BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 22, 2020)
[BINGHAM PODCAST]
*NEW* BG PODCAST EPISODE 83: Metro Discussion with Jason Giulietti, President, Greater San Marcos Partnership (LINK TO SHOW)
[BG BLOG]
Analysis: Why Rent Control Isn't An Option for Austin (LINK TO BLOG)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Travis County’s top doc: Wearing face masks and maintaining social distance likely need to last at least a year (Community Impact)
Dr. Mark Escott, Austin-Travis County’s interim health authority, said residents will need to maintain social distancing and remain vigilant about wearing face masks when out in public for at least a year.
Escott’s comments come as Texas begins a soft reopening of the state at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott. State parks reopened April 20; prohibitions on nonessential medical operations were relaxed April 21; and retail shops across the state will be allowed to begin a retail-to-go model starting April 24.
Abbott said he would issue further guidance on reopening society April 27… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin gets millions to deal with coronavirus (Austin Monitor)
As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to climb, Austin and Travis County learned this week they would receive $170.8 million and $54 million, respectively, from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to help local governments deal with the crisis.
During a briefing for City Council Tuesday, Austin-Travis County Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said that although the city has seen relatively low numbers of cases in people aged 70-79 and 80-plus, people in the 40-49 and 50-59 age groups are starting to catch up with younger people who initially had the highest percentage of cases.
While Travis County seems to have the second-highest rate of coronavirus infection per capita in the state, Escott attributed the apparent higher rate of infection to a higher rate of testing here. For example, in El Paso County, the rate of people being tested is 2.6 per 1,000. In Bexar County, the rate is 3.8 and in Harris County it’s 4.0. In Dallas County, the rate is 5.0, and in Travis County the rate is 6.6 per 1,000. So Travis County has substantially increased testing compared to other Texas counties, Escott said. However, as the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday, Texas lags behind other states in testing for the virus… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin mayor says Gov. Greg Abbott’s strategy to reopen society aligns with city’s plans, so far (Community Impact)
Although Austin and Travis County’s stay-home order was extended to May 8, parts of the community, including retail shops, will begin softly reopening this week at the behest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The governor’s plans appear to rub against local orders to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, but Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the city agrees with Abbott’s strategy and aligns with expert advice city leaders have heard from medical experts and coronavirus modelers. Adler said the city will not challenge the governor’s orders.
On April 17, Abbott handed down plans to reopen state parks by April 20, loosen bans on nonessential medical procedures by April 21 and implement a retail-to-go strategy for April 24 that would allow retail shops across the state to open if transactions between employees and customers remained contactless.
As anticipation grew last week over Abbott’s plans to begin reopening the state, there were some questions over how it would affect more restrictive local orders that were in place through early May. Adler said state law allows the city to pass its own orders as long as they are not inconsistent with mandates explicitly handed down by the governor…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin escalates legal fight in effort to overhaul land development code (Austin Business Journal)
Austin will keep fighting a lawsuit that's threatening the effort to overhaul the land development code.
The city's legal department filed April 16 a notice that it will appeal a March ruling by a Travis County judge that voided Austin City Council votes to revise the land development code, which determines what can be built where across the city.
The appeal will head to the state's Third Court of Appeals, which has weighed in on legal debates over city policies like short-term rental regulations and mandatory paid sick leave in the past.
On March 18, District Court Judge Jan Soifer ruled that the city failed to formally notify property owners of potential zoning changes that are part of the rewrite.
City officials believe zoning protest rights aren't required as part of a comprehensive revision of zoning citywide.
For now, the ruling means that Council's votes in December and February to approve the new land development code are void… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Gov. Greg Abbott's task force to reopen the economy is packed with top business leaders — and donors (Texas Tribune)
Many Democrats want the economy to remain closed. Some Republicans have insisted that it reopen immediately. But more than anyone else, the decision about when — and how — Texas will return to business as usual falls to Gov. Greg Abbott.
The team that is guiding him through that process features some of the most prominent and politically powerful business executives in the state, many of whom have contributed generously to the governor’s political campaign.
