BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 7, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
OUT NOW - BG PODCAST EP. 145: Talking Austin's FY22 Budget and Beyond
The team discuss the City of Austin's recent FY22 budget season, and challenges ahead in FY23 and on.
Featuring Bingham Group CEO A.J., and Jimmy Flannigan, Bingham Group Advisory Board Member and former Austin Council Member.
CASE STUDIES
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Williamson County calls special meeting with city of Taylor to discuss $17B Samsung project agreement approval (Community Impact)
A special joint meeting has been called between the Williamson County Commissioners Court and Taylor City Council on Sept. 8 to "discuss, consider and take appropriate action on a resolution in support of Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLC's selection of Williamson County as the location of its new $17 billion facility," according to a posting by the county Sept. 3. A Chapter 381 economic and development program agreement and development agreement will be discussed. Other action could include approval for Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell to execute the resolution and agreements.
Documents show the plant would be built in Taylor ISD, southeast of Hwy. 79 and west of FM 973 at CR 401 and CR 404. Plans show additional roads being built to access the plant and SH 130.Documentation from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts shows a certificate for a limitation on appraised value for the proposed Samsung semiconductor manufacturing plant was approved in late August. The agreement is for the facility if it is built in the TISD boundaries in Williamson County. The 6.1 million-square-foot plant would include $6 billion in structure and other real estate developments and $11 billion worth of personal property in machinery and equipment. Applications show the facility would create 1,800 jobs.
The proposed savings to Samsung from the maintenance and operations ad valorem tax purposes would be more than $314 million over 10 years of an $80 million cap on assessed value. Samsung has looked at Williamson County, Travis County, the Phoenix area, upstate New York and South Korea for the new facility. Without the appraised value limitation, the application said Samsung would likely locate the project outside of Texas due to the higher cost of operating in the state.
The meeting will be held 5 p.m. at the Taylor ISD Event Center, 3101 N. Main St., Taylor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
12th and Springdale rezoning gets final Council approval (Austin Monitor)
In a move that will bring more housing to East Austin, City Council approved the rezoning of 1200, 1202 and 1208 Springdale Road at its Aug. 26 regular meeting.
Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison made the case at the meeting for capturing the benefits of new development instead of opposing growth altogether. While acknowledging that “East Austin has experienced a lot of change in recent years,” she said that “the question isn’t how can we stop growth; it’s how can we make sure that we harness it and use it to create the best possible outcomes.”
The Vertical Mixed-Use zoning, which Council approved 10-0-1 (with Council Member Alison Alter abstaining), will allow a 126-unit multifamily project to proceed. Ten percent of the units in the project will be set aside for people making 60 percent or less of the median family income.
“This is one of those cases where we can use growth to leverage more below-market housing, better flood mitigation and more potential customers for our transit system,” Harper-Madison said.
The case has slowly made its way through City Council amidst neighborhood opposition and concern that the subsequent development could disturb potential unmarked graves outside adjacent Bethany Cemetery’s boundary. A study commissioned by the applicant found no evidence of unmarked graves.
Nearby property owners also filed a petition to force a supermajority vote at Council, but fell short of a valid petition on a technicality: The city’s legal department did not recognize the signature of Sue Spears, the caretaker of Bethany Cemetery, because she is not the property owner. Valid petitions need the signatures of property owners representing at least 20 percent of the 200-foot buffer area around the property up for rezoning.
The Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association disputed the legal department’s decision and requested to postpone the case for another month in order to resolve the dispute. Council had already granted the neighborhood’s two-month postponement request in June.
However, Harper-Madison opposed the postponement request, saying, “Denying the zoning request will not stop this property from redeveloping. Postponing this case, which has been trying to move through Council since April, for another month will not change that fact.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
University of Texas sees relatively low COVID-19 numbers early in the semester (Austin American-Statesman)
Since classes began, the University of Texas has reported thousands of COVID-19 tests and a relatively small number of positive cases in the campus community.
