BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 19, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Blog: State Leaders Threaten Property Tax Revenue Freeze Over Police Defunding (BLOG LINK)
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 103: FY 2021 Budget with Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6) (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Amid outbreak, Austin apartment market sees first rent drop in 10 years (Austin American-Statesman)
With the world in the throes of a pandemic, Central Texas’ apartment market is experiencing something it hasn’t seen in 10 years: a decline in rents and occupancy rates.
The shift -- though not dramatic -- has tilted the market a bit in favor of tenants, said real estate consultant Charles Heimsath, who tracks the apartment market in the five-county Austin metro area. That shift has allowed some renters to take advantage of special rates and discounts that haven’t been seen in years in the Austin market, where rents as recently as December had soared to record highs.
Apartment rents have decreased by 2.6% since December, the first decline since 2009, said Heimsath, president of Capitol Market Research.
“We’ve had some periods when rents have been stable, no movement up or down, but for us to have an actual decline -- that hasn’t happened in 10 years,” Heimsath said.
In addition, a decline in the region’s occupancy rate -- from 93.3% in December to 91.5% in June -- signals a slight move into a tenants’ market, Heimsath said.
Occupancy rates of 92% to 92.5% are considered a balanced apartment market, so “when we drop below that, we begin to move into territory where tenants have a little more clout than the landlords,” Heimsath said. “Even though the movement is not large, it’s significant.”
Brian Carberry, managing editor of Apartment Guide, said this is typically the time of year when prices begin to rise due to summer demand.
“There may be certain in-demand neighborhoods in the city where prices have remained high, however, as a whole prices are coming down,” Carberry said of the Austin market.
“The bottom line, this is a great time to look for an affordable apartment in Austin because prices are decreasing and renters may have a little more negotiating power than they normally would,” Carberry said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County budget makes concessions and cuts to achieve balance (Austin Monitor)
After months of rework triggered by the financial ramifications of the pandemic, the Commissioners Court held its first public hearing associated with the 2021 Travis County budget on Aug. 18. As they went through the 120-page, $1.28 billion budget proposal, Planning and Budget Office staff outlined the cuts to programs and increases in emergency funding that will define the upcoming fiscal year.
Two major changes are the freezing of employee salaries and an increase in property taxes.
While county hiring and salaries have been frozen, the county’s property tax rate will not be. Travis Gatlin, the county’s budget director, told the commissioners that staffers are proposing a tax rate of 37.4359 cents per $100 of property valuation. For homeowners, this means the average annual taxes on Travis County properties will increase by 3.62 percent, or $46.52. Gatlin called it a “very minimal change to the tax rate.”
He clarified that these estimations are based on an anticipated increase in appraisal values across the county for next year.
At a previous discussion on the preliminary budget, Gatlin explained that Planning and Budget staff were mindful of the effects a larger tax rate increase can have on county residents. Due to the disaster declarations issued at a state and national level, local governments may increase the tax rate up to 8 percent rather than adhering to the 3.5 percent cap that the state Legislature enacted last summer… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Top Travis County health official says schools should open at no more than 25% capacity in September (Community Impact)
Dr. Mark Escott, the Austin-Travis County interim health authority, has recommended county schools begin in-person classes in September with no more than 25% of students on campus—regardless of Travis County’s COVID-19 risk level.
Austin Public Health released new guidelines for school reopening Aug. 14 along with updated orders from Austin and Travis County extending coronavirus-related public health mandates through December. Local schools currently have the option to again offer in-person learning beginning Sept. 8, per the county ordinance. Because the local COVID-19 risk may fluctuate once students are on campus, APH recommends a tiered approach that allows a certain percentage of students to return based on the county’s staged risk. For instance, with Travis County currently at Stage 4 risk, no more than 25% of students are recommended to return to campus. When the county dips into Stage 3 risk, that recommendation would rise to 50%.
However, Escott told Travis County commissioners at an Aug. 18 meeting he recommends extra caution when campuses initially reopen to students.
“Regardless of where we are in staging on Sept. 8, we are recommending that schools only open at 25% for at least the first two weeks so that the schools, the teachers, the students can get used to a new system, work out any kinks in the process, and make changes and adaptations before introducing additional students,” Escott said.
The Texas Education Agency announced in July that local school districts had the option to provide virtual learning for up to the first eight weeks of the school year. Escott said he and local superintendents he had consulted were concerned the TEA would require districts to welcome back all students who wanted to return in person after the initial eight-week grace period… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
“We’re being treated as guinea pigs”: Faculty members fear in-person return to Texas universities (Texas Tribune)
The July memo was blunt. Students at Sam Houston State University had been promised “direct contact” with faculty, and even in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, the Huntsville school needed to deliver, Provost Richard Eglsaer told the faculty.
“Since students pay tuition to have in-person instruction, they are free to opt out of it by choosing the remote option,” Eglsaer wrote. “However, as faculty we are paid to teach in person and therefore the option of entirely remote instruction is not open to us.”
When fall classes resumed on campus, Eglsaer wrote, social distancing would not always be possible, and underlying health risks would not qualify faculty to teach only remote classes.
Students returned to campus this week, and the school will try to remain flexible, accommodating individuals with health risks or high-risk family members, university President Alisa White told faculty in a statement Friday. But she said she wasn't comfortable starting the fall semester without in-person instruction, as faculty had requested. As it reopens, the university is reporting 99 COVID-19 cases among students, faculty and staff.
