BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 21, 2022)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
TONIGHT: FUNDRAISER FOR KIRK WATSON
Join Bingham Group CEO A.J. and co-hosts at Native Hostel TODAY (5:30PM to 7:30PM) for a fundraiser in support of Austin mayoral candidate Kirk Watson.
[HEARINGS/MEETINGS]
Today
8:30AM: Discussion of the Austin Council - Bond Campaign Rally - Agenda
10AM: Special Called Meeting of the Austin City Council - Agenda
Noon: Discussion of the Austin City Council - Press Conference regarding abortion access.
Thursday, July 28
[AUSTIN METRO]
Samsung weighs huge Austin-area growth: $200 billion investment, 11 new fabs, 10,000 new jobs (Austin American-Statesman)
In what could be the biggest economic investment in Central Texas history, technology giant Samsung is considering building 11 new chipmaking facilities in the Austin area over the next two decades, a stunning move that could lead to nearly $200 billion in new investment and create more than 10,000 jobs, according to documents filed with the state.
Fresh off announcing plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Taylor, Samsung could increase its investment in the region by more than 10 times that amount if the proposed facilities were to be built.
The potential plans are described in 11 applications Samsung has filed with the Taylor and Manor school districts seeking tax breaks for building the facilities. The applications, part of the state's Chapter 313 incentives program, were posted Wednesday afternoon on the Texas comptroller's website.
The proposals call for 11 new manufacturing plants, with two in Austin, where Samsung already has a significant operation, and nine in Taylor, a Williamson County town of about 17,000 people located 25 miles northeast of Austin. The total investment would be $192.1 billion and would create about 10,000 jobsif Samsung went through with all of the plans, according to the documents filed with the state.
About 1,800 of the new jobs would be in Austin, where two new fabs would account for $24.5 billion of the new investment, according to the documents. The other 8,200 new jobs and $167.6 billion in investment would go into nine new plants in Taylor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin police pushing to reactivate license plate readers amid staff shortage, but there are concerns (KVUE)
The Austin Police Department and Austin Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly are pushing to get license plate camera readers back on patrol vehicles, but there are some privacy concerns.
Right now, Austin police are down about 260 officers, according to the head of the police union. They hope these cameras will help solve crime.
The City had the Motorola LPR vigilant system from 2016 to 2020, but they were removed when Austin restructured the police department.
"From what I could tell, there are individuals in the community who didn't fully understand what the purpose of the software was and the technology," said Kelly. "There were concerns about privacy that unfortunately were not able to be addressed in time for the budget at that time." … (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Williamson County Economic Development Partnership looks at past success to prepare for future (Community Impact)
Officials with the Williamson County Economic Development Partnership presented a report about economic successes in the past two years to the Williamson County Commissioners Court on July 19. The partnership is a self-funded collaboration of city leaders from Williamson County, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Jarrell, Round Rock, Leander, Liberty Hill and Taylor.
The organization meets every other month and works on behalf of the county to help grow the region and bring new business development to partner communities. Each city in the county is represented by a member, but the goal is to bring economic prosperity.
“We are open for business, and we know business pays for future growth,” said Ben White, president of the WilCo EDP and Cedar Park’s economic development director. “It helps pay for all of the improvements we need for our citizens.”
White listed the job growth in the region through companies, such as Samsung, Cangshan Cutlery, Sabey Data Center, Columbia Steel, St. David’s Hospital and Amertrine, as the big economic development successes.
He listed changes that will act as escalators for more businesses coming to the region. He also mentioned hosting national site selectors annually and showing them potential sites for future businesses in the county. He said the idea behind this is site selectors who play a key role in obtaining land for large businesses will keep Williamson County in mind… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas Republican lawmakers say criminal penalties for abortion should be enforced immediately (Houston Chronicle)
More than 70 Republican state lawmakers have signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Attorney General Ken Paxton in arguing that a nearly century-old law imposing criminal penalties against those who help a patient obtain an abortion is enforceable now that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. A decision on whether that pre-Roe measure is enforceable is expected in the near future from the Texas Supreme Court, which has temporarily allowed the statute to be enforced civilly but not criminally. The lawmakers, in a filing penned by state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, argue that the Texas Legislature has “repeatedly and emphatically affirmed” the existence and continued enforceability of the old laws in recent legislation.
