BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 29, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
On this episode we welcome Jack Craver, independent reporter and founder of The Austin Politics Newsletter.
Jack and Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham, catch up on the past 6 months of Austin politics and city hall moves.
For city hall watchers and those looking to get a handle on the state of play now, this is worth a listen.
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
EPISODE 201
LINKS:
The Austin Politics Newsletter -> www.austinpolitics.net
Jack Craver on LinkedIn -> www.linkedin.com/in/jack-craver-60348414/
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin ISD school board approves deficit budget as recapture payment nears $1 billion (KUT)
The Austin ISD school board has adopted a deficit budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. The vote happened a little before 1 a.m. Friday.
The deficit was not a surprise. Back in May, the board approved significant salary increases for AISD employees. The compensation package requires the district to spend up to $52.25 million of its reserve funds to cover the cost. Interim Superintendent Matias Segura said the budget reflects the district's values.
"When we started this process, we acknowledged that there were a lot of needs within our community and within our schools, but certainly limited resources," he said. "But early on in the process we identified compensation, we identified the need to support and invest in our staff as one of the highest priorities."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Public parking at Zilker confounds parks board (Austin Monitor)
Members of the Parks and Recreation Board struggled with the many facets of public parking at Zilker Park this week, finally postponing a vote until July 24. After a lengthy discussion, board members failed to adopt a resolution asking City Council to eliminate most parking at the environmentally sensitive Polo Fields and direct cars to other lots.
The change would have a financial effect, due to the cost of providing shuttle service from lots farther from the park, as well as convincing people to use those lots. During the meeting, board members struggled with the complexity of the traffic problem and wondered aloud whether there was any point in asking for additional funding for the department at this late date. They were told that most budget requests were made months ago. Council will begin to discuss the budget at a July 19 meeting. There was no discussion of parking garages, which are recommended in the Zilker Park Vision Plan… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
'Missing middle' housing planned near Taylor Samsung plant (Austin business journal)
An Austin-based developer is considering a 56-acre residential and commercial project near where Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is building its multibillion-dollar chipmaking plant in Taylor — and aims to provide the kind of "missing middle" housing needed to support a nascent manufacturing workforce.Texas Multifamily Capital LLC has revealed initial details about the project proposed for the corner of Wesley Miller Lane and Farm to Market Road 973, across the street south from Taylor High School and about a mile away from Samsung's facility, which many expect to open next year.
While plans for the multifamily-anchored development are still in the early stages, some details have emerged in public documents and meetings. A concept plan shows multiple multifamily buildings and some light commercial buildings could rise along FM 973, which is expected to become a major thoroughfare as the Taylor population increases… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
With second special session underway, Texas lawmakers offer opening property tax-cut proposals (Texas tribune)
In the opening hours of a new special legislative session, Texas lawmakers quickly made their opening pitches Wednesday to break a longstanding impasse over how to cut Texans’ property taxes and reach a deal.A bargain over how to deliver more than $12 billion in new property tax cuts has evaded Texas’ top Republicans for months as leaders of the House and Senate have been at odds over whether homeowners or businesses should benefit more from tax cuts. Texas landowners pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.
House Speaker Dade Phelan and House lawmakers are so far sticking with a proposal to take all $12.3 billion lawmakers set aside this year for tax cuts and send it to school districts so they can lower their tax rates — a method called “tax rate compression.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New Texas laws favor parents in child abuse investigations as legislators try to limit number of kids in foster care (Texas Tribune)
Faced with a troubled foster care system and a 12-year-long lawsuit for putting children in state custody at risk, Texas legislators this year made sweeping changes to state agencies that look after vulnerable kids removed from their homes.
But legislators’ focus was less on conditions for children in the system and more on reducing the number of kids entering state care. The Legislature zeroed in on how child abuse investigations kick off and play out, making it harder for the Department of Family and Protective Services to remove children from homes, saying parents facing abuse accusations are entitled to more rights.
While lawmakers ironed out new policies on investigations to prevent kids from entering the system, they stuck to basic fixes for children already in the state’s care. In one instance, they mandated the state provide foster kids duffel bags and backpacks — instead of trash bags — to transport their belongings… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
The Spying Scandal Inside One of America’s Biggest Power Companies (Wall street Journal)
On a late spring day in 2017, a private investigator parked outside a fitness center in an Atlanta strip mall and covertly recorded video of a personal trainer as she entered her business.
Forty-five minutes later, the investigator took photos as the woman returned to her car, stowed her gym bag and drove away. He next followed her for 25 minutes to the home of her then-boyfriend, Tom Fanning, who, as chief executive of Southern Co., had for years been one of the energy industry’s most powerful figures.
The following day, while parked in Fanning’s neighborhood, the investigator photographed the executive running up a hill near his house. The investigator compiled the innocuous findings from his four days of surveillance into an eight-page report and billed his client more than $6,800 for the work.
Atlanta-based Southern, one of the largest utility companies in the U.S. and one of the most prominent corporate brands across the Southeast, has been bedeviled for much of the past year by the peculiar espionage effort, which led to an internal investigation but no public explanation.
Word of the surveillance surfaced last summer in a lawsuit between consultants in a firm that for decades has done work for Alabama Power, a Southern subsidiary. One of them alleged that, at the direction of Alabama Power officials, the other consultant had ordered surveillance of Southern executives in order to possibly gain internal leverage… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
McCarthy races to repair relationship with Trump (The Hill)
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is racing to mend fences with former President Trump after the GOP leader questioned Trump’s strength as a 2024 presidential contender — a comment he quickly walked back amid blowback from Trump world.
The Speaker’s cleanup effort — which has so far included a direct call to Trump, a subsequent media interview declaring Trump to be the strongest candidate, and an email blast to would-be donors amplifying that message — has illustrated the political dangers facing GOP leaders as they seek to balance Trump’s vast popularity against the baggage of his legal and ethical travails heading into the elections… (LINK TO FULL STORY)