BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 1, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 97: Talking Relief and Recovery with Veronica Briseño, Director of Austin's Economic Development Department (SHOW LINK)
Traditionally tasked with leading Austin’s global business outreach and business expansion incentive programs, EDD has pivoted becoming the lead city department on economic recovery.
Veronica discuss several of the recovery programs developed thus far, as well as the $271.6 million Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. spending framework passed by the Austin City Council on June 4th.
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
Early Voting for the Travis County Democratic and Republican Primary Runoffs, and Special Elections Runs through Friday, July 10th.
[AUSTIN METRO]
County development incentive for Tesla sees more support (Austin Monitor)
This Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court once again opened the floor to public testimony regarding the development incentive package for Tesla’s proposed “Gigafactory” in southeastern Travis County. The court took no action on the matter.
Over a dozen speakers expressed their opinions via the phone on the county’s plan to offer an 80 percent rebate on Tesla’s property taxes for the first 10 years of its residency, followed by a 65 percent rebate for the following 10 years in order to incentivize the California company to relocate its manufacturing operations in Central Texas. If approved, the county incentives could total $14.6 million in property tax rebates for Tesla over 10 years. The county would keep $7 million.
Unlike last week, the majority of the callers this week came to express their support for the project.
“We would be crazy if we did not take this opportunity,” East Austin resident Deborah Morgan said. “We can’t let Tulsa win this one.” Tulsa, Oklahoma, is also in the running as a potential location for the Gigafactory, which is expected to produce Tesla’s electric pickup, the Cybertruck.
Other speakers called the plan to relocate “tremendous,” and “great news.” At the same time, speakers cautioned the Commissioners Court to thoroughly parse the details of the incentive proposal and also weigh input from the community… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As coronavirus surges, Austin-area officials rethink testing strategy (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin and Travis County health officials have had to rethink their strategy for coronavirus testing and contact tracing due to growing wait times for test results as the number of local cases has surged.
But even with a return to more targeted testing and tracing, local officials say the virus is spreading too fast to track and manage.
Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said testing, enrollment and contact tracing efforts have been narrowed to target people at the highest risk of catching and passing the virus to others.
“What this means is that we are not going to be able to test, through Austin Public Health and CommUnity Care, those who are asymptomatic,” Escott said. “We simply do not have the capacity to provide those tests and ensure adequate turnaround times for those who are at the highest risk or being positive.”
One glaring issue city and county leaders are grappling with is a lag in test results. Escott said some tests have taken upward of seven days, eating up nearly all of the time a person infected with the virus could spread it to others, especially if they were asymptomatic for days prior to getting a test… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council to review plan for St. Johns Home Depot project after July break (Austin Monitor)
Six years ago, when City Council Member Greg Casar was knocking on thousands of District 4 doors campaigning for his current seat, one question came up time and time again.
“People were asking, ‘What’s ever going to happen to the Home Depot and car dealership?’” Casar recalled. “When I told folks that the city had purchased it for a police station and courthouse, there were many people who were even more upset that this huge piece of property in a historically black neighborhood, that the city’s big investment there would be a police station and courthouse. It was not what people wanted.”
Six years later, the property is closer than ever to redevelopment. Council first had to vote to agree to abandon the police substation plans, which it did in December 2017. Then, UT’s Center for Sustainable Development embarked on a two-year public engagement period to find out the community’s vision for the project.
“And then next, try to make it a real amenity for the neighborhood,” Casar said, “but also create an amenity for the neighborhood that would not drive gentrification, that would benefit the neighborhood and create an opportunity for people to stay.”
Council will review UT’s report at its next regular meeting after the July break. If Council members agree with the vision outlined in the report, they will issue a request for proposal and begin the process of developing the land, which the city has owned and left abandoned for more than a decade.
The report offers four scenarios that involve 140-300 mixed-income housing units, open space, and commercial and nonprofit uses. Scenario B.1 would put a public street network across the site and include nearly 300 mixed-income housing units as well as semi-private open space and new commercial uses along Interstate 35… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
A rising commotion in Texas’ scattershot response to the pandemic (Texas Tribune)
DIY pandemic responses seem to be flourishing in Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott is trying to reinstate some of the coronavirus safety measures he put in place in late March and then mostly erased in May. He’s meeting a lot of resistance — a fair amount of it from the people in his GOP base.
Abilene initially said it wouldn’t enforce the governor’s close-the-bars order, and then apologized, sort of: “The City of Abilene never intended to imply an intention to disregard the Governor’s Executive Order, or support any kind of action by citizens or business owners in contradiction to the Executive Order. The City apologizes for any lack of clarity in earlier messaging on the matter.”
The city still won’t enforce Abbott’s order, leaving that to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and others, but said it will encourage its businesses and citizens to “use common sense” and to do what the governor says “to the best of their ability.”
Bar owners from all over the state are suing for the right to stay open during the pandemic. Here’s a choice quote about the governor from their lawyer, former Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill: “Why does he continue unilaterally acting like a king? He’s sentencing bar owners to bankruptcy.”