They note both the state’s anti-abortion trigger law, which will go into effect 30 days after the decision overturning Roe is certified, and its previous six-week abortion ban included language to that effect. Lawyers for the plaintiffs — seven abortion clinic groups throughout Texas — point to legislative and judicial treatment of the old laws that they say proves they are no longer considered to be in effect, including a 2004 Fifth Circuit opinion that said the old laws were “repealed by implication.” The old statutes were also removed from copies of the state’s criminal and civil codes online. In court records filed Monday, the Republican lawmakers argue that a state court can now make its own decision in the case, no matter how federal courts have ruled in the past. They add that the Texas and U.S. Supreme Courts both “disfavor repeals by implication” and defers to it only when statutes can’t be “harmonized.” The lawmakers argue the laws could work in tandem. The June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court upended 50 years of legal precedent protecting the right to an abortion and sparked confusion about what Texas law allows… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas crackdown on banks that ‘discriminate’ against guns backfires, costing taxpayers up to $500M (Houston Chronicle)
Texas lawmakers, frustrated with what they viewed as liberal political activism from some of the titans of American industry, banned banks last year from doing business with Texas municipalities unless they could certify to the state attorney general they don’t “discriminate” against the gun industry. The Legislative Budget Board, which estimates the costs of proposed legislation, predicted no significant financial impact on the state or on local governments. But in the first eight months since the law was enacted, local governments seeking to finance building projects through bonds — for instance school districts trying to build new football stadiums, cities looking to upgrade their airports — have already paid between $300 million and $500 million more in increased interest payments, according to a study from a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Federal Reserve economist based in Washington.
And the paper estimates the annual cost in higher interest payments will be around $445 million per year going forward, if nothing changes. “There’s a cost to making this political statement. We can say that cost for Texas is between $300 million and $500 million dollars,” said Daniel Garrett, the professor. The bill, SB19, was aimed at large banks that reconsidered their investment in the gun industry in the wake of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 dead. For instance, Bank of America refuses to fund companies that build military style rifles for civilian use. JP Morgan Chase won’t fund companies that sell guns to people under the age of 21. And Citigroup won’t fund those that don’t background-check all buyers. Citigroup announced its updated policy on guns in a blog post one month after the Parkland massacre, with an executive vice president calling for “our grief to turn into action” and for the U.S. to “adopt common-sense measures that would help prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Senate advances bill boosting incentives for semiconductor plants, with Texas projects hanging in balance (Houston Chronicle)
The U.S. Senate advanced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to boost U.S. manufacturing of computer chips, also known as semiconductors, amid growing concern about foreign efforts to lock down global supply chains. Democrats joined with Republicans including Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, to move the bill, which included $52 billion for research and tax breaks for the semiconductor sector, toward a vote on the Senate floor, which could happen as early as Thursday. The vote came a day after Biden administration officials urged Congress to pass a bill they said was critical to getting more computer chip plants built in the United States, including proposed projects by Samsung and Texas Instruments in Texas. Legislation providing $52 billion in incentives for the industry has been held up in Congress amid political tensions between Republicans and Democrats. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Monday executives had told her they were, "out of time" and if the legislation does not pass this month they would, "have to go elsewhere."
"The reality is that South Korea, Japan, Germany, France, are right now very aggressively offering incentives to these companies,” she said. “We know they’ll take those offers if Congress doesn’t do its job this week." At issue were President Joe Biden's plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to expand government social programs and boost incentives for clean energy Both the House and Senate have already passed broader legislation to try and boost technology manufacturing in the United States, including provisions to expand research funding and tax breaks for semiconductors. But the bills differ, requiring the two bodies to come to agreement on new language, which has been under negotiation since April. Earlier this month Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans could not move ahead on the broader technology legislation until Democrats halted their efforts to fund Biden's programs. "Senator Schumer's choices have taken an already difficult job and made it nearly impossible," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement last week. "He's trying to turn what has been a bipartisan process into a partisan exercise.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott, along with leaders in the Texas business sector, has been trying to attract semiconductor plants to Texas, with Samsung announcing in November it was building a $17 billion semiconductor factory outside Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 160: Talking Public Relations, Career advice, and Austin with Kristin Marcum, CEO of ECPR
Today's special weekend episode (160) features Kristin Marcum, owner and CEO of ECPR, Austin's preeminent public relations firm.
Kristin and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss her path into PR and her career leading to the C-suite and ownership of the firm.-> EPISODE LINK
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