BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 12, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG PODCAST - Episode 121: Talking COVID-19 Vaccination with Dr. Aliza Norwood
On today’s episode Bingham Group CEO A.J. speaks with Dr. Aliza Norwood, an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine at Dell Medical School. The two discuss her experience with the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, the differences between it and the Moderna treatment, vaccine misconceptions and more.
NEW // What to Expect in Austin 2021: Thoughts from a Lobbyist (Texas CEO Magazine Q1 Issue)
Check out Bingham CEO A.J.’s recent Texas CEO Magazine article on the coming year.
THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE:
The Texas Legislature convenes for its 2021 session at noon today.
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (1123)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Groups ready to battle over strong mayor (Austin Monitor)
The group Austinites for Progressive Reform, which wants to replace Austin’s council-manager form of government with a strong mayor form of governance, submitted 24,000 signatures to City Clerk Jannette Goodall on Monday in an effort to place four charter amendments on the May 1 ballot. Shortly after the announcement about the signatures, a second group, Austin for All People, released a statement opposing “the proposed charter amendment that would radically change the city of Austin’s governance system.”
Austinites for Progressive Reform, which was founded by Andrew Allison, has been working since last summer to gather enough signatures to make other changes to the city’s election process. In addition to replacing the current system with a strong mayor form of government, the amendments propose moving mayoral elections to coincide with presidential elections, putting in place a campaign finance system that would give city funds to citizens to donate to candidates, and instituting ranked-choice voting once it is allowed under state law.
Local unions have already expressed opposition to changing to the strong mayor form of government.
Among those supporting the strong mayor system and the other proposed ordinance changes are businessman Tom Meredith, NAACP leader Nelson Linder, Robbie Ausley, Jehmu Greene and Ali Khataw. In addition to Allison, the group’s founders include political consultants Jim Wick and Laura Hernandez as well as civic activist Eugene Sepulveda. Wick will be managing the campaign along with Hernandez.
Adopting the strong mayor form of government would eliminate the city manager position and make the mayor the most powerful person in City Hall. Supporters of the plan say this would make City Hall directly accountable to the voters. The amendment would require adding an 11th City Council district. The city is starting to put together a group of citizens to work on redistricting under the current system.
Leaders of the group opposing the strong mayor form of government include former City Manager Jesús Garza, attorney Catherine Morse, Kerbey Lane Cafe CEO Mason Ayer, and civil rights activist Nico Ramsey… (LINK TO STORY)
Group says it has enough signatures to ask voters to make changes to Austin’s local government (KUT)
A local political action committee says it has enough signatures to put to a public vote a slew of changes to how Austin’s government works, including investing more power in the mayor.
Austinites for Progressive Reform announced Monday that it had submitted a petition with 24,000 signatures to the city clerk. If verified, the petition would ask voters in a May election whether they want any of the following changes:
Moving mayoral elections to the same year as presidential elections. Currently, Austin elects a new mayor every four years during midterm elections.
Changing from a "weak mayor" form of government to a "strong mayor" form of government. Currently, Austin has a city manager who oversees the executive branch of the city. This would put the mayor in that role, adding an 11th City Council district to maintain 11 members on the body, and giving the mayor veto power over its actions, an ability the city manager does not currently have. Overriding a veto would require eight of 11 votes, according to Jim Wick, campaign manager for the group.
Using ranked-choice voting for local elections. This is where voters rank the candidates in an election instead of choosing just one person.
Offering "Democracy Dollars" to voters. This would give every voter a $25 voucher that they could contribute to a local campaign.
Changes like these require amending the city’s charter, which necessitates a public vote. Petitioners need to collect at least 20,000 signatures from valid city voters to get the measure on a ballot. Typically, groups collect thousands more as a buffer in the chance that signatures are invalidated.
The city clerk will now go through the process of verifying the signatures. Typically, her office analyzes a sample of signatures, confirming that those who signed the petition are registered voters in the City of Austin and looking for any duplicate signers… (LINK TO STORY)
H-E-B launches COVID-19 vaccine registration portal, but awaits additional doses (Community Impact)
H-E-B launched a registration portal for people seeking coronavirus vaccines Jan. 8. As of Jan. 11, the Texas grocery store and pharmacy chain was still awaiting another shipment of vaccines before appointments are made available through the portal.
