BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 16, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
Early voting in Travis County runs through Friday, October 30 (Monday-Saturday, 7:00 AM-7:00 PM, Sunday 12-6 PM). Find early voting locations here (Travis County only).
***NEW*** BG Podcast Episode 110: Discussing City Governments with Professor Sherri Greenberg, LBJ School of Public Affairs (SHOW LINK)
Overview: She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss and weigh different local governance structures of cities and their implications on civic engagement. In July, Austinites for Progressive Reform launched with, among other initiatives, a call to adopt a mayor-council form of government, i.e. a strong mayor system. This would transfer the city manager’s duties to the mayor. They are currently gathering signatures for a city charter amendment (Austin’s constitution) vote in May 2021.
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin housing market keeps defying pandemic, sees sales, prices soar (Austin American-Statesman)
Looking at the Central Texas housing market in recent months, you’d never know there’s a global pandemic.
The latest monthly figures from the Austin Board of Realtors show that home sales and prices continued to surge in September, leading real estate agents and housing experts to describe the market as “bonkers” and in “overdrive.”
Or, as longtime Austin housing market analysts Eldon Rude put it: “The spike in home sales in the Austin area over the last few months continues to defy economic principles,” said Rude, a local market consultant who has followed the Central Texas market for more than three decades.
Residential sales in the metro area soared 31.5% compared to September 2019, with 3,892 single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums changing hands, the Austin Board of Realtors said.
The median price of those sales was $355,000, tying with the median in August for the highest level on record, the board said. The $355,000 median means half the homes sold for more than that amount and half for less. September’s median was 12.1% higher than in September 2019.
Within Austin’s city limits, sales volume in September was up 20.7%, with 1,248 sales recorded. A low supply of housing drove the median price up 8.7%, to $415,500 year-over-year, the board said.
In August, the median price in Austin’s city limits had reached $435,000—an all-time high for any month on record, the board said… (LINK TO STORY)
Travis County reallocates CARES Act housing assistance funding to meet deadlines, talks Covid-19 plasma funding effort (Austin Monitor)
The Travis County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to reallocate Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding in order to spend all of its funding before the Dec. 30 deadline.
Travis County received $61,147,507.20 from the federal CARES Act. At the Oct. 13 meeting of the Commissioners Court, the Planning and Budget Office gave an update on projected CARES Act spending through Dec. 30 with recommendations on reallocating unused funds. The county has to expend all allotted funds by Dec. 30 or give the remaining money back to the U.S. Treasury Department.
The county has nine CARES Act funding programs. The approved reallocation removes $3,500,000 from the Health and Human Services rent and mortgage relief program, moving part of the money to fill the $540,000 shortfall HHS discovered in its TCTX Serve program, which provides relief grants to Travis County nonprofits.
The rest of the $2,950,000 will be added to the county’s direct response program. The county also earmarked an equal amount of the $17 million Emergency Reserve in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget, which can be used after Dec. 30, for mortgage and rental assistance. With the additional earmark, Budget Director Travis Gatlin said the county will have $11.9 million of non-CARES Act money set aside for rental and mortgage assistance, utility aid and general Covid relief… (LINK TO STORY)
Council approves partial start for SAVES (Austin Monitor)
After directing the city to create the Save Austin’s Vital Economic Sectors (SAVES) fund last month, City Council approved initial program guidelines Thursday that will provide some immediate financial relief for local music venues, restaurants, bars and child care centers. Over the coming weeks, the city will work to develop “enhanced guidelines” intended to provide more meaningful long-term financial support for legacy businesses and music venues.
“I’m concerned about giving substantial short-term (support) … because I think it can also be counterproductive to the long-term goal of providing sustainability,” explained Mayor Steve Adler. “If we were to give, say, a tenant four months’ rent … to tide them over for the next four months, they may well have lost a lot of the bargaining leverage that they would otherwise have to actually negotiate a longer-term lease or a lease with better terms.”
Rather than approving the full $15 million fund for financial awards, the city created a separate $2.3 million business preservation fund out of available revenues from the Austin Transportation Department. Of those dollars, Council allocated $1.5 million for immediate relief for urgent expenses as the city develops long-term strategies. Council also approved guidelines for the $5 million child care provider relief grant.
The city had previously presented a program dividing $15 million in cash grants among selected recipients of a music venue preservation fund, legacy business relief grant and child care center grant. Council’s new direction calls for a different strategy, which Council Member Alison Alter called a “choose-your-own-adventure approach.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Coronavirus hospitalizations are up in Texas as some fear the state is headed toward another surge (Texas Tribune)
Hospitals in some parts of the state are filling with coronavirus patients, alarming health officials who say Texas could be on the brink of another surge after a relative plateau in September.
