BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 17, 2022)
[BG Podcast]
Episode 151: 2022 Public Safety Update with Selena Xie, President, Austin EMS Association
Today’s episode features Selena Xie, President of the Austin EMS Association.
Selena and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the anniversary of Winter Storm Uri, in addition to Selena updating on EMS's needs going into 2022.
(The Austin EMS Association is a Bingham Group client)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Council to consider equitable funding levels for minority chambers of commerce (Austin Monitor)
The city appears to have struck a bargain with four niche chambers of commerce to more equitably distribute each of their annual funding allocations from the city budget.
Discussions have been ongoing for years about how to “normalize” the city’s funding for the Austin LGBT Chamber, Greater Austin Asian Chamber, Greater Austin Black Chamber, and Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce because there was no data-driven approach for setting the funding for each group. Instead, for years the funding was set based on informal meetings with City Council members, resulting in some groups’ amounts varying greatly from one year to the next.
A memo released Tuesday spells out the annual funding recommendations for each group, as well as how they will be expected to cooperate in the regional economic equity development (REED) plan that will emphasize marketing the city’s diversity, creating an equity-based plan for regional economic development and attracting businesses owned by ethnic and social minorities.
Council will consider a resolution next week that would allocate $252,882 for the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber, $230,797 for the Greater Austin Black Chamber, $202,500 for Greater Austin Asian Chamber, and $153,750 for Austin LGBT Chamber.
The four separate contracts would require the groups to work together on the regional economic development goals, with the memo stating that once agreements have been reached, “no further updates to the equity model will be necessary.”
Reached by text, Tina Cannon, president and CEO of the Austin LGBT Chamber, said the resolution and new contracts would allow the groups to move forward with several years of collective work.
“The minority chambers have worked together unofficially for years. This new contract allows us to formally work on a regional economic equity development plan together to move all our communities forward.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
All of a sudden, this is a $500,000 housing market (Austin Business Journal)
More homes hit the market and sold last month than in January in the Austin metro, a welcomed change of pace for local buyers and Realtors desperate for more inventory. Not so welcomed is the new median price point — an all-time high for the region.
In the Austin metro, the median sales price reached $499,995 in February, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. This was up about 28% year-over-year, indicating that the heat the market saw in 2021 is not yet abating. Due to the lag time in reporting, it's likely the median price for a home in the metro has surpassed $500,000 by now — a threshold crossed in the Austin city limits quite some time ago.
“We’re hearing from economists that last month’s numbers are a potential harbinger of a big year ahead even as our market continues to deal with insufficient supply compared to demand resulting in the steady cycle of home price increases,” 2022 ABOR President Cord Shiflet said in a statement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
During SXSW, Uber and Lyft riders will pay more because of rising gas prices (Austin American-Statesman)
Uber and Lyft riders will pay more for rides starting this week because of rising gas prices. The change comes in the middle of South by Southwest, when many locals and visitors rely on ride-hailing services to traverse Austin.
Uber on Wednesday starting charging passengers a surcharge of either 45 cents or 55 cents on each Uber trip and either 35 cents or 45 cents on each Uber Eats order, depending on location. The money collected by the surcharge will go to Uber drivers to cover the higher cost of fuel, the company said in a written statement.
“We know that prices have been going up across the economy, so we’ve done our best to help drivers and couriers without placing too much additional burden on consumers,” Uber's statement said. “Over the coming weeks we plan to listen closely to feedback from consumers, couriers and drivers. We’ll also continue to track gas price movements to determine if we need to make additional changes.”
Uber said the surcharge will be in place for the next 60 days, at which point the company will reassess… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Poll: Young Republicans eye Austin as No. 1 destination (Axios)
Young Republicans want to move to Austin — and young Dems are aiming for the coasts. Driving the news: Austin is America's tenth most-desired post-graduation destination for college students, according to a new Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index poll. The big picture: The data adds to a growing question about the political makeup of Austin's newcomers. Between the lines: Political party identification correlated with students' broader preferences. Austin was the top choice for young Republicans who want to leave their home state after graduation. New York led the list for young Democrats. Seattle won big with independents.
Of note: Austin didn't appear among the top 15 cities for Democrats, and New York didn't show up on the top 15 cities for young GOP members. What they're saying: Pointing to a viral Instagram post of new Austinites Elon Musk and Joe Rogan hanging out with Dave Chappelle at Stubb's BBQ in January 2021, essayist James Rushing Daniel described the city's commitment to progressive neoliberalism. "For years, Austin has embodied this paradigm with pro-business policies and a socially liberal worldview," he wrote in Jacobin in October — in other words, the kind of views that might attract some young Republicans. Zoom out: Half of the survey's 2,109 respondents said they want to live outside of their home states after graduation; about 1 in 4 want to go back to their hometowns. Denver and Boston filled out the top five wish list, after Seattle, New York City and Los Angeles. Health care was the top industry choice for careers (29%), followed by education, research (15%) and tech (12%). Be smart: The pandemic didn't dictate the destination calculus for any of the students interviewed by Axios. But the resulting explosion of remote work did shape some students' thinking about how far from family they choose to move — and whether work from home is all it was cracked up to be… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
TEA adds 24 teachers to task force study (Houston Chronicle)
The Texas Education Agency will add 24 teachers to a task force studying educator shortages across the state, nearly doubling the size of the group that originally included only two teachers, the agency officials announced Tuesday. The task force, its creation announced last week by Gov. Greg Abbott, has been charged with helping districts address ongoing shortages by investigating the challenges, exploring the best options to address them and researching what Abbott described as “the possibility for flexibility of certification, placement, and hiring.” When announced, the 28-member group contained 16 superintendents, including Aldine ISD’s, Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney; one assistant superintendent; nine administrators — such as chiefs and directors of different operations at various districts — and two teachers, one from each McAllen and Highland Park ISDs. With the addition of two dozen teachers, the group will grow to 52 individuals, evenly divided between teachers and administrators.
