BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 2, 2022)
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[FIRM UPDATE]
Andy Cates Joins The Bingham Group, LLC
The Bingham Group, LLC is pleased to announce the addition of Andy Cates, J.D. as General Counsel and Managing Principal - State Affairs.
“Andy is a respected colleague who brings over a decade of experience navigating the Texas Legislative process and has a strong entrepreneurial drive," said A.J. Bingham, firm Founder and CEO. “Along with joining our leadership team, Andy will lead Bingham Group’s expansion into state lobbying before the legislative and executive branches of Texas government.”
Andy most recently served as co-founder and Senior Partner of Austin-based lobby firm, Salient Strategies, where he and his partners ushered House Bill 5, the Governor’s emergency item on Broadband Expansion, to passage. He previously served as General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs for the Texas Nurses Association, where he spent three legislative sessions leading advocacy efforts to secure over $25 million in state funding to end the nurse shortage. Prior to that role, he served as legislative attorney for the Texas Association of REALTORS® as well as lead attorney for the Texas Association of REALTORS® Political Action Committee, the largest PAC in Texas… LINK TO FULL POST
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 157: Discussing the Austin Economic Development Corp. w/Anne Gatling Haynes, Chief Transactions Officer
Today’s episode (157) features Anne Gatling Haynes, Chief Transactions Officer for the the Austin Economic Development Corporation (AEDC). She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the impetus for its founding and the work ahead.
BACKGROUND:
In October 2020, recognizing the increasing pressures of rising real estate prices on affordability, equity, and the City’s iconic venues and small businesses, the City of Austin created the AEDC.
AEDC is a Public Real Estate Developer, working for purpose instead of profits. AEDC can speed the pace of the public response to decreasing affordability and equity by moving at the pace of the market to blend the best of public and private deal making. -> EPISODE LINK
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
First responders to update city on pay talks (KXAN)
Negotiations are ongoing to determine how much the City of Austin will pay its first responders in the future. Contracts for the city’s three public safety unions expire in the fall.
On Monday, the Public Safety Commission will hear about talks between the city and unions representing Austin-Travis County EMS and Austin Police.
Lee Crawford of the City of Austin’s Law Department, Ken Casaday of the Austin Police Association, Selena Xie of the Austin EMS Association and Chris Harris of the Austin Justice Coalition will speak.
As part of the talks, the city offered ATCEMS employees a $0.14 raise in April. The Austin EMS Association says many medics were upset by the offer and contemplated quitting.
Xie told KXAN in April that medics are currently paid a starting wage of $19.56 per hour.
“We are worth more than 14 cents,” Xie told KXAN in April.
The association asked for that base pay to be increased to $27 per hour – and they believe the city’s counteroffer of $19.70 per hour falls short… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council endorses changes to East 11th and 12th street development regulations (Austin Monitor)
Before a troubled history of urban renewal and disinvestment led the city to declare the areas blighted, 11th and 12th streets were once thriving corridors in East Austin’s Black community. Now, the city is shepherding land use changes along the streets to help create a more vibrant, walkable neighborhood.
City Council gave initial approval on April 21 to the land use changes, which aim to bring sometimes contradictory plans for the area into harmony. The changes apply to the area’s Urban Renewal Plan and the 11th and 12th Street Neighborhood Conservation Combining Districts. The underlying zoning categories will remain the same.
“We’re making sure the regulations are more streamlined, less prescriptive, and will encourage the kind of diverse, active and walkable corridors that people have already told us that they want to see,” Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, who represents the area, said. She called the changes “the culmination of a very long process” involving extensive community feedback.
The proposed changes on both corridors will remove some site development standards – things like compatibility and floor area ratio – while slightly modifying height limits. Generally, regulations along East 11th Street allow more density than those for East 12th. The changes also mean some uses are allowed where they weren’t before and vice versa. Currently there are bars, homes, offices and neighborhood commercial uses along both streets. Many lots, however, still sit vacant or unused.
