BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 29, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 72: Market Talk - Atlanta and Southeast Lobbying with Howard Franklin of Ohio River South (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Area leaders hear of economic, community benefits forecast for innovation district (Austin Monitor)
A market analysis of the burgeoning health care innovation district in the northeastern section of downtown forecasts the cluster of businesses could eventually increase property values by an additional $102 million over standard development, and bring the city an estimated $12 million per year in additional property tax revenue.
Those were some of the findings shared at a luncheon Tuesday organized by the Downtown Austin Alliance, which is taking an active role in recruiting businesses and curating the overall character of the district that is anchored by the University of Texas’ Dell Medical School. The gathering brought City Council members, state and county lawmakers, and an assortment of business leaders together to hear the findings of North Carolina-based HR&A Advisors, which performed the analysis.
In summary, the firm found Austin’s reputation as a magnet for creative and technology talent will be bolstered by the health care and life sciences industries expected to take root in the area that runs along Red River Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Lady Bird Lake… (LINK TO STORY)
UT Austin To Require Incoming Students To Have Measles Vaccination (KUT)
Incoming UT Austin students will need to show proof they’ve been vaccinated against measles starting this fall, according to University Health Services.
The new requirement does not apply to students currently in classes or those enrolling this spring or summer.
UT made the decision last fall, after seeing upticks in measles across the U.S., according to Sherry Bell, interim communications manager for UHS and UT Counseling and Mental Health Services. In 2019, the U.S. saw the greatest number of measles cases since 1992, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The university wants to keep students healthy and in class, not missing class due to a preventable disease like measles,” Bell said… (LINK TO STORY)
Capital Factory expands reach, merges with Houston incubator (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin-based incubator Capital Factory is merging with startup organization Station Houston as part of a push to connect Texas’ major cities as a collaborative startup ecosystem.
The incubators will retain separate names and brands, but function as a single entity, said Joshua Baer, founder and CEO of Capital Factory. Station Houston works with 180 startups, 480 members and 130 mentors and has dozens of strategic partnership with corporations, according to its website.
As part of the merger, Capital Factory gains a partnership with an upcoming Houston innovation hub called the Ion, which will be near Rice University. Station Houston will move into the space upon completion in about a year.
“It will be a new center of gravity, and all sorts of activities that capitalize on Houston’s unique expertise in the energy, oil and gas industry, health care and space.” Baer said.
Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
Capital Factory has been working to expand its presence beyond Austin, opening a second location in Dallas in 2018. Capital Factory also added its first full-time employees in Houston last year and launched a partnership with the Cannon, a Houston-based co-working space and entrepreneurship hub.
The addition of Station Houston brings the connected network of Capital Factory locations and partners to six. Those include the flagship in downtown Austin, an uptown Dallas location, a West Houston location and two downtown Houston locations. Its Austin location also houses a tech hub for the U.S. military’s Center for Defense Innovation…(LINK TO STORY)
Commission recommends ban on cashless retail (Austin Monitor)
Human Rights Commissioner Garry Brown noticed recently that more and more businesses across the nation are going cashless in order to make doing business safer, cleaner and more efficient.
But for millions of people without bank accounts or with limited access to banking services – disproportionately people of color and those over 65 – the trend toward cashless business is a serious concern, said Brown.
“I would hope that we’re all for inclusive commerce instead of preferred customers,” Brown said. “It’s one thing for something that costs thousands of dollars like a car, as opposed to maybe a pack of gum; if you go into a 7-Eleven and they’re not going to take a dollar, to me that’s a problem.”
Although there are currently just a few cashless establishments in the city, Brown wants the city to get ahead of the issue before it becomes more common. He brought a recommendation to the commission Monday evening asking City Council to ban cashless business for physical retail establishments with five or more employees… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Conservative activists helped elect Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Now some say there’s a disconnect. (Texas Tribune)
In 2014, Dan Patrick’s mission to unseat the lieutenant governor of Texas brought him to Mike Openshaw’s dining room table in Plano, where the bright-eyed state senator hoped to convince several conservative activists in attendance that day to endorse him.
