BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 3, 2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Development Services seeking more staff this summer (Austin Monitor)
The Development Services Department, which conducts inspections and approves permits for new housing, remodeling and commercial construction, is facing an ever-increasing volume of work, as Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales and department Director Denise Lucas explained at Tuesday’s City Council work session.
In order to meet demand, the department is requesting approval to hire 41 new full-time equivalent positions this summer, Gonzales said, while acknowledging that Council approved 50 new positions for the department in 2018. (Gonzales was director of the department at that time.)
Recently, Gonzales said, the city has experienced an increase in housing permit applications. “We’re not alone in the Austin region. Other cities in the region have experienced it and other regions in the country have experienced it as well. It’s a phenomenon that’s catching a lot of us by surprise post-pandemic. It is of concern to us and that’s why we view it as an emergency and are coming for a midyear budget adjustment,” he said.
Lucas told Council, “We’re experiencing a tremendous amount of growth in our residential and commercial areas,” noting that any project with three or more residents is considered commercial. The department is seeing a lot of multifamily projects as well as single-family homes and remodels. “We are at our maximum throughput in reviewing and permitting those projects so that we’re not able to meet our forecast review time with the staff that we have,” she explained.
Lucas described several changes her department has initiated in order to improve service delivery. The department has cross-trained inspectors so that one inspector can perform multiple inspections on a site visit, saving time for everyone involved and reducing the department’s carbon footprint.
The department also recently implemented a policy of taking every Friday to “clear comments” in order to get documentation back to the developers faster. But, Lucas added, “We enjoyed a two-week reduction in our review time that only lasted two weeks because then volumes accelerated again. So we’re now back out to an extended review time, which is unacceptable to our customers.”
Council Member Alison Alter wanted a full explanation of the need for the new positions and the costs. She posed a number of questions both during the meeting and in writing, which staffers answered at length… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin businessman Nate Paul loses 9 properties to foreclosure sales (Austin American-Statesman)
A preliminary plan to set up encampments on city-owned land in Austin has hit a snag.
The real estate empire amassed by Austin businessman Nate Paul is continuing to shrink.
Paul lost major pieces of his holdings during foreclosure sales Tuesday — including the 156-acre former 3M campus in Northwest Austin and his headquarters building at Lavaca and West Ninth streets in downtown Austin.
The foreclosure sales marked his biggest defeat so far in a lengthy battle to forestall lenders who have contended he owes more than $250 million in delinquent debt.
All told, nine properties owned by Paul's company, World Class Property, were foreclosed upon. They're valued at a combined total of $138.1 million on Travis County's tax rolls, with the 3M campus accounting for the largest portion of that figure, at $100.9 million.
Investment funds controlled by Karlin Real Estate LLC — which held the notes on many of the properties — acquired the bulk of them during Tuesday's auctions. Karlin is based in Los Angeles and already owns real estate in Austin.
The vacant 3M campus, at 6801 River Place Blvd., was sold to Karlin with a credit bid of $53 million, meaning no money changed hands because one of its investment funds held the delinquent note and was owed more.
In an email to the American-Statesman, Paul called Tuesday's sales "unlawful" and indicated he will contest them. Paul said he is being victimized by unethical adversaries.
The "purported sales conducted yesterday were improper," Paul said. "The groups that have disregarded the law in their attempts to self-deal and steal properties will be held fully accountable."
Karlin representatives couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Paul Rana, operations manager of Roddy's Foreclosure Listing Service, said the sales took place in accordance with state law. Roddy's compiles Texas foreclosure data and routinely has representatives in attendance at foreclosure auctions… (LINK TO STORY)
Bill that would have revived Land Development Code dies in session (Austin Monitor)
It wasn’t on the city’s legislative agenda, but a bill that would have empowered City Council to move forward with a final vote on a revised Land Development Code died in a House committee, giving neighborhood advocates another victory over the city and developers.
