BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 14, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Police union revisits city’s proposal to expand civilian oversight as clock ticks down (Austin Monitor)
The Austin Police Association will respond later this month to the city’s repeated demands to remove civilian oversight of the police department from the labor contract. In exchange, the union has asked the city to reconsider some of its earlier requests, including those related to promotions, vacation time and sick pay.
APA President Thomas Villarreal said during a negotiation session on Friday that tying up these loose ends could “help get us to where we need to be to ultimately get a deal done.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Two years ago, Austin voters said yes to Project Connect. Where do things stand? (Austin American-Statesman)
It has been two years since Austin voters overwhelmingly passed a dedicated tax to pay for a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the city’s transit system — by far the largest ballot measure ever approved locally. With engineering and planning underway, local transit officials say the program is on track.
“We’ve had some early successes only two years in, but there’s lots of work ahead, no doubt about it,” said Greg Canally, interim executive director of the Austin Transit Partnership, the entity created to manage Project Connect. “This was always a multiyear project.”
Project Connect was presented as a generational opportunity to remake Austin's mass transit system. The plan calls for two light rail lines, a downtown Austin tunnel and multiple new bus routes. The plan also includes housing funds, equitable development planning and more city park-and-ride options. Two years in, several projects have broken ground, but officials say there is still a long way to go, especially for the new light rail lines… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD to vote on NXP Semiconductor's $100M tax break (Austin Business Journal)
Austin Independent School District is set to vote on NXP Semiconductors NV’s request for tax incentives on a possible $2.6 billion expansion at the company’s two Travis County chip manufacturing plants that would create hundreds of new jobs.
The request, made through the state’s sunsetting Chapter 313 of the Texas tax code, asks the public school district to cap the project’s property value at $100 million for a portion of school taxes for a period of 10 years. The controversial incentives program is slated to expire at the end of the year, which has resulted in a rush of companies applying to take advantage of the program.
In January, NXP (Nasdaq: NXPI) reported full-year record revenue of $11.06 billion for 2021, a 28% year-on-year increase for the Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The agreement would specifically allow NXP to pay a maintenance and operations tax rate on the limited value of its property instead of the actual appraised value for a period of 10 years.
The board is set to vote on the request Nov. 17 and heard comments from the public on the matter during an information session held Nov. 10.
Austin ISD trustees voted on May 19 to accept NXP's applications for review. The project was previously referred to as Project Gateway… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Demographic shifts, charters draw down Austin school district enrollment (Austin American-Statesman)
Enrollment in the Austin school district sits at 73,730 this year, dipping 1.2% from 2021 and continuing a decadelong trend of declining student population, according to recently released school data. To school leaders, the population drop means less state funding coming into the district, which has identified low teacher pay as an employee retention setback and has long argued the state's school finance system takes too much from Austin. This year's student population — taken on Oct. 28 as part of the district's annual snapshot day — is 872 students lower than the 74,602 that were enrolled at the same time last year, according to district data. It's not the trend district officials want to see, said Katie Casstevens, interim executive director of student enrollment and attendance… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Lennar, Icon reveal location of 3D-printed neighborhood north of Austin (Austin Business Journal)
An Austin-based 3D-printed housing startup and one of the country's largest homebuilders have identified the location of their long-anticipated 100-home community in the region's suburbs.
Icon Technology Inc. and Lennar Home Corp. on Nov. 10 revealed that the startup's first foray into the volume homebuilding game will be the Genesis Collection at the Wolf Ranch master-planned community west of I-35 along U.S. Highway 29 in Georgetown, about 30 miles north of Austin. Construction is underway and reservations will begin next year, with prices expected to start in the mid-$400,000s… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
High schoolers’ overdose deaths leave a Central Texas town grappling with the opioid crisis (Texas Tribune)
Right before this school year started, the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, which includes Lehman, announced that two students had died after taking fentanyl-laced pills. They were the first recorded student deaths tied to the synthetic opioid in this Central Texas school district, which has high school campuses in Kyle and Buda, a nearby town. Within the first month of school, two more fatalities were confirmed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Blowout midterm losses leave Texas Democrats again searching for statewide spark (Houston Chronicle)
Throughout the midterm campaign, Beto O’Rourke and other Texas Democrats tried to chip away at Republicans’ lopsided advantage in rural areas, pushing policies with bipartisan appeal like building more rural hospitals and expanding broadband access.
O’Rourke was rewarded for his efforts with about 21 percent of the vote in counties with less than 50,000 registered voters, down 5 percentage points from his 2018 Senate run. Among those 207 counties, O’Rourke received fewer than 275,000 votes this year, a fraction of the more than 3.5 million he tallied statewide, according to unofficial results… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
‘The footage itself is damning’: San Antonio City Council to push for Clayton Perry to resign (San Antonio Express-News)
City Council members will ask Councilman Clayton to resign following his arrest Thursday and the release of body-camera footage that showed him seemingly drunk and clumsily evading a police officer’s questions about his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run crash. In a special meeting at 1:30 p.m. Monday, the council also plans to take a vote of no-confidence in Perry’s ability to act as an effective representative — the second such vote on a council member in less than a week. The council voted Thursday to censure District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo after he berated Councilwoman Ana Sandoval in September. “We need to ensure that District 10 has the best-quality representation,” District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said. “The fastest way I can see that happening is with Councilman Perry’s resignation.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
6 dead after planes collide in midair at Dallas Air Show, officials say (New York Times)
Two World War II-era airplanes collided in midair at an air show in Dallas on Saturday, the authorities said, turning the commemorative Veterans Day weekend event into a scene of horror.
Six people were killed in the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday.
The planes — a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra — crashed at about 1:20 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The crash happened at the Wings Over Dallas air show at Dallas Executive Airport, which is about 10 miles south of downtown Dallas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
What role Texas and its politicians could play in 2024 presidential election season (Dallas Morning News)
Just when you thought you were free of ubiquitous political campaigns — and their television commercials, text messages, direct mail and constant news coverage — the 2024 presidential election season is underway. Even if you’re suffering from election fatigue, it’ll be hard to ignore what could be one of the most compelling elections in our nation’s history. On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump is expected to announce his campaign for the White House. His entry into the race could set off a frenzy of activity, including announcements from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican contenders. On the Democratic Party side, President Joe Biden said last week he intends to run for reelection, even as speculation continues that he’ll leave the White House after one term. And what would a presidential election be without Texans? Two Republicans — Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott — could be in the national mix. Whatever Cruz decides could profoundly affect Lone Star politics, with contenders from both parties eyeing his Senate seat… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Democrats keep the Senate (Politico)
Democrats prevailed in the battle for Senate control after incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was declared the winner Saturday of her closely contested race in Nevada.
Cortez Masto’s narrow victory over Republican Adam Laxalt means that the Georgia Senate runoff election next month will merely determine the margin that Democrats have in the chamber, not its balance of power. It ensures that President Joe Biden will have one chamber of Congress in his corner when the lawmakers take the oath of office next year…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[HEARINGS/MEETINGS]
Today, November 14
Tuesday, November 15
Wednesday, November 16
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 170: 2022 Austin Council and Bond Election Night Recap
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. recap and discuss the 2022 Austin City Council election night results.
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