BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 20, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Ep 87: Mobility Policy in a COVID19 World feat. Pete Gould of Catapult Policy Strategies (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
City outlines $270M coronavirus response (Austin Monitor)
The city’s budget office has landed on a provisional Covid-19 spending plan to manage the ongoing public health crisis and provide vulnerable residents, professionals and businesses with the financial support to survive.
The $270.1 million framework features $37.9 million for medical and public health needs to slow and eventually halt the spread of disease, $98 million to recover direct costs of the pandemic response across city departments, and $101.2 million in economic relief to the community.
With the need for assistance much greater than what the budget can accomplish, City Manager Spencer Cronk said the plan is necessarily fluid. Part of its purpose is to gauge support from City Council and make sure financial priorities are generally in order as needs are continually reevaluated and specific expenses are presented to Council for action.
Although Council is not being asked to approve the framework, several Council members objected to elements of the plan that may not align with previous Council actions during Tuesday’s work session.
Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza noted that there were funding increases to numerous economic support categories while the $15 million Relief In a State of Emergency fund, which she said could perform the same function as many of the other listed relief categories, did not see any increase in proposed funds… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Coronavirus hitting Austin Latinos harder than most, data show (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin’s Latino and African-American populations are overrepresented among residents hospitalized with the coronavirus, according to public health data presented Tuesday to both Travis County and Austin city leaders.
Latinos, who make up about 34% of the city’s population, represented 62.1% of all hospitalizations related to COVID-19, the disease linked to the coronavirus, last week; African-Americans made up 12.1% of those in the hospital.
Latinos also have about a 24% positive testing rate, which is higher than any other Austin population, according to CommUnityCare data.
“It will be our communities of color that bear the brunt of this pandemic and we need to be proactive and make sure that we put equitable systems in place and have an equitable planning process,” said Adrienne Sturrup, assistant director at Austin Public Health…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin-Travis County's homeless population up 11% from last year, nonprofit count finds (Austin Business Journal)
Austin-Travis County's total homeless population in early 2020, as well as the number of people living unsheltered, increased from last year, according to the most comprehensive local count of those residents.
Every year, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO, dispatches hundreds of volunteers to count the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city and county.
This Point In Time Count offers exactly that: a snapshot of how many people in Austin and Travis County are experiencing homelessness at a specific time. The PIT Count is the most authoritative local census of a population that's particularly difficult to measure — and it is used to guide public policy and direct resources to fight community homelessness… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Federal judge says all Texas voters can apply to vote by mail during pandemic (Texas Tribune)
A federal judge opened a path for a massive expansion in absentee voting in Texas by ordering Tuesday that all state voters, regardless of age, qualify for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.
Days after a two-hour preliminary injunction hearing in San Antonio, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed with individual Texas voters and the Texas Democratic Party that voters would face irreparable harm if existing age eligibility rules for voting by mail remain in place for elections held while the coronavirus remains in wide circulation. Under his order, which the Texas attorney general said he would immediately appeal, voters under the age of 65 who would ordinarily not qualify for mail-in ballots would now be eligible.
Biery's ruling covers Texas voters "who seek to vote by mail to avoid transmission of the virus."
In a lengthy order, which he opened by quoting the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Biery said he had concerns for the health and safety of voters and stated the right to vote "should not be elusively based on the whims of nature."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why aren’t coronavirus recoveries always reported? (Dallas Morning News)
As public officials and health experts continually refer to new coronavirus cases and deaths to find clues to when restrictions on daily life can be lifted safely, many people are eager for news on another, more reassuring metric: coronavirus recoveries. Health departments across North Texas report COVID-19 statistics daily, and Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties regularly report new recoveries alongside the new infections. But other places, including Dallas County, don’t. The state provides recovery numbers, but the figures aren’t reported at the national level. So why isn’t recovery data always reported? Here’s what you need to know.
Health experts say that during outbreaks like COVID-19, recovery data is scarce and not always accurate. Most COVID-19 cases are mild, and because many places in the United States, including Texas, lack significant testing capacity, it’s possible many people have had the virus and not known it and aren’t included in the totals. There’s no reporting requirement for health care providers or patients in Texas, so numbers are only estimates, health experts say. It’s like when people with the flu visit the doctor but don’t call back or return unless their symptoms get worse. If they go home and get better, they typically don’t update the doctor. Even if people with COVID-19 do report back, there’s no way for the information to be included in county or state data because there’s no requirement or method for health care providers to document it, said Dr. Beth Kassanoff, an internal medicine physician with North Texas Preferred Health Partners and the 2021 president-elect of the Dallas County Medical Society… (LINK TO STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott says ‘All the trends are going good’ as Texas reopens (Houston Chronicle)
Gov. Greg Abbott justified his expanded re-opening of the Texas economy during a national television interview on Monday by pointing to COVID-19 data heading in the right direction and saying it’s time to end “government forced poverty.” Texas reported 11 coronavirus deaths on Monday, its lowest daily death total in more than a month. During an interview on Fox News, Abbott told host Sean Hannity about that statistic, and how a day earlier the state had reported its lowest hospitalizations since the middle of April. Texas reported 1,512 hospitalizations of coronavirus patients on Sunday.
“All the trends are going good in Texas and Texas is opening up businesses,” Abbott said. While he focused on the 11 deaths reported on Monday, Abbott did not address the previous four days when 178 deaths were reported — the worst four-day stretch in the state since the pandemic hit. After Abbott was on Fox News on Monday, state health officials released new hospitalization figures that showed that number has increased back up to 1,732 people. A Hearst Newspapers analysis published Monday found that Texas still has not met key criteria for reopening suggested by Abbott’s public health advisers, including a 14-day decline in total coronavirus cases, ability to administer 30,000 tests for the disease per day, and a force of 4,000 workers available to identify and trace those who have contact with COVID-19 patients… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Barack Obama tries out his message on the new young voters (Washington Post)
The 2020 election has been hyped by some experts as the presidential race where young voters would show the full impact of their political power. Following their record-breaking participation in the 2018 midterms, they showed potential to be a pivotal voting bloc in the following presidential election. But their low turnout during the Democratic primary race — particularly for the candidate who was most popular with young voters — brought that optimism back to reality. Former president Barack Obama, who made record strides in appealing to young voters, hopes to mobilize them to get more involved in the political process. His addresses this past weekend to 2020 graduates gave us our best sense yet of how he’ll reach out.
As Democratic pollster Geoff Garin previously told The Washington Post’s Jacqueline Alemany: “The gold standard for candidates for mobilizing and exciting young voters is Barack Obama in 2008 and there aren’t a lot of Barack Obamas and not a lot of moments like that one.” In the online event #GraduationTogether, Obama sought to inspire graduates, who aren’t getting the typical dose of fanfare over their achievement because of the coronavirus pandemic, by challenging them to channel their anger and disappointment into the voting process. He said: "This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country’s deep-seated problems — from massive economic inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it. It’s woken a lot of young people to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
States and Cities Tackle a Multitude of Cybersecurity Concerns (Governing)
The pandemic has generated another round of work by states to craft some kind of tracking app that doesn’t violate privacy rules. Meanwhile, policymakers have turned their attention to cybercrimes and surveillance… (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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