House Bill 2989, brought by Rep. John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, would have rescinded a 2020 court ruling that voided Council’s initial votes on a revised land use code. The revisions sought to enact a comprehensive rezoning of much of the city while denying property owners the right to protest the changes. The bill’s companion, Senate Bill 1120, was referred to the Local Government Committee but did not advance to a hearing.
Cyrier’s legislation contained proposed amendments to the state’s existing Local Government Code, which would have granted protest rights only in cases where “a proposed change to a regulation or boundary … only affects an individual lot or a limited area of contiguous lots or land.” In other words, a comprehensive rezoning effort such as the derailed LDC would have been sanctioned had the bill obtained legislative approval.
Members of Community Not Commodity, the Austin group that fought the zoning rewrite in Council chambers and in court, found a friendly and largely sympathetic audience at an April hearing of the House Land and Resource Management Committee, a bipartisan group chaired by Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont. The residents’ arguments centered on municipalities giving property owners sufficient notice and the right to protest zoning changes that would affect their property.
Lawmakers asked tougher questions of those who favored passage of the House bill, which included representatives from Texans for Housing, the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and Habitat for Humanity. The Texas Association of Builders and the Real Estate Council of Austin also supported the bill.
While those in favor testified that the bill would make it easier to create more density, build multiple types of housing for all income levels, and on the whole, be in the best interest of growing communities, Chair Deshotel observed that their vision seemed to do the opposite of benefiting communities.
Scott Turner, president-elect of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, argued that the city of Austin’s goal is to build more housing, yet developers are stymied by the city’s existing building regulations.
To that, Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, who belongs to the more conservative wing of the Legislature, seemed aghast that the homebuilders were bemoaning local regulations when they’ve been building all over the state for decades. “Homebuilders can build anywhere they want,” he said, adding that homes are always welcome outside city limits in areas that are less regulated.
“Sure, cities have to grow, but you don’t have to build over the top of people and roll them out,” Biedermann said, echoing the sentiments expressed by neighborhood advocates.
Cyrier, the bill’s sponsor, closed out the testimony, saying, “With or without the bill, there will be the same level of anxiety that (residents) have now” about development. Committee members agreed and expressed the need to resolve these types of development issues as Texas continues to grow. Nevertheless, Texas’ long-cherished property rights laws won the day with lawmakers and the bill was left pending in committee. It effectively died at the end of the legislative session on May 31.
With the Land Development Code in limbo and HB 2989 landing with a thud at the Capitol, it’s uncertain whether the city will continue pursuing its appeal of District Court Judge Jan Soifer’s ruling or start the code rewrite process anew… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Donald Trump endorses Gov. Greg Abbott for reelection (Texas Tribune)
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott for reelection on Tuesday, giving him an early and crucial stamp of approval as he confronts a possibly competitive primary.
Abbott has already drawn a challenge from former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also has been considering a run, and Texas GOP Chair Allen West has not ruled it out.
"Greg Abbott is a fighter and a Great Governor for the incredible people of Texas," Trump said in a written statement, praising Abbott's record on issues including border security and gun rights. "Governor Greg Abbott will continue to be a great leader for the Lone Star State, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for re-election. He will never let you down!"
The endorsement comes two days after Democrats in the Texas House killed Abbott's priority election bill by walking out of the chamber and denying the House a quorum on the final day to pass legislation before the regular session's end. Abbott has vowed to revive it in a special session, but Huffines said the failure of the legislation in the regular session showed a lack of leadership by the governor.
Trump said in the statement that Abbott is "all in on Election Integrity."
Trump's backing of Abbott is particularly disappointing to Miller, who has portrayed himself as one of Trump's closest allies in Texas. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chaired both of Trump's presidential campaigns in Texas, has already gotten Trump's endorsement for another term in 2022.
Abbott thanked Trump for his endorsement in a statement that called the former president a "great friend of Texas."… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announces run for attorney general against Ken Paxton (Texas Tribune)
Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced Wednesday that he is running for attorney general, challenging fellow Republican Ken Paxton with a sharp focus on Paxton's legal troubles.