TEA officials said the group’s original members recommended the inclusion of more classroom teachers following their first meeting this month. “It is imperative that we include the insights and recommendations of current classroom teachers as the task force works to identify strong recommendations that can address the staffing shortages facing school systems across Texas,” Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement. “This expansion strengthens the Task Force and includes more perspectives as we work to find far-reaching solutions to these challenges.” The names of the new members, and the school systems where they work, are expected to be announced by the task force’s next meeting. The group is scheduled to meet every other month for a year. One of the new teachers, Josue Torres, an elementary math teacher at Dallas ISD, was named chair Tuesday of the task force, which will be organized into different work groups for different challenges already identified, according to TEA. “The reason I got into education is because I believe that a student’s ZIP code shouldn’t determine his or her fate,” Torres said in the agency’s statement, “and this Task Force has the ability to recommend the needed changes and innovative solutions necessary to ensure all Texas students have access to the high-quality educators they deserve.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Citigroup to pay for workers’ abortion travel in Texas, other states with restrictive laws (Dallas Morning News)
Citigroup Inc. is starting to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortion after several states, including Texas, implemented or proposed a near-total ban on abortions. “In response to changes in reproductive health-care laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources,” the bank wrote in a filing for its shareholders meeting set for April 26. The policy will cover expenses, such as airfare and lodging, that employees may incur if they’re forced to travel to receive an abortion, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. In Texas, where Citigroup has more than 8,500 employees, Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation last year that banned abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur as early as six weeks. Under the law, individuals can sue doctors, clinic workers and others who help a woman end an unwanted pregnancy past the cutoff date. Texas and some other states have also sought to restrict medication-induced abortions.
Citigroup, led by Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser, already has spent years in the Lone Star State’s crosshairs. The New York-based bank is seeking to revive its underwriting business in Texas after a law barred local governments from working with companies that discriminate against firearm entities prompted the firm to suspend its municipal-debt underwriting there for several months. The bank follows companies including Match Group Inc. in responding to Texas’s near-total abortion ban. Match CEO Shar Dubey, whose Dallas-based company owns some of the biggest dating apps, said last year she was creating a fund to help cover the costs for employees and dependents who need to seek care outside the state. Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. pledged to pay legal fees for drivers sued under the Texas law. Match Group competitor Bumble, led by Southern Methodist University graduate and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, created a similar fund. In the S&P 500, just 31 companies have female CEOs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
How California is building the nation’s first privacy police (New York Times)
Ashkan Soltani, the head of California’s new online privacy regulator, needed help launching the first agency of its kind in the United States. So he called the state’s Horse Racing Board. Mr. Soltani asked Scott Chaney, the executive director of the racing board, which oversees roughly 10 racetracks, about the ins and outs of running a small agency in California’s sprawling state government. They discussed how to handle remote work and hiring in the pandemic. Mr. Chaney also offered advice for navigating the public sector. Mr. Soltani is “literally inventing a state department,” Mr. Chaney said. “He’s almost inventing it from the ground up.” Mr. Soltani faces the daunting task of overseeing the first government body in the United States with the sole job of regulating how Google, Facebook, Amazon and other companies collect and use data from millions of people.
The office, the California Privacy Protection Agency, will be a more than 30-person group with a $10 million annual budget to help enforce the state’s privacy law, which is among the most stringent in the country. But first the agency has to be built — and Mr. Soltani, 47, a privacy expert who once served as the Federal Trade Commission’s top technologist, has to overcome the lack of precedent. So he has reached out to groups not exactly adjacent to what his agency will be, like the racing board and others, for help navigating his new position. He has already encountered challenges. He and his colleagues have received reams of feedback from industry lobbyists. They face questions from privacy activists about whether their budget is substantial enough to police the world’s largest companies. The board discussions need to be open to the public. And in the coming months, they must translate the feedback they have received into hard rules. The new California agency reflects a larger shift in how the rules of the global internet are being set — and who is setting them. State capitals and foreign countries are increasingly taking a hands-on approach to limiting online data collection, curtailing the tech giants’ power and moderating extreme content on social media… (LINK TO FULL STORY)