BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 13, 2021)
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin passes $4.5 billion budget, increases police budget per state law (KUT)
Austin city leaders approved a new budget that boosts spending on policing and puts dollars toward public transit planning and housing.
All told, City Council members OK’d a $4.5 billion budget Thursday evening, representing a 7 percent increase over the current budget. The city’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
“We unanimously passed a budget today that tackles the pandemic (and) increases our public safety investments,” Council Member Greg Casar, who represents parts of North Austin, said after the vote. “I really appreciate everything my colleagues brought forward and the way we came together in this important budget.”
Five Council members joined the meeting remotely, while the other six met in City Hall chambers.
Here is a small slice of how the money’s being allocated: $6.2 million to train new police officers, $2.4 million to fund 18 positions to staff an office overseeing Austin’s public transit initiative and $2.3 million to subsidize affordable housing projects.
Council members also approved a 2 percent raise for city employees, with a one-time stipend of up to $1,000 depending on the employee’s current salary and work hours.
While budget staffers have at times worried about shortfalls caused by the effects of the pandemic, City Manager Spencer Cronk presented a much more optimistic picture of the city’s financial situation when he unveiled a draft budget last month. That’s thanks, in part, to the city’s sales tax earnings, which he said were higher than originally anticipated.
“Economically, Austin, Texas, has come through the many challenges of the past year in as good or better shape than any big city in America,” Cronk said in July. “Our local economy is fundamentally strong and performed unexpectedly well during the Covid pandemic, with more positive impacts for our budget than we anticipated even a few months ago.”
But as Council members readied their final approval of a budget this week, they had to grapple with the realities of a state law passed in 2019, which lowered the amount of new property taxes cities can collect each year. If cities want to go above the 3.5 percent limit, they have to get voter support.
Staff with Austin’s budget office have warned that the city could fall short of funding basic city services by millions in the coming years if it doesn’t hold elections to raise more property taxes.
“Just trying to keep the lights on, we have deficits,” Ed Van Eenoo, Austin’s chief financial officer, said. “I would anticipate tax-rate elections in our future.”
This year, though, is a little different. Because of the winter storm in February, the governor temporarily suspended the requirement to hold an election before collecting more property taxes than the state normally allows.
Council members took advantage of this, voting to increase the city’s total property tax revenue by 4.7 percent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin's population slides in under 1M, after another decade of remarkable growth, census data shows (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin's population topped 961,000, a gain of 21.7% from over the last 10 years, according to official 2020 census data released Thursday. The data caps off another remarkable decade of growth for Texas' capital. The city has not yet had a decade of growth under double digits since its population first started being tracked in 1840. The official tally came in slightly under 2020 estimates which showed Austin's population at 995,000. The milestone of crossing 1 million people remains elusive. The city also fell just outside of becoming a top 10 population city, short of San Jose, Calif.
Among urban cities, the rate of growth in Austin trailed only New York City, Houston and Fort Worth in raw increase in the number of people since 2010. Austin was the second-fastest-growing major city in Texas behind Fort Worth, which grew nearly 24%. With the addition of 171,465 new Austinites has come a skyline marked with dozens of new towers, the addition of several large employers, the city's first major league sports team and a Formula 1 racetrack. But it has also brought wholesale gentrification of East Austin, choked roadways and alarming increases to housing prices. While Texas numbers on ethnicity showed Hispanics coming within a hairs breath of non-Hispanic white people, in Austin white people drove the growth. The population in non-Hispanic white people grew 17.6% to 452,994, making up 47.1%. Hispanic or Latinos grew by 34,741 people, or 12.5%. Both groups' total share of the population fell slightly… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
EDD provides a breakdown of federal funds under its purview (Austin Monitor)
While the Covid-19 pandemic has posed a host of unprecedented challenges for the city, it’s also led to an influx of federal funds under the American Rescue Plan Act. A recent breakdown of these dollars shows how the portion of funds managed by the city Economic Development Department are being spent based on City Council’s spending framework direction.
In a memo to Council Thursday, Chief Economic Recovery Officer Veronica Briseño provided a status report on the first allotment of relief funds received in May. The city anticipates a second allocation of federal funds in May 2022.
