BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 19, 2021)
South Lamar Bridge
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin to hold special election in January 2022 to fill Greg Casar's city council seat (KVUE)
The City of Austin is holding a special election early next year in order to fill City Council Member Greg Casar's open seat.
Earlier this month, Casar announced that he is running for Texas' 35th congressional district. His imminent resignation from the Austin City Council will leave the District 4 seat open.
The special election is set to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 25… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council approves first step in height, affordability trade-off for Austin mixed-use developments (Community Impact)
A proposal to allow increased height for some new mixed-use developments was approved by Austin City Council members Nov. 18, potentially clearing the way for taller buildings and more affordable housing options along Austin's major corridors.
The development code amendment was proposed by District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen as an expansion of Austin's vertical mixed-use, or VMU, program. Mixed-use developments that secure the VMU designation can bypass certain zoning restrictions if they reserve some residential units for lower-income renters or owners. The VMU program has been in place since the mid-2000s and produced hundreds of affordable housing units.
The update, approved Nov. 18 in a 9-0 vote, expands the existing VMU label into two new categories: VMU1, a copy of the existing program guidelines, and a new section called VMU2. Under VMU2, the height allowance for new mixed-use buildings on city transit corridors increases from 60 feet to 90 feet if developers agree to include a greater portion of affordable spaces in such projects. The percentage of affordable housing units required for VMU2 will be calculated by city staff over the coming weeks… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin home prices still rising, but market frenzy slows in October (Austin American-Statesman)
The Central Texas housing market is catching its breath, you might say.
While the Austin Round-Rock housing market remains on track for a record-breaking year, the homebuying frenzy that sparked bidding wars over the past 18 months has cooled a bit, leading to a slower-paced market, local real estate agents say.
The number of home sales declined across the five-county Austin region — which stretches from Georgetown to San Marcos — and within Austin's city limits. Sales fell 12.1% for the metro area and were down 11.7% inside the city limits, the Austin Board of Realtors said in its October home sales report Thursday.
October was the third month this year in which the number of home sales declined, and saw the biggest drop since May 2020, when sales plunged 29.2% in the region and 36.6% in the city of Austin as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Despite a dip in the number of sales, the prices of the homes that sold continued to rise… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
These two Texas laws funnel millions in taxpayer funds to companies, with no limits and little transparency (Houston Chronicle)
Peering up at the dramatic glass-bottom pool jutting 40 stories over Preston Street in downtown Houston, onlookers would have no reason to know that the luxury apartment tower was built with the help of millions in city tax dollars. The same could be said of the fancy food hall beneath another high-dollar apartment building a block away on Travis Street. The towers were subsidized with $11 million in public funds that came with almost no strings attached: Simply build the apartments with retail or restaurants or another inviting design at street level and get a property tax rebate for 15 years, up to $15,000 per unit. Those two buildings were among 15 across downtown to receive subsidies — and not one of the 4,249 apartments offers tenants any affordable housing. Nor were the developers required to create a single job or pay a living wage. The $64 million in subsidies Houston has offered to make downtown more residential is just a glimpse of the untold millions local officials across Texas are spending to spur development or lure companies to their communities under a pair of obscure state laws that put no limits on such deals, require no job creation and mandate no penalties for noncompliance.
Neither state officials nor anyone else can say how much the incentives are costing taxpayers and which companies benefit the most. Some city and county officials couldn’t even readily produce copies of their tax incentive deals or records showing what those agreements are costing local taxpayers. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said the “wide-open” nature of the programs concerns him, and should be reined in during the Legislature’s next session in 2023. “The public is rightfully outraged when they see public money being granted or just given away, effectively, on long-term deals where there’s no positive job growth tied into it. I don’t think that’s good long-term public policy,” said Bettencourt, who is particularly influential on tax policy. “If you're going to have an economic development program, it’s got to be tied to jobs, and it’s got to have some top-down guidelines that keep it from being misused.” The unchecked tax breaks are made possible by Chapters 380 and 381 of the Texas Local Government Code, by far the most flexible of the state’s major tax incentive programs. The former is for cities, the latter for counties. Other types of economic incentives in Texas, such as school property tax breaks and local property tax abatements, mandate a cap of 10 years on each deal… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
State Sen. John Whitmire announces he will run for Houston mayor in 2023 (Texas Tribune)
State Sen. John Whitmire, the longest-serving member of the Texas Senate, announced Wednesday night he will run for Houston mayor in 2023.
"We're running for mayor and we intend to win," he said at a Houston fundraiser captured by journalist Jose de Jesus Ortiz.
Whitmire, a Democrat, was joined by several other Houston lawmakers at the event, including his Senate colleague Borris Miles. He told the Houston Chronicle that he intends to run for reelection to the Senate in 2022, serve in the 2023 legislative session and then run for mayor in November that year.
He told the newspaper a public announcement will come later but "it's no secret" that he plans to run for mayor.
Whitmire was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.
Whitmire has served in the Senate since 1983. Prior to that, he served 10 years in the Texas House of Representatives.
The announcement confirmed a move that was rumored for months and made Whitmire the first candidate to publicly announce his intention to succeed Sylvester Turner as the mayor of the state's most populous city. Houston has term limits, and Turner's second and final term will end in January 2024… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Business group challenges Lina Khan’s agenda at Federal Trade Commission (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is challenging Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, contending in a series of letters that she is overstepping the agency’s legal authority.
In three letters to the FTC dated Friday, the Chamber cited potential breaches of administrative procedure that it said could be open to legal challenge. It also was set to file more than 30 requests with the FTC under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking documents that could include Ms. Khan’s personal communications and those of her staff.
The letters and records requests, which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, represent what Chamber leaders described as a rare public challenge to a regulatory agency that is still in the early months of new leadership.
“It feels to the business community that the FTC has gone to war against us, and we have to go to war back,” Suzanne Clark, the chamber’s president and chief executive, said in an interview.
“The FTC just announced we are ramping up efforts to combat corporate crime, and now the Chamber declares ‘war’ on the agency,” said FTC spokeswoman Lindsay Kryzak, referring to steps announced Thursday to facilitate criminal prosecutions of corporate defendants. “We are not going to back down because corporate lobbyists are making threats. We will continue to do our job and stand up for consumers, honest businesses, workers and entrepreneurs who deserve a fair marketplace,” she said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)