UT welcomed an estimated 50,000 students to campus for fall classes starting Aug. 25, along with staff and faculty members. The university is holding nearly all classes in-person or in a hybrid format this fall, and it has reopened buildings such as the residence halls at full capacity.
UT reported an estimated 179 total active COVID-19 cases among students, staff and faculty as of Thursday. However, the university has not announced further requirements for community members to get tested, so the actual total number of cases remains unclear… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas NAACP, students file federal civil rights complaint over UT-Austin’s ‘Eyes of Texas’ (Texas Tribune)
The Texas chapter of the NAACP, along with the civil rights organization’s University of Texas at Austin chapter and a group of anonymous students, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging UT-Austin is creating a “hostile environment” for Black students by continuing to play the “The Eyes of Texas” alma mater song at university events.
The complaint, filed Friday morning, alleges that Black students have been denied full benefits of Longhorn student life because the song is an official part of the university, “despite its racially offensive origin, context and meaning.” The song premiered at a minstrel show in the early 1900s where students likely wore blackface. Despite pushback, university officials have said they are going to keep the song as their alma mater, concluding in a report issued earlier this year that the song “had no racist intent.”
The complaint, provided to The Texas Tribune by the filers, says the university has failed to respond to racial harassment against Black students and others who oppose the song, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and argues the university’s decision to create a separate marching band for students who do not want to play “The Eyes of Texas” violates equal protections afforded under the Fourteenth Amendment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
San Francisco-based ADU company expands to Austin (Austin Business Journal)
A San Francisco-based company that makes accessory dwelling units — tiny homes that can fit in backyards — is expanding to the Austin area, drawn in large part by the area’s insatiable demand for housing.
Villa, legally named Natomas Labs Inc., began its expansion to Austin in July. This is the company’s first market expansion outside of California.
The company has already put some boots on the ground in Austin — a vendor manager is in place — and officials say they’ll continue hiring for sales and other functions as demand kicks off. Plans to secure office space are dependent on how the pandemic continues to affect office work.
Villa develops detached ADUs, with service that spans the lifetime of the development process — from permitting to installation. Like manufactured homes, Villa homes are factory-made and then installed onsite.
Austin has become much friendlier toward ADUs since 2015, when the Austin City Council passed new, more relaxed regulations for ADUs, including reducing minimum lot sizes, eliminating parking and driveway requirements and setting a maximum size for the units. In recent years, ADUs have been central to the Austin City Council’s efforts to revamp the outdated land development code. Under the existing code, large swaths of the city are zoned SF-2, a designation that restricts homeowners from building ADUs on their land.
Villa CEO James Connolly said the prefabricated model allows for cheaper and faster development, while protecting customers from inflation. Villa uses local factories to produce the homes.
Villa’s Austin ADUs will start at $159,000, with permits, foundation, utility hookup and other costs included. Their models range in size from 440 square feet to 1,200 square feet.
The company was born in response to California’s newly relaxed ADU laws, which made it possible for homeowners across the state to develop detached units behind their homes in 2019… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Abbott to sign Texas election bill Tuesday (The Hill)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will sign an election integrity bill Tuesday after battling with Democrats over the controversial legislation.
Abbott will travel to Tyler, Texas, to sign S.B. 1, according to Fox News. The bill, which rolls back some of the relaxed voter accommodations put in place for the pandemic ahead of the 2020 election, will establish new rules for mail-in voting and will also tighten voting procedures and increase the number of partisan poll watchers.
The bill will also prohibit election officials from sending voters unsolicited applications for a mail-in ballot. Any official who does so would face possible jail time… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Republicans prove Texas is the most conservative one-party state in America (Dallas Morning News)
Republicans have just made it clear: Texas is the most conservative state in the union. And it will remain a bastion for the brand of conservatism made popular by the culture wars of the last 15 years and former President Donald Trump, unless overwhelmed Democrats challenge for control of the state or become a more effective opposition party. More than any legislative session in the history of Texas, Democrats were steamrolled by Republicans, who nearly passed every piece of legislation they wanted. That was after three quorum breaks, including a 38-day stint that included over 50 Democrats camping out in Washington, D.C. to stall a controversial elections bill. That bill and nearly everything on the GOP’s list at the red meat counter has been or will be signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who now has bragging rights over fellow Republican and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. With the Legislature and all the statewide offices controlled by Republicans, along with an electorate that approves of their priorities, Texas is under one-party rule.
