BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 16, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 70 - Jim O'Brien, Host of The Lobbying Podcast (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
With unveiling of 'transformational' transit proposal, support for urban rail grows among Austin leaders (Community Impact)
As plans for a long-awaited multibillion-dollar high-capacity transit system were debuted Jan. 14, the proposal, as expected, offered elected officials and the public a choice between a system driven by rapid bus infrastructure or one carried by urban rail.
High-capacity transit is a transit option that carries large amounts of people through the city with greater frequency than a typical bus schedule, according to experts. Generally, there is community consensus around the need for high-capacity transit in Austin; San Antonio is the only other city among the country’s 11 most populated without high-capacity transit options. Yet the choice between which vehicles should move people—buses or rail cars—has remained a point of regular debate. Numbers presented this week show a bus system costing $3.2 billion and a rail system costing up to $10.3 billion.
For some officials, the needle on that debate moved during Jan. 14’s public unveiling of the transit proposals, as transportation experts from the city and its transit authority, Capital Metro, said a high-capacity transit system focused on buses would become obsolete by 2040 due to a bus system’s limited ability to add cars and keep up with expected population growth… (LINK TO STORY)
Baylor Scott & White opens 1st Austin hospital (Austin American-Statesman)
Baylor Scott & White on Wednesday opened its first ever hospital in Austin, with a 24-hour emergency room and surgery center located in the Oak Hill neighborhood.
The $80 million facility, which sits on 14 acres along U.S. 290 near MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) in Southwest Austin, offers acute and intensive care services, advanced imaging and has an operating room and endoscopy suite.
It is the eighth hospital the nonprofit health system Baylor Scott & White has opened in the Austin area. Other facilities are located in Buda, Cedar Park, Lakeway, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Taylor. This is the first within the Austin city limits.
“This area is growing exponentially,” said Jessie Everline, director of operations for the hospital. “We have several other clinics in Austin, but as we have grown and seen the growth in this area, we knew it was time for us to include a full-service hospital.”
It’s unclear how many patients the new hospital will serve. The four-story building is decorated with photos of the Austin skyline and of hot spots around town. It has a cafe, chapel and inviting waiting areas for families, with floor-to-ceiling windows and soft blue hues… (LINK TO STORY)
Massive Amazon warehouse advances just outside Austin (Austin Business Journal)
A massive 3.8 million-square-foot Amazon.com Inc. distribution facility proposed in Pflugerville passed one of its first hurdles Jan. 14, despite several residents speaking out against the project.
The Pflugerville City Council unanimously approved on first reading the rezoning of 94 acres of agricultural property at 2000 E. Pecan St., less than a mile from State Highway 130, to allow for the industrial development. The property is being rezoned from agriculture/development reserve to planned unit development for what's dubbed Project Charm in city documents.
A source with direct knowledge of the project confirmed to Austin Business Journal in December that the proposed distribution center is for Amazon. Public officials have declined to name the business behind Project Charm, citing non-disclosure agreements, but many of the companies involved have built or are working on Amazon distribution facilities around the country. That includes the developer, Seefried Industrial Properties Inc.
A second and final reading of the rezoning ordinance is expected to come before the City Council at its next meeting on Jan. 28.
Currently proposed for the site is a four-and-a-half-story logistics/distribution facility with 43,000 square feet of office space, 780,552 square feet of warehouse space and 3 million square feet designated for robotics on a "mezzanine level," according to public filings. There would be 1,706 parking spaces.
To put the proposed project size of 3.8 million square feet into perspective, that would be more than four times larger than Amazon's San Marcos warehouse, which is 855,000 square feet… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
In San Antonio, rent is rising but wages aren’t (Texas Tribune)
In the 40-minute bus ride across San Antonio that Barbie Hammond takes to work, there’s one topic of conversation that keeps coming up: the cost of rent.
“A lady that I talk to on the bus told me she had to move because of the rent increases,” the 57-year-old said. “And I told her, ‘Well, when Christmastime came, I got a note saying that the next month there will be a $60 increase in my apartment.’”
Hammond isn't alone. According to census data compiled by the company Apartment List, between 2008 and 2018, median rents increased from $860 to $1,002 in the San Antonio area. That 16.5% jump was more than the increase in the New York City region and almost the same as in the Los Angeles area.
Similar increases happened in the Dallas (18.7%) and Houston (16.1%) regions, but there’s something that makes the San Antonio area unique: While rents have been growing, wages have stagnated. Renters’ median incomes grew from $35,718 to $36,959 during the same period. That 3.5% increase was a third of the percentage growth seen in the Houston area and a fourth of the growth in the Dallas region. Those rent and wage figures were all adjusted for inflation… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Chief Justice Roberts: Is 'OK, Boomer' Evidence Of Age Discrimination? (KUT)
There were some acerbic and personal comments from the justices of the Supreme Court Wednesday, as they heard an age discrimination case that could affect more than a million federal workers over the age of 40.
The federal law says that "all personnel decisions" made in the federal workforce "shall be made free from age discrimination."
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has long interpreted that to mean that if a federal worker can show that age was a factor in denying her a job or promotion, the worker is entitled to back pay or other remedies.
But the Trump administration takes the position that the employee must first prove that age discrimination was the only factor in the employment decision. Essentially, an employee must now prove that but for her age, she would have gotten the job, the promotion, or some other benefit… (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.
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