BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 1, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Proposal to change Council meeting rules draws opposition (Austin monitor)
City Clerk Myrna Rios has proposed changes, some of them controversial, to rules for the conduct at City Council meetings. Council is scheduled to take up the new rules at today’s meeting.During Tuesday’s work session, Rios defended her proposals, including a ban on allowing a member of the public to donate time to another member to speak longer. That ban has been in effect during the pandemic and Rios said it would be particularly difficult to allow those who signed up to speak remotely to donate time.
Council members Alison Alter and Vanessa Fuentes both expressed their objections to that change, and Mayor Kirk Watson agreed with Fuentes’ request that Council postpone voting on the new rules. “This is a very important part of our democratic process,” Fuentes said, suggesting that Council might consider changes at the June 8 meeting… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
A lot of bills targeted Austin this legislative session. Here's what passed and what failed. (KUT)
Every legislative session, lawmakers file a slew of bills targeting Austin’s policies on everything from tree trimming to budgeting. This year was no different, but the lion’s share of those bills failed ahead of the end of the Legislature on Monday.
While lawmakers immediately gaveled back in for a special session, it's not likely Austin-centric issues will crop up. The governor is asking lawmakers to prioritize bills on property taxes and border security.
Here's a rundown of which Austin-focused bills passed and which failed during the 88th regular session… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin officials look to expand downtown homeless shelter operations (Community Impact)
To shore up homeless shelter capacity downtown, Austin officials are looking to lease The Salvation Army's former Eighth Street shelter and continue services there as a temporary extension of the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH, next door.
On June 8, City Council could approve a one-year lease deal with The Salvation Army including 12 months of base rent for $600,000 and 12 months of operating costs for $668,256. If approved, the lease would begin July 1.
Additionally, officials will vote to spend $4.56 million to extend ARCH operations into The Salvation Army facility as well as $600,000 for the nonprofit Urban Alchemy to keep up its current work at the ARCH through the end of the year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New tenants lined up at The Domain, including Versace (Austin Business Journal)
Some high-profile tenants are headed to Austin's second downtown, including Italian luxury apparel company Versace.
A May 24 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation indicated the Versace store is planned at 11501 Century Oaks Terrace, suite 113, on the west side of The Domain.
company The Webster was coming to The Domain. No address was given but the store is expected to open in October 2024.
Those will both be in Simon Property Group Inc.'s portion of The Domain, a mixed-use hub and bustling retail center in North Austin.
Then, in Domain Northside, a portion of the development owned by Northwood Investors LLC, a location is planned by Los Angeles-based restaurant chain Sweetgreen Inc.
The new tenants represent the continued appeal of The Domain, located near the population center of the Austin metro. Central Texas' economic boom has attracted numerous high-end retailers in recent years, including Christian Dior Couture at The Domain and Hermès on South Congress Avenue… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Abbott taps John Scott, former Texas secretary of state, as interim attorney general (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday appointed Fort Worth lawyer and former Secretary of State John Scott as interim Texas attorney general, temporarily replacing Ken Paxton, who was suspended as attorney general pending the outcome of an impeachment trial in the state Senate.
Scott previously served as deputy attorney general for civil litigation when Abbott led that office. He has more than 34 years of legal experience and has argued more than 100 cases in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. After leaving the attorney general’s office, he was appointed chief operating officer of the state Health and Human Services Commission, overseeing 56,000 employees and a budget of $50 billion… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott's power grows as Texas Legislature fumbles tax cuts (Houston Chronicle)
The Texas Legislature’s failure to cut property taxes is Gov. Greg Abbott’s political gain. When the Legislature ended its regular session with no property tax cuts Monday, Abbott’s authority immediately grew, giving him extensive powers to force a special session on his terms and dictate exactly what lawmakers could work on. Abbott did that by ordering lawmakers back into a special session to pass a specific kind of property tax relief, greatly limiting the Legislature’s say in the matter as he is allowed to do under the Texas Constitution. “The governor basically has complete power now,” said Billy Monroe, a political science professor at Prairie View A&M University.
And Abbott is using it to refocus the Legislature on a property tax idea that he’s favored since last year. Abbott wanted the Legislature to send more state funding to cover local school property tax revenue so school districts don’t raise rates on businesses and homeowners. It’s a method often called compression within legislative circles and was used extensively in 2019 to slow the upward spiral of property taxes across the state. “I would prefer to take the money and buy that down even further,” Abbott told Hearst Newspapers last year in an exclusive interview about his plan. While the House and the Senate had plans to do some more compression this year, their plans included other ways to cut property taxes, which resulted in the political infighting that ultimately killed the dueling property tax plans from the Texas House and Senate. “We must cut property taxes,” Abbott said just hours after that failure. “During the regular session, we added $17.6 billion to cut property taxes. However, the Legislature could not agree on how to allocate funds to accomplish this goal. Texans want and need a path towards eliminating property taxes. The best way to do that is to direct property tax reduction dollars to cut school property tax rates.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas AG Ken Paxton whistleblowers triggered his impeachment. But will they get paid? (Austin American-Statesman)
Former aides who lost their jobs for exposing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's alleged misdeeds have yet to receive a penny of a $3.3 million settlement in a whistleblower suit, and the future of that payment remains as uncertain as Paxton's political future.
Earlier this year, four whistleblowers reached the conditional settlement with the attorney general's office to resolve a wrongful termination lawsuit. Their legal filing, citing multiple instances in which Paxton allegedly misused his office to assist a campaign donor, was the foundation for an investigation in the Texas House that led to a 121-23 vote in favor of Paxton’s impeachment over the weekend… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Is Texas next up? Lawmakers clear the way for the state to leave voter data group ERIC (NPR)
Texas is on its way to being the latest — and largest — state to leave a bipartisan data sharing partnership that states across the country use to cross check their voter rolls.
Texas lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to Senate Bill 1070, which would seek to end the state's participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC. The legislation now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott.
Multiple GOP-led states have backed out of ERIC in response to conservative advocacy groups who have at times spread misinformation about the compact. Virginia on May 11 became the eighth state to announce its departure… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Where Is the U.S. Economy Headed? Follow the Money (Wall Street Journal)
The stock market is near a one-year high, giving many investors comfort. But down below, debt markets are creaking under the strain of rising interest rates.
Lending conditions for companies, consumers and real-estate developers tightened this spring to levels not seen since the height of the Covid pandemic, an analysis of public and private lending data by The Wall Street Journal shows.
The flow of cash on Wall Street was already slowing this winter, but recent turmoil in regional banks made it worse. Wrangling over the debt ceiling has ratcheted up the risk of a government default, which if it happens would tip global bond markets into chaos.
The slowdown is a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate-hiking campaign against inflation, and it means there is now less money available for U.S. businesses and households to hire new workers, build plants and pay the bills… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
AI chips are hot. Here’s what they are, what they’re for and why investors see gold(Associated Press)
The hottest thing in technology is an unprepossessing sliver of silicon closely related to the chips that power video game graphics. It’s an artificial intelligence chip, designed specifically to make building AI systems such as ChatGPT faster and cheaper.
Such chips have suddenly taken center stage in what some experts consider an AI revolution that could reshape the technology sector — and possibly the world along with it. Shares of Nvidia, the leading designer of AI chips, rocketed up almost 25% last Thursday after the company forecast a huge jump in revenue that analysts said indicated soaring sales of its products. The company was briefly worth more than $1 trillion on Tuesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)