If that wasn’t clear in the past, the nation now knows it. “They have won the crown,” said longtime Republican consultant and lobbyist Bill Miller. “Texas is arguably the most conservative big state in America.” Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said the one-way street known as Texas politics has soured many residents. He said one-party rule stifles debate and gives outsized influenced to the activist wing of the Republican Party. “When you have one-party dominance and the results show up in public policy, there is going to be a negative impact on the general mood, particularly when that agenda for that party is driven by a decidedly non-mainstream wing of the party,” Henson said. The Texas Politics Project recently released a poll showing most Texans feel the state is headed in the wrong direction. Still, the GOP voters who believe the election was stolen from Trump have gotten vindication from Abbott and their Texas lawmakers. The rest of the state, which includes swaths of apathetic voters, follow along or can do little to stop the onslaught. The other reality: Most voting Texans approve of the direction Abbott and Republicans are taking the state, despite what recent polls show. There’s plenty of opposition in the media, along with Democrats and progressives, about what happened in Austin this year. In the past, such outcry has produced electoral victories for Democrats. In 2018 Democrats seized 12 seats held by Republicans and won two congressional races, including Democrat Colin Allred’s defeat of Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in Dallas County’s Congressional District 32… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Republicans won the battle on voting bill, but Houston Democrats warn it will cost them at ballot box (Houston Chronicle)
The battle over election restrictions in Texas this summer was always about one place: Houston. After six years of watching Harris County turn progressively blue, Texas Republicans used their election reform package to target the largest county in the state, where the GOP is losing more and more in each election cycle. The bill that Gov. Greg Abbott will sign into law any day now includes provisions aimed directly, and unapologetically, at Harris County. The end of late-night voting. The end of drive-thru voting. Stopping the use of unstaffed drop boxes to collect absentee ballots. Felony charges for elections officials who send out absentee ballot applications unsolicited. Only one of the 254 counties in Texas tried to do all of those things: Harris County.
“Well, I have news for Harris County: You’re not the capital of Texas,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Republican who runs the Texas Senate, said in April as he explained why the legislation was needed. But Democrats such as state Sen. Borris Miles of Houston said Republicans went too far this time. At one point, Republicans were on the cusp of eliminating early voting locations in Fifth Ward and essentially eliminating Souls to the Polls events on Sundays, which are particularly popular among Black voters. “We’re not going to forget any of this,” Miles said of the constant targeting of Harris County. “They have no idea what they’ve done. They have awakened a bear.” Statewide Republicans — even those with Houston roots — were already losing Harris County badly, but now Miles said they are almost inviting bigger defeats as their actions become a call to arms for Democrats, particularly voters of color. For people in his community, Miles said the new restrictions sound like an attempt to roll back the hard-fought gains that civil rights leaders made half a century ago.
