willing to make a deal. The two talk regularly, the people said.

They also said Trump has a soft spot for the city where he grew up and still owns multiple properties, including a gold-plated triplex on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Trump said during a livestreamed Cabinet meeting last month that he gets along with Hochul.

But their détente faces new strain with Hochul’s endorsement of state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. Trump has attacked Mamdani’s progressive politics and said Monday he found Hochul’s endorsement “a rather shocking development, and a very bad one.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ A record number of congressional lawmakers aren't running for reelection in 2026. Here's the list (NPR)

NPR is tracking the record number of congressional lawmakers who have announced they do not plan to run for reelection to their current seats in 2026. That number currently stands at 10 senators and 27 House members.

Fifteen are retiring from public office with the rest running for a different office — 11 looking to become governor of their state, 10 looking to make the jump from House to Senate and one, Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, is looking to become his state's attorney general.

There are more Republicans signaling their desire to exit Washington (27) than Democrats (10)… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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