Once the H-E-B vaccine stock is replenished, individuals who qualify for Phases 1A and 1B of distribution—health care workers and long-term care facility residents, followed by people age 65 and up or with certain medical conditions—will be able to register for vaccination appointments through the website. The portal will eventually offer appointments to individuals in Phase 1C and Phase 2 of distribution once the Texas Department of State Health Services gives the green light to move forward… (LINK TO STORY)
Music Commission eyes funding apart from hotel tax among 2021 priorities (Austin Monitor)
The Music Commission wants to decrease the role that Hotel Occupancy Tax will play in funding arts and music programs in the coming years, possibly relying more on the city’s General Fund or other revenue sources while the local hospitality industry recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Restructuring the funding for the Live Music Fund and other music initiatives was one of the items discussed last week when the commission members gathered to decide their priorities for 2021.
No action was taken on the topic and it will be revisited next month, with other possible areas of focus including finding ways to improve digital engagement with the public, finding more ways to use city land for arts and living space, scaling up with the city’s Economic Development Corporation, addressing long-standing equity concerns in the music economy, and finally resolving the “agent of change” issue between creative spaces and commercial development.
In 2019, music stakeholders succeeded in securing a portion of the hotel tax specifically to support music initiatives, rather than having to compete for funding from the Cultural Arts pool provided to the Economic Development Department. The onset of the pandemic, however, has crippled the city’s hospitality industry and will dramatically reduce the funds available for all programs tied to arts, music and tourism promotion funded by the hotel tax.
Commissioner Graham Reynolds said that EDD and the commission need funding that is predictable years ahead to serve a growing list of needs and expectations from the music ecosystem.
“We’re going to need real resources, and financial resources in particular,” he said. “At the same time the entire country is challenged for financial resources – how do we solve that puzzle? To me, that’s the giant challenge and an overarching concern.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
From COVID-19 to policing and elections: How state vs. local tension will play out at the Legislature (KUT)
The legislature reconvenes on Tuesday, which means the ongoing battle between state and local authority will likely continue over the next several months at the Texas Capitol. And that battle isn't just about one issue; it has many facets. For months, COVID-19 has been front and center in the local-versus-state push-pull. But Jasper Scherer of the Houston Chronicle says there's also tension over how to manage issues like election law, taxpayer-funded lobbying and policing. What's more, all of these issues will be hashed out against the backdrop of once-a-decade political redistricting that lawmakers must complete during the session. "Temperatures are already going to be pretty high this session," Scherer told Texas Standard. "Both parties always want what's best for them. ... Tension is already going to be higher."
Taxpayer-funded lobbying: Scherer says during the 2019 legislative session, Republicans fought to prevent cities and counties from being able to use public money to pay for lobbyists to push for certain bills to get passed. They're going to continue that this year, he says. "That measure is expected to be revived this upcoming session. And there's a lot of bad blood kind of flying around over that issue," Scherer said. Mail-in ballots: This was a heated topic in November, when Scherer says the Texas Supreme Court blocked Harris County from sending mail-in ballots to every voter in the county to make voting more accessible during the pandemic. He says one Republican senator from Houston, Paul Bettencourt, wants to codify that decision in state law. "That was a pretty contentious issue, kind of in the lead-up to the November election. So you can expect to see some some fights over election-related matters. I think that's the big one," Scherer said… (LINK TO STORY)
Recession cuts how much lawmakers can spend with the next state budget, but decrease isn’t as bad as feared (Texas Tribune)
Texas lawmakers will enter the legislative session this week with an estimated $112.5 billion available to allocate for general-purpose spending in the next two-year state budget, a number that's down slightly from the current budget but is significantly higher than what was estimated this summer when the coronavirus began to devastate the economy.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced that number Monday in his biennial revenue estimate, which sets the amount lawmakers can commit to spending when they write a new budget this year. But he acknowledged that Texas' economic future remains "clouded in uncertainty" and that numbers could change in the coming months.
Hegar also announced a nearly $1 billion deficit for the current state budget that lawmakers must make up, a significantly smaller shortfall than the $4.6 billion one Hegar expected over the summer. That number, however, doesn't account for 5% cuts to state agencies' budgets that Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ordered this summer, or any supplemental changes to the budget lawmakers will have to make.
Hegar's estimates portend a difficult budget-writing session for lawmakers. But Hegar acknowledged that things could have been a lot worse. The $112.5 billion available is down from $112.96 billion for the current budget… (LINK TO STORY)
After a rocky start, Gov. Greg Abbott promises to ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations across Texas (Texas Tribune)
More than 877,000 Texans have received a COVID-19 vaccine since they first began arriving in Texas nearly four weeks ago, and that number is expected to increase by at least 50,000 more per day, Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday.
“Never before in the history of this state has Texas vaccinated so many people so quickly, “ Abbott said during remarks at the Esports Stadium Arlington & Expo Center, a newly-designated “vaccination hub” that local health officials said can vaccinate thousands per day. “It’s stunning to see what we've accomplished.”