The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients has swung upward in parts of the state including West Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Panhandle and El Paso, where hospitalizations have reached an all-time high and the mayor warned of an “unprecedented number of new cases.”
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins this week upped the area’s coronavirus threat level to red — the highest risk — as more patients are being admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 and as infections have climbed, including among school-aged children.
“Unfortunately, we are currently going in the wrong direction,” Jenkins said.
Experts blame social events like birthday parties and game day gatherings for the recent upticks, and they say there is widespread fatigue for following stringent guidelines to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid crowded indoor spaces. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited small family gatherings as an “increasing threat” this week.
A wave of infections and hospitalizations swept Texas this summer, overwhelming hospitals along the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials worry another flare-up could loom just as Texans prepare to celebrate the holidays… (LINK TO STORY)
As El Paso sees another record high for coronavirus infections, leaders step up restrictions (Texas Tribune)
City and county leaders here announced Thursday that they will increase restrictions for restaurants and some businesses as they report another record high for cases of the novel coronavirus.
El Paso's public health department reported 717 new cases Thursday, setting a new daily record for the county. The county's hospitalization rate, the percentage of hospital beds being used for COVID-19 patients, has also jumped to 28%. Of the 438 patients hospitalized, 111 are in intensive care, according to El Paso statistics.
Under the new restrictions, which begin Friday, nonessential businesses will be scaled back to allow 50% of their stated capacity, and restaurants can only offer take-out service after 9 p.m. Visits to nursing homes and elderly care facilities are put on hold, and outdoor gatherings are limited to 10 people or fewer. The new guidelines also temporarily ban indoor sports and spectators from outdoor sporting events, with the exception of collegiate sports at the University of Texas El Paso and the city’s minor league soccer team, the El Paso Locomotive FC… (LINK TO STORY)
New Texas rule lets social workers turn away clients who are LGBTQ or have a disability (Texas Tribune)
Texas social workers are criticizing a state regulatory board’s decision this week to remove protections for LGBTQ clients and clients with disabilities who seek social work services.
The Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners voted unanimously Monday to change a section of its code of conduct that establishes when a social worker may refuse to serve someone. The code will no longer prohibit social workers from turning away clients on the basis of disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office recommended the change, board members said, because the code’s nondiscrimination protections went beyond protections laid out in the state law that governs how and when the state may discipline social workers… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
In split-screen town halls, Trump and Biden squabble over coronavirus response (Reuters)
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday criticized what he called President Donald Trump’s “panicked” response to the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump defended his handling of a crisis that has killed more than 216,000 Americans.
The rivals spoke in simultaneous town halls broadcast on separate television networks after a debate originally scheduled for Thursday was called off following Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
The split-screen showdown offered a stark reminder of the many ways the campaign season has been changed by a pandemic that has prompted more than 18 million people to cast ballots more than two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3.
Biden, speaking to voters in Philadelphia on ABC, blamed the Republican president for concealing the deadliness of the virus.
“He said he didn’t tell anybody because he was afraid Americans would panic,” Biden said. “Americans don’t panic. He panicked.”
Trump defended both his response to the pandemic as well as his own personal conduct, including staging a Rose Garden event at the White House where few wore masks or practiced social distancing, which resulted in numerous attendees contracting the disease… (LINK TO STORY)
Pelosi and Trump go a full year without speaking (The Hill)
Friday marks a full year since Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Trump last spoke to each other.
The anniversary of sorts underscores the historic level of dysfunction and discord between two of the most powerful people in Washington.
Almost every occasion where Pelosi and Trump have crossed paths since Democrats won the House majority in 2018 has shown how much they can’t stand each other, let alone attempt to strike any legislative deals together like other past presidents and Speakers of opposing parties.
Their last extended conversation, during a sit-down meeting at the White House on Oct. 16, 2019, resulted in the two sides unable to agree on whether Trump called Pelosi a "third rate" or "third grade" politician and her telling reporters afterward that “we have to pray for his health.”
Their relations have only worsened since then.
While Pelosi has been able to negotiate bipartisan legislation with White House intermediaries like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, lawmakers say the open personal animosity between the president and the Speaker is emblematic of the entrenched partisanship in the Trump era.
“It's a sad commentary on the circumstances of our governance,” said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), a first-term lawmaker. “The more that politics becomes kind of a brutal sport rather than a public service, the more trouble we're going to be in. We're seeing the evidence of that right now.”
Pelosi has said that it's difficult to negotiate with someone as unpredictable as Trump, who in the last 10 days alone has changed positions at least three times on a long-stalled coronavirus relief package that at times even put him at odds with Republicans on Capitol Hill… (LINK TO STORY)