BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 27, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Meet interim city manager Jesús Garza (Community impact)
Austin interim city manager Jesús Garza sat down with Community Impact on Feb. 24 to discuss the new role.
Garza was appointed to the position Feb. 15 following Austin City Council’s 10-1 vote for the removal of Spencer Cronk.
Garza previously served as city manager from 1994 to 2002, and it’s been 21 years since he retired from office. According to Garza, he was asked to step up for the role.
Out of four of Garza’s eight years as city manager, current Austin Mayor Kirk Watson served as mayor from 1997 to 2001… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin civil rights director resigns amid city investigation (KXAN)
The director of Austin’s Office of Civil Rights submitted her resignation, the city confirmed in a memo Wednesday.
The resignation follows a 2022 investigation into Carol Johnson after allegations were raised regarding mistreatment and retaliation against office employees.
Johnson was named the head of the department in February 2021. She was the first person in the role.
“Carol was instrumental in establishing the City’s Office of Civil Rights as the first Civil Rights Director,” assistant city manager Veronica Briseño wrote in a Wednesday memo. “I want to thank her for her service to our community and this organization.”
Johnson was put on leave in July 2022 after the city started a third-party investigation in April.
“Since the City received the investigation report, the senior management team has been doing its due diligence by carefully looking into the issues the report raised. Since Ms. Johnson has submitted her resignation, the matter is now closed,” a city spokesperson said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council adopts ordinance to preserve police benefits (Austin Monitor)
City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve an ordinance that preserves the pay and benefits Austin police officers currently receive and directs interim City Manager Jesús Garza to come up with incentives for new recruits to the department. Council also directed Garza to develop and implement a program to address the shortage of APD officers by March 31 – the day the contract between the city and the Austin Police Association expires.
The ordinance also establishes the director of the Office of Police Oversight and other employees of that office as investigators under state law and directs that they shall have “unfettered access to APD personnel, records and processes necessary to carry out” their responsibilities. Those responsibilities include receiving and investigating “misconduct complaints against APD officers, including anonymous complaints from APD officers or local residents as permitted by state law.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why UT is taking back a semiconductor plant in South Austin (Austin business journal)
The University of Texas at Austin plans to facilitate research related to the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States at a computer chip hub owned by the institution.
However, exactly how it will use the facility on the city's south side remains unclear.
The roughly 150,000-square-foot chip plant at 2706 Montopolis Dr. will be vacated by New Mexico-based semiconductor company Skorpios Technologies Inc. by the end of May. The looming end of its lease means it will have to move its factory to another state, which could result in 60 jobs being cut.
Austin Business Journal reached out to UT when it broke the news earlier this month about Skorpios' departure. Now, the higher-education institution has shed some additional light on its objectives.
"Regarding the Montopolis site, UT is exploring multiple options for our long-term research mission, which is driven by the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing and federal research initiatives, including the CHIPS Act," Mike Rosen, UT-Austin's assistant vice president for university communications, said in a Feb. 21 email… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas teachers need raises, more training and better working conditions to fix shortages, state task force findS (Texas tribune)
Nearly a year after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a task force to look at the state’s teacher shortages, the group is recommending that lawmakers increase salaries, improve training and commit to respecting teachers’ time.
“The Texas legislature, the [Texas Education Agency], and school systems should prioritize enacting and fully funding these recommendations to ensure that every Texas school is staffed with effective, supportive, and committed teachers,” the task force said in a report released Friday.
The job of the task force — a mix of educators and school administrators — was to investigate why these shortages exist, recommend policy changes to the TEA and consider more flexibility in the teacher certification process. The report will be shared with the members of the House and Senate education committees and is available to the public online… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Abbott gets behind plan to cut Texas sales taxeS (Houston Chronicle)
Momentum is growing fast in the Texas Legislature to cut state sales taxes as part of a bigger tax relief package. Just days after two key state senators filed legislation to cut the sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 5.75 percent, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an exclusive interview with Hearst Newspapers that he’s open to the idea and planning to put out his own proposals on the topic soon. “I’ve been working with my staff on some sales tax reduction ideas,” Abbott said. “We haven’t rolled them out yet, but it is a concept that I support.”