Like Sam Houston State, most Texas universities are plunging forward with varying degrees of in-person teaching this semester, eager to preserve some semblance of a normal academic year.
They're asking reluctant instructors to cooperate, but some faculty members call the pressure to return to face-to-face instruction a callous decision that prioritizes money and the college experience over the safety of the university community.
“People are pretty upset and feeling like they’re being forced into a situation that's really unsafe,” said Jay Ganz, a special education professor at Texas A&M University’s College Station flagship. “We’re being treated as guinea pigs.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
TV ad blitz kicks off in high-profile battle between U.S. Rep. Chip Roy and Wendy Davis (Texas Tribune)
The TV ad campaign is getting a relatively early start in the race for Texas' 21st Congressional District, foretelling a contentious, expensive sprint to November for U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and his well-known Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis.
Both sides in the race are launching their first TV ads of the general election Tuesday, the details of which were first shared with The Texas Tribune. Davis' campaign is going up with a spot that highlights her biography and the fact that she's a grandmother. Meanwhile, the pro-Roy Club for Growth is starting to air an attack ad against Davis, whom the ad calls a "self-serving politician."
In the wide congressional battlefield this election cycle in Texas, it is the first race where both teams are on the air — and likely a sign of much more to come… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As Texas hemp farmers prepare for their first-ever harvest, cannabis regulation remains complicated (Texas Standard)
In Bergheim, Texas, just north of San Antonio, there’s a skunky smell in the air.
“You know, that’s a really good description. Skunky is a very typical terpene that is in most of these plants,” Austin Ruple said.
He’s the president and co-owner of Pur IsoLabs – a hemp and cannabidiol, or CBD company that grows hemp and manufactures retail CBD products.
Ruple stood next to a field of more than 300 hemp plants – a type of cannabis that’s rich in CBD, a legal compound that does not get users high. These plants contain no more than 0.3% THC – the psychoactive component that does get users high.
Pur IsoLabs is in Kendall County, where more than 100 people were hit with possession charges for possession of less than 2 ounces of cannabis over the past year. So, how does this whole field exist?
“You’re looking at permitted hemp in the state of Texas,” Ruple said.
After the 2018 farm bill that legalized hemp passed at the federal level, Texas followed suit during its 2019 state legislative session. This farm and others around the state are preparing for the first-ever legal cannabis harvest since the plant was banned statewide in 1931.
In Texas and across the nation, demand for cannabis is up. Recreational marijuana sales in Colorado hit a record high in May, Rolling Stone reported the underground industry in New York City thrived while the city was shut down, and the budding hemp industry in Texas is attracting new customers.
Pur IsoLabs co-owner Jennifer Ruple said demand for the company’s CBD products has crept upward in recent months, especially in the online market.
Despite the Ruples’ good luck, the first crop of Texas hemp will be smaller overall than many expected. And in late July, growers received more bad news when the state announced a ban on smokable hemp. That means while the pandemic may have increased demand for CBD products, it’s unclear if hemp farmers in Texas will be able to meet it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Trump campaign’s Russia contacts ‘grave’ threat, Senate says (Associated Press)
The Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat, a Senate panel concluded Tuesday as it detailed how associates of Donald Trump had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin’s help. The nearly 1,000-page report, the fifth and final one from the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation, details how Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf. It says the Trump campaign chairman had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and says other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
The report is the culmination of a bipartisan probe that produced what the committee called “the most comprehensive description to date of Russia’s activities and the threat they posed.” The investigation spanned more than three years as the panel’s leaders said they wanted to thoroughly document the unprecedented attack on U.S. elections. The findings, including unflinching characterizations of furtive interactions between Trump associates and Russian operatives, echo to a large degree those of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and appear to repudiate the Republican president’s claims that the FBI had no basis to investigate whether his campaign was conspiring with Russia. Trump has called the Russia investigations a “hoax.” While Mueller’s was a criminal probe, the Senate investigation was a counterintelligence effort with the aim of ensuring that such interference wouldn’t happen again. The report issued several recommendations on that front, including that the FBI should do more to protect presidential campaigns from foreign interference… (FULL STORY HERE)
Amazon bets on office-based work with expansion in major cities (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon.com Inc. is expanding its physical offices in six U.S. cities and adding thousands of corporate jobs in those areas, an indication the tech giant is making long-term plans around office work even as other companies embrace lasting remote employment. Amazon is preparing to add 3,500 corporate jobs across hubs in New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Detroit and Dallas, the company said Tuesday. The plans include 2,000 jobs at the historic building in Manhattan that once housed the Lord & Taylor flagship department store. Amazon purchased the Fifth Avenue building from work-sharing company WeWork, a subsidiary of We Co., for more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
The Seattle company’s plans contrast with those of some other major technology companies during the coronavirus pandemic, which have embraced remote work for the long-term. That has included Facebook Inc., which in May said it would shift toward a substantially remote workforce over the next decade and Twitter Inc., which told employees they can work from home indefinitely. Amazon, which was early in sending employees home when the pandemic hit, is allowing staff who can work from home to do so until Jan. 8. The company, however, expects much of its staff to one day return to its offices, Vice President of Workforce Development Ardine Williams said. “The ability to connect with people, the ability for teams to work together in an ad hoc fashion—you can do it virtually, but it isn’t as spontaneous,” Ms. Williams said in an interview. “We are looking forward to returning to the office.” Amazon is adding more than 900,000 square feet across the six locations where it is expanding. The New York space alone totals 630,000 square feet… (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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