"Enough is enough, Ken," Bush said during a campaign kickoff at a downtown Austin bar. "You've brought way too much scandal and too little integrity to this office. And as a career politician for 20 years, it's time for you to go."
The 2022 matchup could be the marquee statewide primary of this election cycle, and former President Donald Trump already looms large. He said in a statement last week that he would issue an endorsement in the race — and do so "in the not-so-distant future." Bush told reporters after his announcement that he has asked Trump for his endorsement.
Both Bush and Paxton have histories with Trump. Bush — son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — was the only prominent member of his famous political family to support Trump in 2016, and Trump has praised him as the only Bush "that got it right." Paxton has positioned himself as one of the most pro-Trump attorneys general — especially after the November election, when Paxton led an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging Trump's reelection loss in four battleground states.
Paxton's campaign responded to Bush's launch by touting the attorney general as the "tip of the spear in protecting President Trump’s America First principles."
Paxton has been under indictment on securities fraud charges for most of the time since he took office in 2015. More recently, he has come under investigation by the FBI over allegations from former senior aides that he abused his office to help a wealthy donor. He has denied wrongdoing in both cases… (LINK TO STORY)
An elections bill casualty: most schools won’t get funded for virtual learning next year unless the education commissioner acts (Dallas Morning News)
The fate of Texas’ virtual school programs lies in the hands of the state’s education commissioner after lawmakers failed to act on related legislation this session. Local districts that intend to keep the option next school year now are scrambling to find money to pay for remote learning after a bill that would have funded such efforts died Sunday night. School officials say the virtual instruction bill was a casualty of the legislative walkout House Democrats employed to kill a controversial elections integrity bill. Democrats broke quorum, exiting the chamber late Sunday to stop voting on the elections legislation. The virtual bill was scheduled to be called up at 11:40 p.m., but lawmakers didn’t return to the statehouse to vote on it before the midnight deadline passed.
“It was the wrong place at the wrong time,” said David Anderson, general counsel and policy analyst at Raise Your Hand Texas, an Austin-based education advocacy group. “It was on the list of bills to be considered at the point at which the elections bill came up, and the whole thing just came down.” Now, school systems that planned to offer virtual learning this fall hope Education Commissioner Mike Morath will issue a waiver, allowing all schools to get funding for remote-learning programs. Texas Education Agency officials are “currently researching the issues,” according to an agency statement. Nationwide schools suddenly had to shift to online learning when the pandemic hit. But as most reopen, many districts want to keep virtual learning options for families who feel in-person learning is unsafe or believe their student excels in remote classes. Texas schools are generally funded based on attendance. But without a TEA waiver, the only schools that will receive funding for such programs are the seven that operated a full-time virtual school in 2013… (LINK TO STORY)
The dramatic fight in Texas over voting obscures the point that almost no demonstrated fraud exists (Washington Post)
It was a dramatic weekend in Austin. The Republican majority in the state House had hoped to pass new constraints on voting in the state, but were unable to do so after Democrats walked out, preventing the chamber from reaching the quorum needed for a vote. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) responded by saying he would dock the legislators’ pay, reflecting the fury of his party at the unexpected play by their political opponents. The proposed legislation in Texas was an echo of other bills passed in a number of states since the 2020 election, including new restrictions on voting implemented in Georgia and Florida. The path to a gubernatorial signature in those other states twisted in different ways, with Georgia’s early position on the effort drawing national scrutiny and blowback. The root is obviously the same: dishonest claims from former president Donald Trump that the 2020 election was riddled by fraud have prompted Republican voters to embrace the false idea that the security of voting is imperiled. So we have late-night machinations in Austin including discreet messages and exasperated legislators. All of that drama, though, can obscure the central point: There is no evidence of any rampant fraud in Texas or anywhere else, meaning the purported rationale for the legislation itself doesn’t exist.