Funds Council designated for homelessness ($106.7 million) and rental assistance ($35.3 million) are managed by the office that handles homelessness services and the Housing and Planning Department, respectively… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin restaurants backtrack on COVID-19 vaccine requirement after contact with TABC (KXAN)
Austin restaurants Launderette and Fresa’s will no longer require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for indoor dining after being contacted by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Earlier this week, the two restaurants announced intentions to require vaccination proof at its restaurants but backtracked after communication with TABC.
TABC says managers at the Austin restaurants “weren’t aware of the full requirements of the law and immediately took steps to comply.” Launderette confirmed on its Instagram page vaccinations are not required, but guests are required to “wear masks indoors when not seated at a table.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 968 in June, which prohibits Texas businesses or government entities from requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports or any vaccine information from customers.
TABC posted an announcement Thursday, reminding businesses of the legislation. Businesses not in compliance could risk having liquor licenses or permits revoked… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Across Texas, frantic parents search for options to keep kids safe in school (Texas Tribune)
Worried parents across the state have found some hope this week as big-city school districts such as Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio and other Bexar County schools opted to defy Abbott and require masking for everyone on campus.
Under Abbott’s executive order, districts or government entities can be fined $1,000, but it is unclear how this would apply to school districts. Abbott, along with Attorney General Ken Paxton, made clear this week that they plan to take school districts to court if they don’t comply with his order.
And Paxton on Wednesday told Dallas radio host Mark Davis that Texas could go the route of Florida, where the GOP governor there, Ron DeSantis, has threatened to pull the funding of school districts that violate his ban on mask mandates. Paxton said the Texas Legislature would have to be involved, but he thinks there are “definitely avenues [Abbott] will look at — we’ll look at with him — to enforce these laws.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
People of color make up 95% of Texas’ population growth, and cities and suburbs are booming, 2020 census shows (Texas Tribune)
Setting the stage for what is expected to be a bruising battle over political representation, the results of the 2020 census released Thursday showed that Texas’ explosive growth over the past decade was again powered by people of color.
And it is the state’s cities and suburbs that are booming, with Texas home to three of the country’s 10 largest cities and four of the fastest-growing.
Texas gained the most residents of any state since 2010, and its Hispanic population is now nearly as large as the non-Hispanic white population, with just half a percentage point separating them. Texas gained nearly 11 Hispanic residents for every additional white resident since 2010.
Texans of color accounted for 95% of the state’s population growth. The 2020 census puts the state’s population at 29,145,505 — a 16% jump from 25.1 million in 2010. Hispanic Texans were responsible for half of that increase.
Non-Hispanic white Texans now make up just 39.8% of the state’s population — down from 45% in 2010. Meanwhile, the share of Hispanic Texans has grown to 39.3%… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
One of the largest economic development projects in Texas history may come to Fort Worth (Dallas Morning News)
Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., is in talks to invest at least $5 billion to build a factory near Fort Worth, according to city documents. The factory — code-named “Project Tera,” according to the documents — would be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year and would create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027. Rivian would ensure minimum average annual salaries of $56,000. The proposed 2,000-acre Walsh Ranch site is 12 miles southwest of downtown Fort Worth. Upon completion, the plant would include 12 million square feet of construction. The entire Walsh Ranch development spans more than 7,000 acres of ranch land and will be built out over the next few decades with thousands of homes, businesses, schools and parks.