Its chair, James Huffines, is a former bank executive who served two stints as chair of the University of Texas System Board of Regents. Its chief operating officer, Mike Toomey, was until recently one of the state’s leading business lobbyists and is a former chief of staff to former governors Rick Perry and Bill Clements. And its ranks include multiple well-known entrepreneurs, including the owner of the Houston Rockets and the founders of Dell Technologies and Kendra Scott.
The “Governor’s Strike Force to Open Texas” is already “working around the clock” to begin opening up the state while keeping communities safe, Abbott said Friday when he announced the team of around three dozen. The task force’s next set of recommendations is expected to be reflected in an announcement the governor makes sometime next week… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dan Patrick says “there are more important things than living and that’s saving this country” (Texas Tribune)
After facing intense criticism for suggesting on Fox News last month that he’d rather perish from the new coronavirus than see instability in the state’s economic system, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last night that he’s thankful Texas is beginning the process of reopening its economy because the restrictions are currently “crushing small businesses” and the economic market.
“I’m sorry to say that I was right on this and I’m thankful that now we are now finally beginning to open up Texas and other states because it’s been long overdue,” he told interview host Tucker Carlson.
“What I said when I was with you that night is there are more important things than living. And that’s saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us,” Patrick said. “I don’t want to die, nobody wants to die, but man we’ve got to take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Abbott says trends encouraging, but not time yet to open Texas economy (Houston Chronicle)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott painted a positive picture of the state’s battle against COVID-19 on Tuesday, but said it’s not yet time to fully reopen the economy. Abbott said Tuesday the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus is “leveling off” and has remained mostly under 1,000 new cases a day even as testing has accelerated. He said that on April 9, Texas had more than 1,000 people test positive for COVID-19, but hasn’t hit that number in 12 straight days. “It’s not because COVID-19 is suddenly dispersed from the geography of the state of Texas,” Abbott said. “The reason why it is leveling off is because our fellow Texans have done such a great job of reducing their interactions with others.”
The state continues to see about a 10 percent infection rate for those tested, and the death toll has now surpassed 500 people. The time for total cases to double has grown to 15 days, another good sign. Those hospitalized for the infection remain level at around 1,400 per day. The governor said he is in touch with private sector employers and health professionals and is hoping to have an announcement soon on reopening more parts of the economy that have been closed since he issued his initial stay-at-home order on March 31. Last week, he announced a team of more than four dozen advisers — many of them wealthy campaign donors — to help guide a phased reopening. The governor plans to unveil their first round of recommendations on Monday, including a decision on whether to roll back the stay-at-home order… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
‘The map is bigger now’: Coronavirus rewires 2020 election (Politico)
The economic and political impact of the coronavirus crisis is beginning to reverberate across the presidential battleground states, creating unforeseen red-state opportunities for Joe Biden but also offering promise for Donald Trump in several Democratic-leaning states where his prospects once seemed limited.
Interviews with more than 30 political strategists, campaign advisers and officials in both parties paint a portrait of an expanded swing state electoral map, upended by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic dislocation it has caused.
In the industrial Midwestern states that unexpectedly flipped to Trump in 2016, Democrats have more cause than ever to believe they can win back states such as Wisconsin and Michigan. In Arizona and Georgia, traditionally red states, party officials see the virus’ disproportionate effect on communities of color enhancing conditions for victory… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating (Washington Post)
Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean. We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said.
Having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, he said. The first wave of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has already killed more than 42,000 people across the country. It has overwhelmed hospitals and revealed gaping shortages in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers. In a wide-ranging interview, Redfield said federal and state officials need to use the coming months to prepare for what lies ahead. As stay-at-home orders are lifted, officials need to stress the continued importance of social distancing, he said. They also need to massively scale up their ability to identify the infected through testing and find everyone they interact with through contact tracing. Doing so prevents new cases from becoming larger outbreaks. Asked about protests against stay-at-home orders and calls on states to be “liberated” from restrictions, Redfield said: “It’s not helpful.” The president himself has tweeted encouragements of such protests, urging followers to “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”… (LINK TO FULL 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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