Nearly two dozen people spoke on the changes. While most were generally in favor of rules that would create a more walkable neighborhood, amendments by Harper-Madison to allow bars and music venues in more places proved controversial. Harper-Madison listed several addresses along East 12th Street to grant cocktail lounge use by right, and along both corridors, proposed allowing cocktail lounges with a conditional use permit. Along 12th, cocktail lounge use would be limited to 3,500 square feet… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Leander voters to decide whether to keep CapMetro rail, bus services (Austin American-Statesman)
Leander voters will decide Saturday whether to continue the city's partnership with Capital Metro or pay a penalty of more than $40 million to stop getting rail and bus services from the transit authority.
The city pays 1% of its annual sales tax to Capital Metro for transit services. The ballot also will ask voters if they want to redirect the 1% sales tax to Leander's general revenue fund to be used for economic development, public transportation and infrastructure to support growth.
In 2021, the city paid $9.8 million for CapMetro services.
Leander voters will decide Saturday whether to continue the city's partnership with Capital Metro or pay a penalty of more than $40 million to stop getting rail and bus services from the transit authority.
The city pays 1% of its annual sales tax to Capital Metro for transit services. The ballot also will ask voters if they want to redirect the 1% sales tax to Leander's general revenue fund to be used for economic development, public transportation and infrastructure to support growth.
In 2021, the city paid $9.8 million for CapMetro services… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
University of Texas will not be requiring SAT or ACT scores for fall 2023 applicants (Austin American-Statesman)
The University of Texas will not be requiring high school students applying for fall 2023 undergraduate admission to submit their SAT or ACT scores.
UT is still encouraging students to submit their SAT and ACT scores, but the scores will not be required to be admitted into the university, according to a series of FAQs published Wednesday evening on the UT Office of Admissions’ website.
“This decision was made after thorough discussions with university leadership and our stakeholders about how to best admit and place our students in light of the unique requirements around our admissions process,” said Miguel Wasielewski, UT’s assistant vice provost and director of admissions.
UT automatically admits students in the top 6% of their class, and under state law, 75% of first-year. in-state students at UT must be automatically admitted. However, all students are reviewed holistically to determine admission to specific colleges, schools and majors, including people who are automatically admitted… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Gov. Greg Abbott redirects $500 million from other agencies to fund border security mission through end of fiscal year (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday he is moving another $500 million to fund Operation Lone Star, his border security initiative at the Texas-Mexico border. The move comes three weeks after state military officials said the multibillion-dollar operation was in need of an infusion of cash to keep it afloat through the end of the fiscal year.
Abbott said the money would be taken from the budgets of other Texas agencies, including nearly $210 million from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission over two years and about $160 million from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Department of State Health Services and Juvenile Justice Department will each see tens of millions of dollars taken from their budgets to fund the border mission, Abbott said.
In a letter to the agencies, Abbott said that “this transfer will not affect any agency or program function.” The governor's office did not answer whether the agencies would be reimbursed later or would see budget cuts, and instead referred questions back to Abbott's original announcement… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
‘Musk knows what’s up,’ Gov. Abbott says. But the chief execs of Texas and Tesla don’t always agree (San Antonio Express-News)
Gov. Greg Abbott has mentioned Elon Musk in a dozen tweets going back to May 2020, when he said the Tesla CEO could save billions in taxes by moving the electric vehicle maker to Texas. The next year, Musk did just that, relocating Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to the site of its $1.1 billion Gigafactory then under construction near Austin. The governor tried the same tactic Monday, tweeting at Musk to move Twitter to Texas after reports that the social media giant had accepted Musk’s offer to buy it in a $44 billion deal. Two days later, Abbott urged Musk to take up the offer of a Central Texas rancher to provide 100 acres of his land as the site of a new Twitter headquarters. “I will declare it a ‘free speech zone,’” Abbott tweeted. “Maybe we can rename it Twitter, Texas. Think about it.”
He brought up free speech for a reason. Abbott and Musk have criticized the way Twitter and other social media companies moderate content on their platforms. They argue that the companies have let political considerations influence their decisions on what’s allowed. The governor’s view led him to sign a bill in September to prevent companies such as Twitter from banning users or deleting posts based on the political views presented. It never took effect. In December, a federal judge blocked the law. Though the governor often presents himself and Musk as being of like minds, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s political views do not match the positions taken by Abbott and the other Republicans controlling Texas state government. In fact, Musk’s political statements rarely fit neatly into either the progressive or conservative camp… (LINK TO FULL STORY)