The Rivian site would sit separately from the residential community already being developed, said Greg Miller, a spokesman for the Walsh family that owns the land. In a presentation Tuesday to Fort Worth City Council, the city’s economic development department proposed awarding the company grants and tax abatement totaling as much as $440 million. Bloomberg was the first to report Wednesday on the presentation. The presentation said known competitors for the project are “offering aggressive state and local incentives,” which are important in Rivian’s site selection. If the EV maker chooses Fort Worth, it would be one of the largest economic development projects in Texas history, according to the city. It ultimately would bring nearly twice as many jobs and five times as much investment as Toyota North America’s headquarters relocation from California to Plano. The proposed welcome basket shows the extent to which economic development officials are eager to court companies in the fast-growing EV market — even those like Rivian that have yet to produce a single vehicle for sale… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Houston sets charter amendment election for 2023, over objections of petition organizers (Houston Chronicle)
The organizations and residents who petitioned the city to give City Council members more power will have to wait until 2023 to vote on the measure, after the council declined to put it on this year’s ballot. Council voted unanimously to set the election in 2023 instead of this November, despite the objections of several council members and the groups that pushed for the charter amendment. An amendment to put it on this year’s ballot failed, 13-4, before the 2023 vote. Councilmembers Amy Peck, Ed Pollard, Mike Knox and Michael Kubosh supported the earlier date. The measure would give any three council members the power to place an item on the weekly City Hall agenda, a power almost entirely reserved for the mayor under Houston’s strong-mayor format.
Mayor Sylvester Turner, who opposes the measure, said pushing off the election was prudent so the city could include other pending charter amendments, which would lower the cost by hosting one election instead of several. He also argued an off-cycle election would have low turnout. “If any of you have problems getting something on the agenda, I’d like to hear that,” Turner told council members. “So, we’re going to spend $1.3 million in a very low-turnout (election) on an issue that doesn’t really pertain to this council?” The organizers of the measure and petition drive said the mayor and City Council had a ministerial duty to put the proposal on the ballot, after more than 20,000 people signed a petition. They accused Turner of playing games to delay the measure after saying he would leave it up to council. The agenda item his administration presented Wednesday only included the 2023 option. He said Wednesday it was the council’s choice while pressing his case for a later election date. Charles Blain, a chief organizer of the effort from the conservative advocacy group Urban Reform, said the council sided against the residents who signed the petition… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Census Data Show America’s White Population Shrank for the First Time (Wall Street Journal)
The first detailed results of the 2020 census show a diversifying nation where the total white population shrank for the first time in its history and where large metropolitan areas, especially in the South and Southwest, saw the strongest growth.
The non-Hispanic white population dropped 2.6% between 2010 and 2020, a decline that puts that group’s share of the total U.S. population below 60%. The number of people who identify as more than one race or ethnicity grew at the fastest rate of any group, partly due to changes that captured more detailed responses.
The nation’s population grew just 7.4% during the decade, the second slowest on record for a decennial census. Only the 1930s—the era of the Great Depression—saw slower growth. Slightly more than half, or 51%, of the total U.S. population growth in the latest period came from increases among Hispanic or Latino residents, the Census Bureau said.
The new data show an overall aging of the nation’s population. Those under age 18 totaled 73.1 million, or 22.1% of the U.S. population in 2020, a 1.4% decrease from 74.2 million in 2010. The decline was partly due to lower fertility rates in recent years, the Census Bureau said.
As many cities and suburbs expanded, the bureau said, the trend toward rural depopulation continued during the decade. More than half of U.S. counties—52%—had smaller populations in 2020 than in 2010.
“Population growth was almost entirely in metropolitan areas,” said Marc Perry, a senior demographer for the Census Bureau… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
2 Days Into The School Year, A Florida District Asked 440 Students To Quarantine (NPR)
Palm Beach County, Fla., has asked 440 students to quarantine just two days into the school year, after 51 students and faculty had confirmed cases on COVID-19.
The School District of Palm Beach County, the 10th largest school district in the country, teaches an estimated 197,000 students, according to the district's website. While students and staff are required to wear masks in the district, Interim School District Superintendent Michael Burke said in an interview with MSNBC that 5,700 Palm Beach students have opted out, per an order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that allows parents to give permission to their children to do so.
Burke blamed the opt-out rule as the reason for the spike in cases, calling on DeSantis to make changes to protect students from infection.
"The governor has got to take responsibility for establishing the ground rules we're operating under," Burke said. "This ability for families to opt out is leading to more cases, which will ultimately send more kids home and deprive them of that traditional classroom experience."
DeSantis had previously announced that the state Board of Education could withhold pay from school leaders who implemented mask mandates for students after several superintendents and school board members neglected to follow an executive order from DeSantis banning school districts from requiring students to wear face coverings... (LINK TO FULL STORY)