“We’re not going to let the hands of time be turned back on our watch,” he said. With elections over a year away, there is no telling if Democratic energy against the legislation will remain and motivate voters, but the possibility of losing Harris County worse in 2022 for statewide Republicans would be a disaster… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Even after quorum breaks, GOP House Speaker says he won’t campaign against Dem House members (Dallas Morning News)
Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan won’t campaign against his Democratic colleagues in the 2022 election, saying it would only inflame tensions in a chamber still divided over a weeks-long summer stalemate. “I will absolutely not get involved running against incumbent members of the House,” the first term speaker told The Dallas Morning News on Friday. “I don’t think that helps decorum in the House. I don’t think it helps us having a good working environment.” But while Phelan indicated a desire to mend relations, he also expressed an openness to reviving a transgender sports bill House Democrats killed in the special session that ended Thursday. Lawmakers will meet again this fall to begin redistricting. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is already lobbying to reconsider the bill that would restrict transgender student athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
“It’s something that I think a lot of members want to debate, there’s no doubt about it, on the House floor,” Phelan said. “I personally don’t want to see boys competing against girls in sports, it’s not something I think is fair. But it’s going to be what the House wants to do… My main concern going into this next special session is redistricting.” In an interview with The News, Phelan addressed the climate in the Texas House, fractured by three quorum breaks by Democrats over the GOP elections bill and frustrated Republicans seeking punishment of the runaways. After the hard-fought legislative session, the atmosphere is only expected to intensify when lawmakers return in the coming weeks to redraw the state and congressional district boundaries. In next year’s election, all 150 House members will have to run in the freshly drawn districts, some with unfamiliar constituents. The 2022 contest gives Republicans an opportunity to expand their majority in the House, particularly if they target sitting Democrats. Phelan, who plans to run again for House speaker, pushed off the notion that he would take part… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Colorado abortion providers are preparing for an influx of patients from Texas (Colorado Sun)
Abortion providers in Colorado saw the difference when Texas banned abortions at the start of the pandemic. More calls from Texas area codes. More Texas license plates. More stories about 16-hour drives. Now, providers are preparing for what could be a far more sustained increase, as a near-total ban on abortion takes effect in Texas, effectively cutting off access to the procedure for millions of people in the nation’s second-most populous state. Experts say the right to an abortion enshrined in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision could be gutted, with repercussions far beyond Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to soon hear a direct challenge to the case, and the Texas ban could inspire copycat legislation in other conservative states. While Colorado providers are concerned about the effect of the ban in Texas, changes nationwide could thrust more pressure on states like Colorado that have long been considered safe havens for abortion access.
The law is “completely unprecedented,” said Neta Meltzer, with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Abortion providers in Colorado say they’ve already begun to see an uptick in calls from Texans, and some experts predict abortion providers in Colorado may become overwhelmed in the coming months if other states push for restrictions similar to the Texas ban. Officials in Florida and South Dakota are already weighing them. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains will try to see everyone, but “the reality is that we’re not going to be able to meet the need alone,” Meltzer said. Several of the organization’s clinics — spread across Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nevada — are already slightly busier than normal and scheduling abortion appointments two to three weeks out.
Texas’ law bars abortions around six weeks gestation — before many women know they are pregnant. In a novel twist, the law is not enforced by state officials but by private citizens — from any state — who can sue for $10,000 any person they believe helped someone get an abortion, from a rideshare driver to a friend who loaned them money. The person suing would not need to have any connection to the abortion provider or the person who received an abortion, and those sued would be unable to recoup the money spent defending themselves from lawsuits in court, experts say… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wall Street can’t get enough fixer-upper houses (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street has made a mountain of money available to house flippers, and selling move-in-ready rehabs has rarely been easier. The challenge is finding beat-up and out-of-date properties that can be renovated and resold for a profit.
“Investors like me, we’re like ants on a sugar hill all fighting for the same projects,” said Ed Stock, who started fixing and flipping houses on New York’s Long Island after the 2008 mortgage meltdown. “It’s the greatest time to be in this market; it’s just hard to find the inventory.”
Foreclosure moratoriums have shut off a big source of fixer-uppers since last spring’s lockdown. Meanwhile, competition is stiff from regular home buyers armed with superlow mortgage rates and inspired by cable-TV renovators. Rising costs and limited availability of labor and building materials, such as lumber, cut into profits and stretch out jobs.
Just 2.7% of home sales were flips—sales within a year of a prior sale—during the first quarter, according to property data firm Attom. That is the lowest portion of sales since at least 2000, when Attom started counting flips. The number of flipped houses and condos were the fewest in a quarter since 2003… (LINK TO FULL STORY)