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, took a swipe at the governor in a weekend tweet: “Pain. Frustration. Sadness. Confusion. Desperation. Anger. Just a few emotions I am hearing from East Tx business owners suffering from shutdown orders. @GovAbbott is taking their livelihoods with no compensation. Add me to the angry list. ENOUGH!”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Reversing course, Texas will delay work-Search requirement for unemployment benefits (KUT)
The Texas Workforce Commission decided Tuesday to postpone reinstating a work-search requirement for out-of-work Texans receiving unemployment benefits.
The requirement that Texans be actively searching for a job in order to receive benefits was initially slated to go into effect Monday. But the TWC’s executive director cited rising numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across Texas — as well as Gov. Greg Abbott’s June 26 executive order scaling back the reopening of Texas businesses — in the commission’s decision to postpone the reinstatement, according to TWC spokesperson Cisco Gamez.
“Work search requirements have been paused,” Gamez wrote in an email. “We will continue to monitor the situation [and] come back to the commission in late July with recommendations regarding reinstatement.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas bar owners file $10 million federal lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott, the second suit over the shutdown in two days (Texas Tribune)
Several Texas bar owners filed a $10 million federal lawsuit Tuesday afternoon against Gov. Greg Abbott, in an attempt to void his executive order shutting down bars for a second time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
All of the plaintiffs are members of the Texas Bar and Nightclub Alliance. This is the second lawsuit filed against Abbott this week after more than 30 Texas bars filed a lawsuit in Travis County over his recent shutdown order on Monday.
In addition to the damages, the lawsuit asks the court to stop Abbott from enforcing his executive order which closes bars and to prevent him from issuing similar orders in the future without proper notice. The suit said Abbott should give businesses more than 24 hours notice before shutting them down, "unless in the case of imminent threat of harm." The lawsuit also asks that future shutdown orders have a clear end date and lay out conditions that would have to be met for the order be extended.
On Friday morning, Abbott ordered bars to close by noon and reduced restaurant capacity back down to 50% from 75% to combat the spread of COVID-19… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas protesters challenge constitutionality of Texas’ anti-riot law in suit, saying they were falsely arrested (Dallas Morning News)
In a bid to persuade courts to declare Texas' anti-rioting law unconstitutional, three protesters sued the city of Dallas on Tuesday saying police erroneously used riot charges and another offense to jail them, violating their free-speech rights. Dallas residents Lily Godinez, Yolanda McGriff and Megan Nordyke were featured in a Dallas Morning News story that raised questions about their arrests on May 30 during protests over George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis officer.
Hours after the June 12 story was published, Dallas police said they were dropping the charges. In a bid to persuade courts to declare Texas' anti-rioting law unconstitutional, three protesters sued the city of Dallas on Tuesday saying police erroneously used riot charges and another offense to jail them, violating their free-speech rights. Dallas residents Lily Godinez, Yolanda McGriff and Megan Nordyke were featured in a Dallas Morning News story that raised questions about their arrests on May 30 during protests over George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis officer. Hours after the June 12 story was published, Dallas police said they were dropping the charges.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Dallas, marks the first Texas effort in roughly 40 years to test the legitimacy of the anti-rioting statute, arguing that the law is overly broad and can snare innocent people. It comes after the state’s largest police departments invoked it to arrest dozens of protesters on rioting charges. Dallas and Fort Worth police appear to have used the offense the most during recent unrest - detaining about 70 people combined - compared to only a handful of arrests in Houston, San Antonio and Austin, according to interviews and records. Fort Worth’s police chief dismissed dozens of the riot charges about a week later in the spirit of “walking the path of reform,‘' he said. Arrests for rioting also recently provoked allegations of false arrest across the U.S., including Tennessee, Kentucky and New York… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Here comes the hard part: States, cities face grim budget picture (Governing)
The new fiscal year is here but budget writers are still in the bargaining phase. Although it starts for most states and localities on July 1, so many uncertainties remain that budgets are effectively works in progress, with lawmakers still hoping for an after-the-last-minute rescue from Washington.
All but a few states have enacted budgets for fiscal 2021, but several have punted harder decisions until later this summer or perhaps the fall — either formally pushing back the start of the budget year or passing continuing resolutions to keep spending levels intact for a while yet, in hopes cuts can still be avoided. On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new budget that is filled with asterisks. Billions of dollars’ worth of scheduled spending cuts will be canceled, if Congress comes up with an aid package.
That may well happen. Congressional Republicans have been wary of sending more aid to states, cities and counties, wanting to see whether the economy would recover without additional priming. There now appears to be a grudging realization that further aid is necessary. No one knows what that will look like, however, and help isn’t likely to come any time sooner than the end of the month… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Coalition letter advocating for federal aid to state and local governments (National Governors Association)
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer:
We write today to advocate on behalf of states, territories, counties, cities and towns, all of which are experiencing historic budget shortfalls as they continue to respond to the pandemic. In less than two days, the budget years for 45 states and thousands of local governments will begin. Unlike the federal government, these state and local governments must begin their fiscal years on time and with a balanced budget. If the Senate fails to act immediately to support state and local governments, our nation’s recovery from the pandemic-induced recession will suffer and millions of Americans will needlessly be harmed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Florida is "not going back" on reopening, governor says (AXIOS)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday that the state will not reinstate restrictions or close businesses to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Why it matters: More than 50% of coronavirus infections in the U.S. are from states like Florida, Texas, California and Arizona, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports… (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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