BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 28, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 108: Industry Update with Skeeter Miller, President, Greater Austin Restaurant Association (SHOW LINK)
*NEW* Job Posting: Local Government Affairs Program Manager (Austin-Bergstrom International Airport)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin ISD families share concerns with district before in-person classes resume (KXAN)
Austin ISD families delivered questions to the school district Saturday, airing their concerns ahead of the return to in-person learning next month.
The group Education Austin has urged AISD to delay its plan to resume in-person learning, which is set to begin on Oct. 5.“They could give a flying you know what about our health and safety,” said Alex Murphy, AISD Teacher. “This is a time for us to come together, and say you are not alone. We love you and we are here for you.
The most excited people to return to school are the people in this caravan once the public health departments say it is safe to do so. That is our demand.
”Education Austin has called for Austin ISD schools to only reopen when there is a decline in new cases for at least 14 consecutive days, with a positivity rate of less than 5% and a transmission rate of less than 1%.
“We are choosing people over profit. We are choosing ourselves over any kind of money the superintendent may think is a higher priority than our lives,” said Murphy.They also want some members of staff, such as custodial and transportation workers – to receive “hero pay” – at the rate of two times base pay… (LINK TO STORY)
Design Commission work group starts process to revise Urban Design Guidelines (Austin Monitor)
The Design Commission’s newly formed Urban Design work group has begun talks to revise the city’s Urban Design Guidelines, which are more than 10 years old.
Unlike Austin’s zoning code, which contains the city’s building and construction requirements, the Urban Design Guidelines are a set of recommendations for developers to follow that focus mainly on the public-use elements of projects, such as streetscapes and plazas.
The guidelines were originally developed in 1997 as part of Austin’s Downtown Initiative. When the guidelines were last revised in 2009, the commission expanded the scope of the original guidelines, then called the Downtown Design Guidelines, to apply to all areas in Austin where the city wanted to increase density. Urban Design Division Manager Jorge Rousselin said these guidelines no longer reflect the city’s current design needs.
“The context of those guidelines were still primarily in an urban context, so it makes it somewhat difficult to apply to other contexts – suburban contexts, for example,” Rousselin said. “We’re due for an update to consider these new contexts of how they can apply citywide.”
Since the 2009 Urban Design Guidelines are primarily public-use focused, they feature recommendations on improving the pedestrian experience, such as installing lighting, adding street trees and enhancing walkability. Several guidelines also involve preserving the appearance of the city, by forbidding older building styles that “might confuse the historical record” and obscuring public views of downtown.
Although the guidelines are not required for most buildings, builders are required to comply with them in order to be approved for the Downtown Density Bonus Program, which allows buildings to exceed the city’s height and density requirements in exchange for compliance… (LINK TO STORY)
Tesla adding to land holdings for Austin factory (Austin American-Statesman)
Continuing at full speed with development of its electric vehicle assembly plant in southeastern Travis County, Tesla recently purchased 381 acres adjacent to its existing 2,100-acre site at Harold Green Road and Texas 130, deed records show.Tesla also is believed to be pursuing additional land purchases in Southeast Austin along the Texas 130 corridor, according to local real estate developers knowledgeable about the area.Tesla’s $1.1 billion assembly plant is expected to intensify ongoing development in the area, as Tesla becomes a magnet for vendors, suppliers and other automotive-related companies to locate nearby.Work on Tesla’s site off Harold Green Road has been underway since summer, and crews could start pouring a concrete slab as soon as the next couple of weeks. California-based Tesla purchased the initial 2,100 acres, formerly planned for a large mixed-use project called Austin Green, from Martin Marietta for $97 million.
Martin Marietta, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of building materials, operates a concrete plant on the property, and will supply concrete for Tesla’s assembly factory. Martin Marietta’s plant will be relocated elsewhere on the site to make way for Tesla’s factory.In addition to Tesla’s factory, the site eventually could include research, development and design facilities and battery-manufacturing operations, according to analysts, commercial real estate brokers and people familiar with Tesla’s plans.Tesla has said the factory will employ about 5,000 people, with most of the jobs — 65% — using unskilled labor that the company says will not require a college degree.
The company recently filed a site plan for 280 acres of the initial 2,100-acre site. The footprint of the development amounts to almost 8 million square feet, including parking.Tesla’s site plan had been available for download on the city of Austin’s website, and the American-Statesman published portions of it last week… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
‘Tremendous increase’ in corporate relocations, expansions to Texas since pandemic hit (Austin Business Journal)
Despite some companies pausing projects due to the pandemic and the resulting economic meltdown, Texas has more potential corporate relocations and expansions in the pipeline than before Covid-19 hit, a top state economic development official said in a summit on Sept. 24.
Adriana Cruz, executive director of Economic Development and Tourism for Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, said the office has 196 active relocation or expansion projects in its pipeline right now.
“Pandemic or no, we’ve actually seen a larger number of prospects reach out to us since the pandemic started,” said Cruz, who leads the state’s economic development efforts. “We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of prospects and projects we have in very diverse industries.”
