BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 24, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Industry expert pokes holes in city’s convention center expansion plan (Austin Monitor)
A presentation to the Downtown Commission last week largely refuted the need to expand the Austin Convention Center. Commissioners will revisit the issue at their March meeting.
The proposed expansion has been an issue for the commission since last fall when it formed a working group to gather information on the project that would likely cost more than $1 billion and would close all or parts of the facility for four years.
Commissioner Laura Templeton suggested at a recent Tourism Commission meeting that the Downtown Commission was planning this month to ask City Council to pull back from the expansion plans for two years to study the changing state of the convention industry following the Covid-19 pandemic. The Tourism Commission voted at that meeting to ask city staff to present updated business forecast and financing plans for the expansion at its March meeting.
The presentation from Heywood Sanders, professor of public administration at the University of Texas-San Antonio and an expert on convention centers, examined the expectations and realities of the 2002 convention center expansion and the business environment for facilities across the country for event bookings.
Sanders pointed out repeatedly that the 1997 forecast for the most recent expansion would more than double the annual number of hotel room nights generated by convention center business, one of the key business metrics for expansion proposals along with total event attendance.
While attendance figures for the convention center had been strong before the pandemic, Sanders said the predictions for hotel room nights have never been realized because popular events such as South by Southwest and DreamHack Austin have large turnouts made up of many day trippers who opt not to stay in hotels.
According to data from 2018, SXSW had attendance of more than 200,000 people but generated only 53,681 room nights. The next highest room night total that year was 14,462 for an immunology industry event… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County Commissioners Court approves FY 2022-23 budget guidelines (Community Impact)
The Travis County Commissioners Court approved its budget guidelines for fiscal year 2022-23 at a meeting Feb. 22.
The budget will be approximately $32.5 million, with the largest fund going toward staff compensation.The Travis County Budget Office proposed allocating $18.3 million for workers' compensation and benefits. County staff will receive a 3% wage increase across the board.
The second-largest amount of funds will go toward new facility staffing and operating expenses at $4.6 million. Another $4.5 million will be allocated for the justice system, including the Public Defender’s office grant match program and indigent attorney fees. The county’s preliminary budget will be released in July 2022. The budget and tax rate will be approved in September… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott floats pardons for Austin police officers charged with excessive force in 2020 protests (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday blasted the indictment of 19 Austin police officers on assault charges stemming from the May 2020 racial justice protests — and dangled the possibility of potential pardons for them.
“Those officers should be praised for their efforts, not prosecuted,” Abbott said in a statement. “Time will tell whether the accusations against the courageous Austin police officers is a political sham. Time will also tell whether I, as Governor, must take action to exonerate any police officer unjustly prosecuted.”
With Wednesday’s declaration, Abbott threatens to once more stomp on Austin-area officials’ efforts to reform policing in the Texas capital and signals that he’ll make it difficult for other cities that try to do the same — all while shoring up his pro-police bona fides with the state’s Republican base ahead of Tuesday’s primary… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How soon before Austin can safely unmask? COVID trends inch closer to pre-surge levels (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin's coronavirus trends continue to steadily decline, drawing it closer to a time when vaccinated residents can safely unmask in public. Local health leaders plan to meet Friday to discuss when to loosen pandemic guidelines.
Austin Public Health's guidelines range from Stage 1, when the risk of the disease is at its mildest, to Stage 5, when the virus' threat is at its worst. The Austin area has been in Stage 5 all year after a surge fueled by the omicron variant of the coronavirus started in December.
The agency on Wednesday recorded a seven-day average of new daily hospital admissions of 31. That number, a key indicator to determine the agency's risk-based guidelines, was well within the threshold for Stage 4, which is when the average is between 25 and 50… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
“I hate it here”: National Guard members sound off on Texas border mission in leaked morale survey (Texas Tribune)
When asked in January what they liked about their deployment to the Texas-Mexico border, members of the Texas Air National Guard had few nice things to say.
“I hate it here,” one respondent said in an anonymous survey about the involuntary mission with no set end date that has taken as many as 10,000 troops away from their civilian lives and families.
Another, asked for general feedback, simply posted four middle- finger emojis.
Frustration, anxiety and anger prevailed in the survey responses obtained by the The Texas Tribune and the Military Times. The survey includes responses from nearly 250 members of Task Force South, one of six units that fall under the umbrella of Operation Lone Star — Gov. Greg Abbott’s unprecedentedly large attempt to secure the border with Guard members and state troopers.