The Arlington center, home to the city’s mass vaccination effort since December, is among 28 sites designed by the state as hubs.
“Our goal is, by the end of the week, we have no vaccines left,” said Tarrant County Judge B. Glen Whitley. The county’s health district was allotted 9,000 doses in the most recent shipment this week.
The hubs are meant to streamline vaccinations at a time when the state is seeing an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations. Texas continues to prioritize vaccinating health care workers, people who are 65 and older, and those with medical conditions that increase their risk of hospitalization or death if they contract the virus... (LINK TO STORY)
Dallas-based AT&T suspends PAC contributions to GOP lawmakers who objected to Biden’s Electoral College victory (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas-based AT&T is suspending contributions from its high-dollar political action committee to the members of Congress – all Republicans, including 17 from Texas – who voted last week to object to certified Electoral College votes. A spokesperson for the telecom and media giant on Monday confirmed that those lawmakers were cut off for the time being. “Employees on our federal PAC board convened a call today and decided to suspend contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of Electoral College votes last week,” the AT&T spokesperson said.
The punishment underscores the continued fallout over the failed effort in Congress to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory and the corresponding insurrection that played out after President Donald Trump incited his supporters to march on the Capitol. AT&T is one of several major companies, including Marriott and Blue Cross Blue Shield, to now halt donations to the objectors, while other corporations have decided to pause their political giving altogether or to reevaluate their programs, the Washington Post reported. Terrell Rep. Lance Gooden, a GOP objector who received $6,000 from AT&T’s PAC in 2020, said it was “sad, but not surprising,” that the company is “now caving to the left wing mob.” “AT&T has one of the largest lobby shops in Washington and I heard from none of them during the month-long period of me making my objection plans known,” Gooden, a second-term lawmaker and vocal Trump supporter, said in a written statement. He added on Twitter: “Why do corporations suddenly care today?”… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says ‘enough’ blaming antifa for Capitol attack (Houston Chronicle)
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is telling his supporters to stop blaming left-wing activists for the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Patrick, one of President Donald Trump’s most important allies in Texas, told supporters in a lengthy message over the weekend that the people involved in storming the Capitol were Trump supporters. Some in the conservative world have tried to claim it was left-wing activists who were parading as Trump supporters. “There are no excuses for those who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday,” Patrick said. “Five people died. And, sadly, it appears that most of the protesters inside the Capitol were Trump supporters.” Patrick said one reason he knows that is that antifa protesters — a decentralized anti-fascism movement — typically cover their faces.
Patrick also condemned those involved in the attack. “There is no such thing as justifiable political violence,” Patrick said. “Politics is never an excuse for criminal behavior.” Patrick has been a key adviser to Trump’s White House on immigration policy and was chairman of Trump’s Texas campaigns in both 2016 and 2020. Patrick is not expected to be with Trump on Tuesday in Hidalgo County when the president makes a final stop along the Texas border before his term in office ends on Jan. 20. But Patrick over the weekend also blasted those on the left who have tried to make it appear all Trump supporters deserve blame for the death and destruction that occurred. “Enough of blaming all Trump supporters for the crimes of a small group who attacked the Capitol,” Patrick wrote. “I’ve spoken to and met thousands of Trump supporters across the nation. They love this country and the Constitution. They hate what they saw at the U.S. Capitol as much as I do.” Patrick also offered a defense of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who had objected to certifying the presidential election results just moments before the Capitol was stormed. Patrick said Cruz’s actions did not incite the crowd… (LINK TO STORY)
Betsy Price: New Fort Worth mayor must continue equity work, prepare for city’s growth (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Fort Worth’s next mayor will be the face of a city nearing 1 million diverse people, and as Mayor Betsy Price prepares to leave office she said she hopes whoever follows will work to unite a growing and evolving Cowtown. Anyone who has heard Price promote Fort Worth knows she loves to cite a few stats about the city’s growth: 20,000 people move here a year, or that it is the 13th largest city and growing. These are great talking points about Fort Worth’s robust economy but they also represent one of Price’s greatest challenges during her decade in office — engaging a rapidly changing city. “I don’t think you govern well behind a desk; I think you have to be out. How am I going to know what you need if I’m not talking to you? And most people aren’t coming to City Hall; they’re intimidated by that,” she said. “I do think it’s changed dramatically. Not enough, clearly, but it has changed.”