Cruz attributed the increased interest in relocating to Texas to a timely shutdown of the state economy when the pandemic struck and to what she characterized as a careful and methodical, data- and doctor-driven reopening of businesses.
“We started getting calls from CEOs on the East coast and the West coast saying, ‘We’re shut down. We really like the common sense approach that Gov. Abbott and Texas are taking,” Cruz said in the YTexas “State of Business Summit,” held online. “It seems to make a lot of sense. We’re questioning why we’re located where we are.”
Despite the pandemic, the state has had several major corporate relocation/expansion announcements this year, with the biggest being Tesla’s southeast Austin gigafactory, announced in July, Cruz said. Tesla is recruiting for 5,000 workers for its gigafactory, CEO Elon Musk has said, which will make it the largest tech employer in Austin.
In another potential deal, video streaming app company TikTok is said to be considering Austin for a U.S. headquarters that could employ thousands.
Austin could set a record in 2020 for the amount of jobs brought to the city through corporate relocations, according to Opportunity Austin, the economic development initiative of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Twenty-eight relocating companies have announced 9,325 new jobs so far this year, compared to 58 such companies announcing 4,658 new jobs in 2019. The best year on record, going back to 2004, was 2018, with 9,424 jobs announced… (LINK TO STORY)
Race for Texas House majority has kept the contest for speaker quiet (Texas Tribune)
State Rep. Senfronia Thompson fielded a question last week that’s been on the minds of many members of the Texas House: If her party wins control of the lower chamber in November, will she be a candidate for speaker?
“Well, if I can get James Frank’s support, I probably will be,” the Houston Democrat said with a chuckle during a Texas Tribune Festival panel, referring to her Republican colleague also on the screen.
Frank responded with a laugh of his own: “I’m pretty sure if Democrats take over in November … that she’ll be a candidate.”
The exchange, though lighthearted, was indicative of how uncertain the 150-member chamber is ahead of a legislative session that lawmakers say will be their toughest in years. With the pending retirement of House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, the lower chamber knows someone new will be in charge in January — but not a single member has so far declared their candidacy to seek the gavel… (LINK TO STORY)
Shelley Luther’s attacks on Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas Senate race open up new front in GOP civil war (Dallas Morning News)
Metal chairs scraped the floor after Shelley Luther urged her audience to scoot closer. None of the roughly three dozen voters that came to see her Tuesday night wore a mask inside The Purple Goat restaurant. But that didn’t matter. Luther, whose refusal to shutter her Dallas hair salon launched her into the national spotlight, has built her campaign for state Senate on defying COVID-19 shutdown orders. She pitched herself to the crowd as a normal person like them, who would take their fight to Austin, even if it means going up against the state’s Republican leader. “I’m embarrassed that we’ve been shut down that long, that our tyrant governor has embarrassed us completely,” she said.
The overt attacks on Gov. Greg Abbott — a relatively popular Republican who has largely avoided opposition from within his own party — signals a new chapter in the state’s GOP civil war. Behind Luther is conservative mega donor Tim Dunn, who for years has targeted Republicans he and his associates deem insufficiently conservative. She’s competing against five others, most notably Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, who has raked in endorsements from dozens of fellow GOP lawmakers across the party spectrum, including one from the senator he seeks to replace. “It’s a classic insurgent versus establishment campaign match-up,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston.
The pair leads the race for the solidly red North Texas senate district, which includes Sherman, Wichita Falls and Stephenville and parts of northern Collin and Denton counties. Also in the running is Denton Mayor Chris Watts and a single Democrat, Jacob Minter, an electrician from Anna. The two other Republicans in the field are business owner Craig Carter of Nocona and software engineer Andy Hopper of Decatur. The winner of the special election for Senate District 30 will replace outgoing state Sen. Pat Fallon, who is running for Congress. With low turnout expected — just about 35,000 voters have cast a ballot so far — the race could go into a runoff… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump paid $750 in US income taxes in 2016, 2017 (New York Times)
Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made. As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.
The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president. The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019. This article offers an overview of The Times’s findings; additional articles will be published in the coming weeks.
The returns are some of the most sought-after, and speculated-about, records in recent memory. In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances… (LINK TO STORY)
Trump dismisses 'New York Times' report that he paid little in Federal income taxes (NPR)
A New York Times investigation published on Sunday found that President Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes each year in 2016 and in 2017, which the president denied at a news conference using a familiar retort: "fake news."
The Times cites Trump's long sought-after tax returns, further reporting that he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, as Trump reported massive losses to his businesses.
Among its other findings, the investigation determined that Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that are set to come due within the next four years — potentially his second term in office — and that he's battling the Internal Revenue Service over a nearly $73 million tax refund he claimed a decade ago. The Times said an "adverse ruling [in that audit case] could cost him more than $100 million."
All told, the investigation provides the most detailed accounting yet of the finances of a president with massive business interests who's sought to shield the details of those finances from the American public… (LINK TO STORY)