BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 29, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Ep 88: Austin Council Member Paige Ellis discusses the Healthy Streets Program (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council members stake out priorities for federal Covid-19 aid ahead of vote next week (Austin Monitor)
City Council will vote next week on the plan for spending federal money devoted to pandemic relief, anticipating significant changes from the initial outline presented by staff on Thursday.
During a special meeting dedicated to allocating federal dollars – much of which will come from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act – Council members looked at how staffers had initially planned to address community needs around public health, emergency response and economic recovery. Between CARES Act funding and expected reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal programs, the city will have nearly $270 million on tap for local efforts related to the pandemic.
Members were broadly in support of the suggested amounts and uses for public health ($62.9 million) and emergency response ($105.5 million), but the economic recovery “bucket” with $103.2 million for uses such as small business aid, creative sector support and workforce development efforts looks to be the subject of much analysis and possible adjustment ahead of next week’s Council meeting.
The most direct concern came from Council members who have expressed a desire to provide direct financial assistance to residents, above and beyond existing programs for rent and food aid. With local economist Jon Hockenyos forecasting that the real unemployment rate for the area will hit 25 percent – the current official number is around 12 percent – Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza said the city’s main priority should be helping its most vulnerable residents… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin Leaders Encourage Peer Pressure To Get Folks To Wear Face Masks And Avoid Crowding Spaces (KUT)
Austin and Travis County officials are urging people to wear face coverings and to avoid large gatherings as the city and the state reopen for business.
If that refrain sounds familiar, it's because you've heard the song – and it bears repeating, officials say, lest Austin see a surge in hospitalizations for COVID-19 that could cripple the region's health care infrastructure.
At a news conference Thursday, Austin Public Health's interim Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said the five-county region's goal is to keep the daily average of COVID-related hospital admissions below 20. That average drives Austin's and Travis County's five-phased approach to reopening… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin housing market in good shape to bounce back from downturn, experts say (Austin American-Statesman)
The Austin-area’s housing market had been on a 10-year roll before the coronavirus pandemic. Several market indicators nosedived as the effects began to be felt in the market in late March and continuing into April. Last month’s numbers from the Austin Board of Realtors saw the volume of both closed sales and pending contracts plunge by double-digits in the Austin area, a five-county region stretching from Georgetown to San Marcos.
In its April report, the board said sales of single family homes, townhomes and condominiums plunged 21.6% in the five-county Central Texas region. Pending sales -- an indicator of future volume -- plummeted 25%. Still, local housing market experts and real estate agents say there are promising signs the market is well positioned to withstand the impacts of the crisis. They point to a pick-up in activity in recent weeks, fueled in part by record low mortgage rates. Another factor is continued demand coupled with low inventory in certain price ranges -- particularly the bottom third of the market where the supply of available homes is extremely low, experts and agents say. “We are very lucky to be in Austin,” said Mark Sprague, a housing industry expert with Independence Title in Austin. “Other markets are not doing as well as we are.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Zilker Theatre Productions postpones summer musical to 2021 (Community Impact)
For the first time in more than 60 years, there will be no free musical this summer in Austin.
Zilker Theatre Productions, the nonprofit organization that puts on the annual production at the Hillside Theater in Zilker Park, announced May 28 that "Mamma Mia," which was scheduled to run from July 10-Aug. 15, has been postponed to next year.
Andrew Cannata, ZTP’s executive artistic director, said this was a difficult decision for the organization to make after running consecutively each summer from 1959-2019, but it was the best way to protect the cast members, production staff and community members.
"This is absolutely the right move. It’s not something we took lightly by any means,” Cannata said.
The summer musical began in 1959 when the Austin Parks and Recreation Department put on a free show of “Seventeen.” In 1987, the parks and rec department stopped funding the musical, and the nonprofit now known as Zilker Theatre Productions was born…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas will extend early voting period this fall, Gov. Greg Abbott says (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday he will extend the early voting period for an unspecified amount of time during the November election as concerns continue to persist around in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
Abbott has already doubled the time period for the primary runoff election July 14, calling it necessary so that "election officials can implement appropriate social distancing and safe hygiene practices."