“I’m wasting time watching the grass grow at my [observation] point [along the border], while my civilian job is dying on the vine,” one Guardsman wrote in response to another question. “IF my job still exists when I return, I will have a giant hole to dig out of.”
Another member, whose husband travels for work, said they’ve had to pay an extra $2,000 each month for a nanny to watch their kids. Yet another worried about the future of a strained marriage after having to leave his wife and new baby behind… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Abbott orders Texas probe of medical procedures for transgender children (Politico)
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this week ordered the state’s youth protection agency to investigate the use of gender-transition procedures on children, in a directive that included calls to launch inquiries into parents and medical providers who allegedly violate the law.
Such procedures, the state’s conservative attorney general declared earlier this month, amount to child abuse under Texas law.
“Because the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is responsible for protecting children from abuse, I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas,” Abbott wrote in a Feb. 22 memo to agency Commissioner Jaime Masters.
“Texas law also imposes a duty on DFPS to investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures, and on other state agencies to investigate licensed facilities where such procedures may occur,” Abbott added… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas AG Ken Paxton ducks debates with Republican challengers, including televised faceoff Thursday (Dallas Morning News)
Republicans vying to oust Attorney General Ken Paxton will face off Thursday in the first televised debate of the competitive race. Missing from the action, however, will be Paxton. The embattled officeholder is not attending the live debate that starts at 6 p.m. on Spectrum News 1. His campaign didn’t respond to questions. Paxton is one of several high-profile GOP incumbents ducking debates and candidate forums ahead of the March 1 primary. By skipping out, Paxton can avoid facing attacks from three opponents critical of his job performance and legal troubles, said Rita Kirk, a professor of corporate communications and public affairs at Southern Methodist University. “He’s still going to get it, but he doesn’t have to stand there and take it,” she said. Land Commissioner George P. Bush, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman are vying for Paxton’s job.
Recent polling shows Paxton as the clear front-runner, but he’s still shy of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. Bush is running second, while Guzman and Gohmert are trailing. While Paxton is campaigning for a third term on his record of suing the Biden administration over immigration policy and COVID-19 vaccine mandates, his challengers are emphasizing his legal troubles. In late 2020, the FBI began investigating accusations by Paxton’s top aides that he abused the office to help a wealthy campaign donor. Paxton has denied wrongdoing. Paxton’s absence on Thursday’s debate stage means voters won’t get to hear from all four candidates side by side in one of the year’s most competitive races. Paxton was invited to the hourlong debate but declined, according to organizers. Still, the debate offers Paxton’s challengers a platform to make their case to the chunk of GOP voters who are still undecided, Kirk said. About 16% of voters don’t know whom they will choose in the contested primary, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Biden to unveil 'further consequences' over Russia's military operation in Ukraine (The Hill)
President Biden will unveil additional sanctions Thursday in coordination with European allies in response to Russian attacks on Ukraine.
"President Biden will deliver remarks announcing the further consequences the United States and our allies and partners will impose on Russia for its unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine," a White House official said in a statement to reporters late Wednesday.
Biden will deliver remarks on the situation in Ukraine and detail the expected sanctions following a morning meeting with Group of Seven (G-7) allies… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Courting G.O.P.’s mainstream and extreme, McCarthy plots rise to speaker (New York Times)
If Republicans win the majority this fall, Mr. McCarthy will need the support of the whole party, including the big donors who fund it, a dwindling number of center-right traditionalists and a larger group of quiet conservatives.
But he will also need the smaller but more powerful faction of extremist members who are aligned with Mr. Trump and want to define their party in his image. They are skeptical of the brand of mainstream Republicanism that propelled Mr. McCarthy’s rise; some are openly hostile to it.
So Mr. McCarthy has been engaging in a series of political contortions to try to secure a foothold in a party that has shifted under his feet, catering to a group that may ultimately be his undoing. In doing so, he has both empowered the hard-right fringe and tethered his fate to it, helping to solidify its dominance in today’s Republican Party.
“There was probably a time when it made sense to have someone like Kevin McCarthy, but we need new leadership in the House,” said Joe Kent, a square-jawed former Special Forces officer who is trying to unseat Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler in Washington, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump after the Capitol attack. “He’s used to a different era.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)