The North Texas Tea Party would not end up settling on a candidate, but Openshaw, a co-founder of the group, said he was already sold. He volunteered for the campaign and even served on an advisory committee for the candidate ahead of Patrick’s landslide victory in November.
The relationship continued to grow from there. Soon after the election, Patrick appointed Openshaw to a spot on the first-ever Grassroots Advisory Board, a group of 20 hand-picked activists from across the state who advised the freshly minted lieutenant governor on public policy. And although the board and the North Texas Tea Party were both long gone by the time the lieutenant governor ran for reelection in 2018, Openshaw again found himself supporting Patrick’s campaign.
But last spring, things seemed to change. As some hardline conservative activists were starting to criticize GOP leaders for turning “purple” during the 2019 legislative session, Openshaw recalled walking into Patrick’s office at the Capitol to ask for a meeting, at the lieutenant governor’s convenience, to discuss what Openshaw could do to help push the conservative agenda… (LINK TO STORY)
Retired teachers group director says members shocked by TRS rent (Austin American-Statesman)
The recently revealed starting base rent of $326,000 a month that the Teacher Retirement System of Texas plans to pay for upscale office space in downtown Austin has stunned at least one group of taxpayers — retired teachers. “They’re shocked,” said Tim Lee, executive director of the Texas Retired Teachers Association. “People are just mad, and they don’t understand how (the retirement system) could be spending this much money on a lease” when cheaper alternatives outside downtown likely were available.
Lee said his group, with nearly 100,000 retired teachers, is considering formally opposing the decision by managers of the pension fund to rent space in the 36-story Indeed Tower under construction on West Sixth Street, which is expected to be among the premier office buildings in the city after it opens next year. He said it’s unclear what can be done about the lease at this point, however, because it was finalized last February. “It’s really hard to unscramble scrambled eggs,” Lee said. A Teacher Retirement System spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, who serves on the Texas House committee overseeing pensions and financial services, said the retirement system should back out of the deal. “Time to withdraw from the lease and start over,” Flynn said. The price tag “is a commitment that the (pension plan) and retired teachers cannot afford.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Fort Worth asks Texas Supreme Court to declare eight-liner machines illegal lotteries (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
The city of Fort Worth argued Tuesday before the Texas Supreme Court that the popular slot machines known as eight-liners should be deemed illegal lotteries. The case stems from ordinances the Fort Worth City Council passed in 2014 in an attempt to regulate game rooms, which many residents believe attract crime. The city’s regulations were quickly hit with lawsuits from gaming machine companies. Portions of the ordinance related to restricting game rooms to certain areas were struck down, and the extent of the city’s oversight has been debated in the courts ever since.
Eight-liner operators suing the city claim state law pre-empts the local regulations, and argued that Chapter 2153 of Texas Occupations Code already provides “comprehensive and uniform statewide regulation” of the machines. Provisions of state law allow local municipalities to impose restrictions, such as banning the machines from being within 300 feet of a church, school or hospital. The city’s 2014 ordinances went further than that, restricting them to industrial-zoned areas and banning them from within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, hospitals or residential areas. Marcy Hogan Greer, an Austin attorney who represented the eight-liner operators, stressed that the Legislature made it clear “with no unmistakable clarity” its intent for “uniform and statewide” regulation, rather than a patchwork of local regulations… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump's team rests, calls for quick end to trial (The Hill)
President Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday concluded their opening arguments in the impeachment trial, making a final pitch for a swift acquittal of the president as senators gear up for a tense debate over whether to hear from additional witnesses.
The defense’s final day of arguments mirrored its first in many ways. The president’s lawyers took only about two hours and presented a broad repudiation of House Democrats. They painted Trump as a victim of a partisan attempt to undo the 2016 election and insisted that even if the president had acted inappropriately, it did not warrant his removal from office.
“Overturning the last election and massively interfering with the upcoming one would cause serious and lasting damage to the people of the United States and our great country,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in his closing remarks. “The Senate cannot allow this to happen. It is time for this to end, here and now.”… (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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