BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 15, 2019)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 61: CBD Market for Small Businesses with Prohibition Creamery's Laura Aidan (LINK TO SHOW)
NEW -> In the Weeds: Hemp legislation updates from USDA and State of Texas (LINK TO BLOG)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin OKs Plan To Buy And Retrofit A Motel To House Homeless (KUT)
The Austin City Council unanimously passed an $8-million plan to buy and repurpose the Rodeway Inn in South Austin to house people transitioning out of homelessness.
The motel could house at least 87 people.
Billed as a more proactive approach to provide more immediate housing, the proposal allows the city to buy the land using money initially allocated for an emergency shelter off Bannister Drive and Ben White Boulevard. The deal will be finalized after a 90-day review period… (LINK TO STORY)
New worries arise over tax increment financing (Austin Monitor)
Council members approved a resolution Thursday directing the city manager to bring them a plan for financing two Capital Metro Red Line rail stations in north Austin, one at McKalla Place and one at the new Broadmoor development. However, several Council members expressed unease about using tax increment financing, a vehicle the city has used four times in the past to raise additional funds for infrastructure projects.
Council members Alison Alter, Greg Casar and Jimmy Flannigan and Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza expressed various concerns about using money raised through a TIF on this project as well as others. However, Council unanimously approved the resolution brought forward by Council Member Leslie Pool, whose district includes both stations.
Tax increment financing is a way for cities to capture revenue from growth around a project, such as a rail station. When the TIF is created it covers a certain area known as a tax increment reinvestment zone. The city looks at the value of property within that zone to set a baseline. Assuming that taxable values increase within the zone, the city is able to take the taxes above the baseline and put them into a TIF fund. In this case, if Council ultimately approves a TIF for these areas, the extra tax money generated within the zone would help fund the rail stations…
Eckhardt hopes city will pare down convention center plans for sake of Expo Center (Austin Monitor)
Travis County voters gave county government the go-ahead last week to rebuild the aging exposition center on Decker Lane, but it could be a decade before the project breaks ground.
County Proposition A, which passed with 63 percent of the vote, authorized the county to levy up to a 2 percent hotel tax to fund a renovation of the Travis County Expo Center.
However, the county won’t be able to levy the tax immediately because Travis County already has the maximum Hotel Occupancy Tax rate allowed by state law: 17 percent. In addition to the 6 percent state hotel tax, there is a general 7 percent city hotel tax, a 2 percent tax voters approved in 1998 to expand the Austin Convention Center, and another 2 percent tax City Council approved earlier this year to fund another convention center expansion.
Under current plans, the tax rate won’t drop again until 2029, when the city is scheduled to pay off its debt for the 1998 expansion. County Judge Sarah Eckhardt is hoping she can convince the city to expedite its debt payment and end the tax sooner – ideally “within the next two years,” she told the Austin Monitor on Wednesday… (LINK TO STORY)
City Lets West Campus Get Taller (Than Before) In A Trade For More Affordable Housing (Than Before) (KUT)
The University of Texas is rising – or rather, buildings on West Campus are now allowed to go higher.
The Austin City Council voted Thursday to increase height limits on buildings and to eliminate the number of parking spots developers are required to create.
Council’s vote amends the so-called University Neighborhood Overlay. Passed in 2004, the plan changed zoning to relax building restrictions for developers that provided affordable housing units. It has been the city's most successful plan like this: By 2016, it had generated nearly 600 affordable housing units, with more than 200 additional units planned… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
State Rep. Poncho Nevárez Caught On Tape At Airport Dropping Envelope Containing Cocaine, DPS Says (KUT)
About two months before state Rep. Poncho Nevárez announced he was retiring from the Texas House, the Eagle Pass Democrat was caught on surveillance footage dropping an envelope stuffed with cocaine as he was leaving the Austin airport, according to an affidavit filed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The affidavit, filed Oct. 29 in Travis County court, was attached to a warrant seeking to conduct a test to determine whether Nevárez’s DNA was on the envelope. The document says that the envelope had Nevárez's official House seal and held “four small clear baggies” containing a substance found to include cocaine…. (LINK TO STORY)
UT System increases tuition 2.6% for all campuses for 2020 and 2021 (Texas Tribune)
The University of Texas System approved an across-the-board tuition hike of 2.6% for its eight academic campuses, amounting to a $290-a-year increase for in-state, undergraduate students at its flagship university in 2020 and 2021.
The two-year increase, announced Thursday by the system Board of Regents, was set to match the rate of higher education inflation and is intended to rein in tuition for students burdened by growing costs. But the 2.6% rate means UT System students across the state will likely pay hundreds of dollars more, and some campuses, like the University of Texas at Austin, will see their in-state tuition increase at a faster clip than in previous years.
At most UT institutions, tuition for in-state undergraduates grew between 3% and 8% in both 2018 and 2019… (LINK TO STORY)
Firefighters endorse Buzbee in runoff (Houston Chronicle)
The Houston firefighters union has voted unanimously to endorse Tony Buzbee in the December mayoral runoff, union officials announced Thursday.
The endorsement is the group's latest attempt to drive Mayor Sylvester Turner out of office over his bitter and long-running pay dispute with the firefighters, centered around Proposition B, a voter-approved ballot measure that granted firefighters the same pay as police of similar rank and seniority. A judge ruled Prop B unconstitutional earlier this year, but Buzbee told firefighters he would implement the measure if elected, as he has promised numerous times throughout the campaign. He also pledged to maintain the department’s current four-shift model and end ongoing litigation between the city and fire union over collective bargaining and Prop B, the union said… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Impeachment Hearings Continue With Marie Yovanovitch, Ex-Ambassador To Ukraine (NPR)
House Democrats are set to convene their second open impeachment hearing on Friday with a witness expected to detail the shadow Ukraine policy run by President Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from Ukraine this year, is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee at 9 a.m. ET… (LINK TO STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
PLEASE RESHARE and FOLLOW:
Twitter #binghamgp
Instagram #binghamgp