From 2015 to 2020, a period during which more than 44.1 million votes were cast for presidential and gubernatorial races and for constitutional measures alone, there were only 197 complaints of election fraud filed with the state. Only 23 were from the 2020 election itself. The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) devoted more than 22,000 hours to tracking down fraud cases last year, closing out 16 minor cases around Houston. That fact check was a response to a CNN appearance by Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R), in which he repeatedly claimed there were “over 400 open cases of investigations of voter fraud” in the state. There were not. Hughes cited the arrest of an official in his district as an example of where fraud occurs. That official, Marlena Jackson, is a good example of the divide between the number of charges and the number of people charged. She was indicted on 97 criminal counts centered on ballots or ballot applications for 38 voters. It’s not clear if any of the ballots were cast successfully, but it is clear that none affected the outcome in 2020: The charges center on the 2018 primary election. This conflation of charges across multiple cycles and the conflation of different types of alleged illegality — from registering voters to seeking ballots to actually casting them — is common. That Paxton’s office points to a higher-than-average total of charges without delineating, for example, how many of them are specifically related to individuals casting illegal ballots gives the impression — probably intentionally — that such fraud is endemic. Digging into the numbers more deeply makes clear that it isn’t: Even if all 510 of those possible offenses were fraudulently cast ballots in the 2020 presidential race, that would amount to one of every 22,000 votes cast being suspect and would have had no effect on the presidential race or even any House race… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Biden prioritizes US voting rights law as restrictions mount (Associated Press)
President Joe Biden used the 100th anniversary of Tulsa’s race massacre to make a plea for sweeping legislation in Congress to protect the right to vote as Republican-led governments in Texas and other states pass new restrictions making it tougher to cast ballots. Biden, marking the centennial in Oklahoma on Tuesday, called out lawmakers in Congress — including two senators in his own party — for holding up action on voting bills. Invoking the words of the late Rep. John Lewis, Biden said the right to vote is “precious” and must be protected. He vowed that June will be a “month of action” on Capitol Hill as Congress considers the legislation, among the top priorities of his administration. “We’re not giving up,” Biden said about the bill, S.1. “I’m going to fight like heck with every tool at my disposal for its passage.”
Republican legislators in state capitols across the nation are pushing what experts say is an unprecedented wave of bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot box. While Republicans say the bills are aimed at preventing voter fraud, Democrats contend that the measures are aimed at undermining minority voting rights in particular. Most recently, the Texas legislature moved closer to passing a bill that would reduce early voting hours, tighten voter identification requirements for absentee ballots and eliminate ballot drop boxes and drive-thru voting centers. The bill was blocked only when Texas Democrats walked off the House floor on Sunday night, but Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he’ll order a special session to ultimately ensure its passage. Biden addressed the federal voting rights legislation during an event marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, in which a white mob looted and burned Tulsa’s Greenwood district, which was known as “Black Wall Street.”… (LINK TO STORY)
The economic recovery is here. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen. (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. economic recovery is unlike any in recent history, powered by consumers with trillions in extra savings, businesses eager to hire and enormous policy support. Businesses and workers are poised to emerge from the downturn with far less permanent damage than occurred after recent recessions, particularly the 2007-09 downturn.
New businesses are popping up at the fastest pace on record. The rate at which workers quit their jobs—a proxy for confidence in the labor market—matches the highest going back at least to 2000. American household debt-service burdens, as a share of after-tax income, are near their lowest levels since 1980, when records began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 18% from its pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. Home prices nationwide are nearly 14% higher since that time.
The speed of the rebound is also triggering turmoil. The shortages of goods, raw materials and labor that typically emerge toward the end of an expansion are cropping up much sooner. Many economists, along with the Federal Reserve, expect the jump in inflation to be temporary, but others worry it could persist even once reopening is complete.
“We’ve never had anything like it—a collapse and then a boom-like pickup,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist and strategist at Decision Economics, Inc. “It is without historical parallel.”… (LINK TO STORY)