Price talked about her time as the longest serving mayor in Fort Worth’s history with Star-Telegram on Thursday after she announced Jan. 5 she would not seek a sixth term. Possible candidates include two council members, Brian Byrd and Ann Zadeh, as well as Tarrant County Democratic Chairwoman Deborah Peoples. Certainly the zoning changes and backlog of street work that comes with a rapidly expanding city are frustrating to residents, but tension around racial equity and social justice have dominated the last half of Price’s tenure. The viral arrest of Jacqueline Craig in 2016, who had called police during a dispute with a neighbor, touched off outcries over police bias. Price said the situation was “not handled well” by the city, but she hoped residents saw the Race and Culture Task Force that followed as a sincere effort from the city’s majority-white leadership to improve equity and engage a broad swath of residents. Though the city is more than 35% Hispanic, Carlos Flores is the only Latino on the City Council. The city has hired a police monitor to review complaints about policing and a diversity and inclusion director to ensure city services are provided equitably. But much of of the task force’s recommendations have been left partially adopted, including a civilian police review board, improvements to transportation and more access to health care in poor neighborhoods… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Who is running the federal government? (The Atlantic)
Who is steering the American ship of state? This isn’t a philosophical question; we’ve spent four years wondering about the roots and motivations of Trumpism. It’s a specific question: Who is in charge right now when the White House has to make a decision? On paper, the answer is simple: Until noon on January 20, Donald Trump is the president. Then Joe Biden will be sworn in and become president. In practice, matters are less clear. Even by the low standard he has set, Trump is reportedly disengaged from the work of governance, and is instead mainlining television news and raging over his social-media defenestration. Some reports suggest that Vice President Mike Pence is making some decisions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is back-channeling with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Unelected staff members may be wielding power in the executive branch. Others have quit, or quit showing up.
There are two bitter ironies to the January 6 attempted coup. First, the mob was seeking to overturn an election in order to keep in office a president who manifestly has no interest in performing the job. Second, the riot seems to have accelerated rather than prevented the weakening of Trump’s presidency. Many attempted coups leave behind power vacuums and uncertainty. Until Biden is inaugurated, or Trump leaves office via resignation, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, or impeachment, the federal government may remain in the fragile state of having no clear leader. Cracks have been showing since the midst of the riot. During the heat of the assault, leaders in Congress and in D.C. government were pleading for the National Guard to assist in the response. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, was prepared to send troops from his state. CNN reports that Trump resisted deploying the Guard, and that Pence—barricaded inside the Capitol—helped get approval.
The New York Times reports on confusion and indecision among leaders including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley; the Army chief of staff; Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy; and Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. We still don’t understand why approval for the Guard was slow or how it eventually came. There still has been little in the way of federal-government briefings on the events of January 6—nothing from the White House, and few from other federal agencies. FBI Director Christopher Wray has not spoken publicly. A U.S. Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, was killed in the attack. But Trump has not personally offered any public condolences, and he has reportedly not called Sicknick’s family. (Pence aides say the vice president has done so.)… (LINK TO STORY)
Who were they? Records reveal Trump fans who stormed Capitol (Associated Press)
They came from across America, summoned by President Donald Trump to march on Washington in support of his false claim that the November election was stolen and to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the victor. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted a week before Christmas. “Be there, will be wild!” The insurrectionist mob that showed up at the president’s behest and stormed the U.S. Capitol was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals. Records show that some were heavily armed and included convicted criminals, such as a Florida man recently released from prison for attempted murder.
The Associated Press reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 unrest or who, going maskless amid the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee. The evidence gives lie to claims by right-wing pundits and Republican officials such as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., that the violence was perpetrated by left-wing antifa thugs rather than supporters of the president. “If the reports are true,” Gaetz said on the House floor just hours after the attack, “some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.” Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, told reporters that investigators had seen “no indication” antifa activists were disguised as Trump supporters in Wednesday’s riot.
The AP found that many of the rioters had taken to social media after the November election to retweet and parrot false claims by Trump that the vote had been stolen in a vast international conspiracy. Several had openly threatened violence against Democrats and Republicans they considered insufficiently loyal to the president. During the riot, some livestreamed and posted photos of themselves at the Capitol. Afterwards, many bragged about what they had done… (LINK TO STORY)
House GOP leader tells members to quit spreading lies on riot, antifa (The Hill)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told members of his GOP conference on a call Monday that the riot at the Capitol was not caused by antifa, urging lawmakers not to further spread misinformation about the pro-Trump mob that stormed the House and Senate last week.
“McCarthy told all members on the call that he has been receiving FBI briefings and it is clear that antifa was not behind this,” one source familiar with the call said. “That it was in fact right-wing extremists and QAnon adherents, and he urged members to stop spreading false information to the contrary.”
McCarthy’s comments come in the wake of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who made the unsubstantiated claim on the House floor that antifa was behind the violence that broke out at the Capitol on Wednesday after the riot took place in an attempt to delay the official count of Electoral College votes… (LINK TO STORY)