BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 20, 2020)
[BG PODCAST]
NEW -> Episode 79- Texas Hemp Policy Update with Marissa Patton, Associate Legislative Director, Texas Farm Bureau (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin Council resolution calls for protections for businesses, workers from coronavirus fallout (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan has drafted a resolution directing city staff to focus on prioritizing resources for local businesses and workers whose financial futures have been jeopardized by the economic impact of the new coronavirus.
Only a week ago, bar and restaurant owners, along with their employees, were lamenting the cancellation of SXSW, which brings hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impacts to the city, and sustains local businesses. While times seemed dire then, the outright closure of restaurants and bars, except for take out and delivery, was a drastic escalation many never saw coming.
The resolution directs the city manager to develop programs to support small and local businesses, along with workers in creative, hospitality, service, music, and film industries, among others. The proposal began as a rapid response specifically to the cancellation of SXSW, but since the impacts of the coronavirus have ballooned, it has been modified to include more people and business.
According to the document, some options for action include direct financial assistance for utilities, housing and other necessities, reassessing uses of the hotel occupancy tax and adjusting current job placement and workforce development programs to target those affected by the current crisis. It also calls for considering waiving certain city fees or payments for businesses that had received special event permits and coordinating with regional jurisdictions to help more people in the greater Austin area… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Lime and Wheels to pause shared mobility services (Austin Monitor)
Lime and Wheels will be the first dockless mobility operators to disable device rentals in Austin in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cities across the country are considering how to manage dockless mobility under rapidly evolving conditions. On Wednesday, the city of Miami ordered all shared mobility devices to be remotely disabled in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. For now, the city of Austin is letting dockless mobility providers decide whether or not to halt operations.
Chief executive and co-founder of Lime Brad Bao said in a statement Wednesday that the company is pausing its service in 20 countries and 21 states “to help people stay put and stay safe.”
Lime is permitted to deploy up to 5,000 mobility devices, more than any other company, under Austin’s micromobility program.
Wheels, which is licensed for 500 electric mini-bicycles in the city, said yesterday on its website that it would pause all of its dockless operations at least until the end of March.
“We strongly believe that micro-mobility in general, and Wheels in particular, is in a unique position to help our communities get through the current challenges, and we look forward to continuing our service,” the company said.
This week dockless company Bird suspended operations across Europe, but not in the U.S. There are a total of nine licensed shared mobility companies in Austin.
As Lime winds down business across Europe and the U.S., the company said it plans to keep a close watch and take extra sanitary precautions while leaving its scooters on the streets in a number of other cities, including Sydney, Seoul and Abu Dhabi.
Dockless mobility trips have fallen sharply in Austin since the beginning of March. In the last week of February there were just over 90,000 trips on dockless devices while the weekly total dropped to under 80,000 trips in the first week of March... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Economist breaks down how coronavirus will impact Austin (Austin Business Journal)
The cancellation of South By Southwest was just the front end of the economic storm enveloping Austin.
Prospects for the American and global economies have turned grim with stocks in turmoil, travel grinding to a halt and consumer spending in free-fall as authorities race to contain COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Angelos Angelou, the founder of Austin-based consultancy AngelouEconomics, offers a deeper understanding of COVID-19's impact on the Austin-area economy in these uncertain times.
Angelou said the depth of an economic downturn will largely depend on how quickly the pandemic is put under control. But the economic impacts have been significant already as businesses shutter and employees hole up at home, he said.
"The economy has come to a halt and I suspect, definitely, a recession is looming and a pretty high level of unemployment," Angelou said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Why Texas is so far behind other states on virus response (Politico)
Texas is a big state with a proud small-government philosophy. And that’s being tested by the Covid-19 pandemic. Strict bans on public gatherings to curtail the virus' reach and widespread testing and treatment run counter to the politics of top Texas officials. Instead they're calling on local officials to lead the response. As governors in states including New York and California have imposed statewide measures such as closing schools and limiting commerce, Texas leaders have been reluctant to set restrictions conservative voters might consider draconian and business leaders oppose. They’ve also opposed steps to expand health insurance coverage.
Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration Friday — after dozens of states already had done so — and activated the National Guard on Tuesday, after more than a dozen states already had. State officials have yet to impose statewide limits on public gatherings, close schools or beaches or issue a special open enrollment period for health insurance, as California, New York and other big states have. And some health providers say Texas has been slow to boost coronavirus testing capacity and help them meet equipment needs. “In this instance, President Trump is right: Governors need to step up,” Clay Jenkins, a Democrat and Dallas County’s top elected official, said in an interview. “When it comes to stemming the tide of the loss of life that we’re staring at, the governor is in a unique position to act.” Abbott is fully in charge of the state’s response, because as part of the small-government philosophy, the state’s Legislature meets only in odd years for 140 days. So far, more than 60 coronavirus cases and one death have been confirmed in the state. Abbott said he expects the number of cases to explode next week as more testing capacity comes online and more diagnoses are counted… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott closes bars, restaurants and schools as he anticipates tens of thousands could test positive for coronavirus (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott took sweeping statewide action against the new coronavirus Thursday as he estimated that the number of Texas cases will likely skyrocket to the tens of thousands in two weeks.
That would be a dramatic jump from the 161 positive tests the state has reported so far but consistent with officials' warnings over the past several days that the case total will shoot up as the state ramps up testing.
"This is a very rapidly spreading disease, but it's one that we are prepared to respond to," Abbott said during a virtual town hall Thursday night, hours after he took far-reaching steps to contain the spread of the virus across Texas, closing restaurants and schools, among other things.
During a news conference Thursday afternoon at the state Capitol, Abbott announced an executive order that will limit social gatherings to 10 people, prohibit eating and drinking at restaurants and bars while still allowing takeout, close gyms, ban people from visiting nursing homes except for critical care, and temporarily close schools. The executive order is effective midnight Friday through midnight April 3, Abbott said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas anti-vaxxers fear mandatory COVID-19 vaccines more than the virus itself (Texas Monthly)
On Friday, just after Governor Greg Abbott declared a statewide emergency in response to the coronavirus, Sarah posted a worried plea on a local anti-vaccine Facebook group. She worried that the declaration gives the government the right to “force vaccinations” on unwilling Texans. “If they fast-track some vaccine for coronavirus, how are all of us going to defend ourselves?” she asked. “I’ll let them vaccinate my daughter over my dead body.” Other members of the group, Tarrant County Crunchy Mamas, chimed in. “Hide in the floors like they hid the Jews from the Nazis,” one suggested. “Hide them in our gun safe (yes, it’s a big safe and yes, we love our guns),” said another.
Though a COVID-19 vaccine is likely still more than a year away, according to experts, concerns over mandatory vaccinations have spread throughout the anti-vaxxer community in Texas, which is one of the largest in the nation. In recent years, prominent voices in the anti-vaxxer movement have settled in and around Austin, and a vocal Facebook group formed a political action committee, Texans for Vaccine Choice. This school year, nearly 73,000, or 1.35 percent, of Texas students opted out of getting at least one required vaccine for nonmedical reasons, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That number does not include home schooled children. The anti-vaccine community, at large, believes that vaccines are a tool of government control that make big pharmaceutical companies rich and have side effects that can cause lasting damage. Sarah, a Benbrook mom who asked that her last name be omitted over fears her family will be targeted by people who support vaccines, said she’s more scared that she’ll be forced to vaccinate her two-year-old daughter than she is of the virus itself. “For a vast majority of the population, this is a few days of a high fever and a week of a lingering cough,” she said. “Once you give up rights to your body, the government owns you.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Governors brace for coronavirus budget cliff as tax dollars evaporate (Politico)
A plunging stock market. Restaurants, gyms and movie theaters shutting their doors. Workers losing more income each day. It’s an unprecedented public crisis, and it’s also billions of dollars in state tax revenue that’s evaporating quickly — and scrambling the economic equation for governors and mayors across the nation.
The cascading impacts of the novel coronavirus come just as governors, state lawmakers, mayors and city councils would normally be hammering out their budget plans for the coming year. But with no telling how long the coronavirus pandemic will shut down everyday life, a crystal ball may prove as effective as economic formulas for the fiscal year ahead… (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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