Since 1990, Texas has had a 6.25 percent state sales tax, with local governments having the option of increasing the tax to 8.25 percent, as Harris and Bexar counties have done. Under the bill filed by state Sens. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, that state tax rate would drop to its lowest point since the 1980s, resulting in $7 billion a year less in sales tax revenue for the state. West said while much of the talk of tax relief over the last year has been focused on homeowners, he’s concerned that renters and people who cannot afford homes are getting left out. Even if property taxes are cut on rental properties, there is no guarantee those breaks are passed onto renters. “We’ve got to be certain we reach as many Texans as possible,” West said. “Just doing property tax relief is not going to reach all Texans. Sales taxes reach all Texans. Everybody has to pay sales taxes.” With a record budget surplus in hand, state leaders have essentially guaranteed there will be tax cuts. The only question has been how much and in what form… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Wide open for business? Texas cancels firms over guns and oil, and the public will pay (Dallas Morning News)
Elected leaders love to say Texas is wide open for business, but they’re closing doors on some giant financial firms with thousands of employees and billions of dollars invested here. While the laws may score political points, taxpayers will be stuck with the bill: One study projects governments in Texas would spend an extra $416 million a year in higher interest costs because of reduced competition in the bond market. The targeted companies include BlackRock, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, UBS and more, and they’re barred from directly managing state investments or underwriting bond offerings because of their approach to climate change and gun safety. It’s part of a Republican backlash to environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives, known as ESG.
Two years ago, Texas lawmakers passed bills to protect the fossil-fuel and gun industries by punishing financial firms that embraced certain ESG policies. Last month, the Texas Office of the Attorney General “determined that Citigroup has a policy that discriminates against a firearm entity,” which meant Citi couldn’t conduct certain state business. When Citi was dropped from a $3.4 billion bond offering — a sale to raise money to pay costs from the February 2021 winter storm – Gov. Greg Abbott was eager to crow about it. “Texas has a $2 trillion economy,” Abbott wrote on his personal Twitter feed on Feb. 10. “We won’t be bullied or discriminated against by woke ESG policies. We dropped Citigroup from the group of banks participating in [the] biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta makes $5.5 billion bid to purchase NFL's Commanders, report says (Houston Chronicle)
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is involved in the bidding for the Washington Commanders, two people familiar with the situation told the Washington Post on Saturday. Fertitta submitted a bid for the Commanders but is not believed to be a front-runner to purchase the franchise from Daniel Snyder, one person told the Post. That person described the sale proceedings as being “at a little bit of a standstill” and estimated Fertitta’s bid was for slightly above $5.5 billion. Another person familiar with the matter told the Post that Fertitta is interested in the Commanders and is believed to have visited the team’s training facility in Ashburn. Representatives for Fertitta did not respond to requests for comment Saturday night.
Last May, Fertitta considered a bid for the soccer team Chelsea in the English Premier League but did not get the franchise. The Commanders announced in November that Snyder and his wife, Tanya, the team’s co-CEO, had hired Bank of America to consider possible transactions involving the franchise. The team has not said whether the Snyders will sell all or part of the franchise. Four people familiar with the process said in December they believe a sale of the entire team is the most likely outcome. Other prospective buyers, according to the Post, are Josh Harris, owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
CIA Chief Says China Has Doubts About Its Ability to Invade Taiwan (Wall Street journal)
Russia’s struggles to seize and keep territory in Ukraine over the past year has likely fueled doubts by Chinese leader Xi Jinping that China’s military could successfully invade Taiwan later this decade, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said.
“I think our judgment at least is that (Chinese) President Xi and his military leadership have doubts today about whether they could accomplish that invasion,” Mr. Burns said Sunday on CBS. “As they’ve looked at Putin’s experience in Ukraine, that’s probably reinforced some of those doubts.”.
Mr. Burns said that the U.S. continued to take the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan seriously, adding that the risks of a conflict would likely grow further into the decade and beyond. U.S. intelligence and defense officials believe Mr. Xi wants to be ready to do so by 2027, if not sooner, but Mr. Burns said that goal isn’t set in stone.
“President Xi has instructed the PLA, the Chinese military leadership, to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean that he’s decided to invade in 2027 or any other year as well,” he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)