In a TV interview Thursday afternoon, Abbott was asked if he believes Texas voters will be able to cast their ballots safely not only this summer but also in the fall.
"We do, and for this reason, and that is ... Texas has always had early voting, and what I did for the July time period and what we will do again for the November time period is we will extend the early voting period," Abbott said in the interview with KCBD in Lubbock. "And what that does — it allows more people to go vote early in settings that are not highly congregated. As a result, you can go vote without having to worry about a whole bunch of people being around you that you could contract COVID-19 from. That makes voting a lot safer [of a] setting than it would otherwise be with the shortened early voting time period."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Training for 10,000 unemployed, childcare for 5,000 kids part of San Antonio’s $191 million plan to deal with fallout from coronavirus pandemic (San Antonio Express-News)
San Antonio officials unveiled a $191 million plan Thursday to keep residents in their homes, expand internet access to the city’s less wired and help small businesses stay afloat in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “They’re teetering on the edge,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said of residents whose livelihoods have been jeopardized by the virus. “They want action. They need relief.” The plan put forth at Thursday’s City Council meeting plugs $80 million into workforce development aimed at getting people who lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic back on their feet.
Of that amount, $70 million would go toward workforce training for about 10,000 people. The other $10 million would pay for 3 months’ of temporary child care assistance for parents training in new jobs or going back to school. That amount would cover about 5,000 children. Another $50.5 million would fund efforts to boost housing security. The plan would pump $25 million into the city’s primary emergency housing assistance program — geared toward helping residents with rent and mortgage payments as well as household costs like fuel, groceries and internet access — bringing the total amount in that fund to $50 million. It also would put aside $9.2 million for expanded housing options for the city’s homeless. The city plans to house up to 500 homeless residents in a hotel to make room at the Haven for Hope shelter for a wave of newly homeless, Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger said… (LINK TO STORY)
Study says Houston will be hardest-hit city in Texas by COVID-19 (KHOU)
A new report from Rice University's Kinder Institute shows that the city of Houston will be the hardest hit city in Texas by the coronavirus pandemic. That means city leaders will need to make tough choices in the future that could ultimately affect city services and pensions.
The Bayou City could find itself in some troubled financial times due to the loss of revenue related to COVID-19. That’s according to a 28-page report by the Kinder Institute at Rice University.
“I think it will be much more difficult for Houston to balance the budget and maintain services than other large cities in Texas. Even though other large cities will be affected by COVID," said Bill Fulton, with the Kinder Institute.
First, other cities make additional revenue from a trash collection fee, Houston does not.
"Dallas and San Antonio each have a trash pickup fee trash collection fee of about $25 to $30 a month. That raises in each city about $120 million. Houston, until recently, charged property owners nothing," said Fulton… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
'We All Feel At Risk': 100,000 People Dead From COVID-19 In The U.S. (NPR)
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has reached a somber milestone: As of Wednesday afternoon, the highly infectious viral disease has taken more than 100,000 lives nationwide.
Soaring from two known coronavirus fatalities in February to more than 58,000 in April, the tally of U.S. deaths — in a country with fewer than 5% of the world's inhabitants — now accounts for nearly one-third of all the known lives lost worldwide to the pandemic.
According to a mortality analysis by Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, about 6% of the nearly 1.7 million people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the U.S. have succumbed to the disease.
Public health experts said the coronavirus has exposed the vulnerability of a wide range of Americans and the shortcomings of a U.S. health care system faced with a deadly pandemic… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why Trump Attacked the Internet's First Amendment (Governing)
The technology sector has been a bright spot during the coronavirus pandemic. Online platforms have allowed millions of Americans to work from home, while rising share prices of major tech firms have fueled much of the stock market’s rebound.
If the tech industry thought any of this would buy them political goodwill, however, they were mistaken.
On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to curtail protections for the industry under a provision of federal law known as Section 230. Even as Republicans have been pushing to shield businesses from legal liability stemming from COVID-19, Trump’s order removes liability protections from social media platforms.
His action is certain to face legal challenges. Section 230 is an essential underpinning of free speech law on the Internet. In fact, it’s often been described as “the 26 words that created the Internet.”… (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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