BG Note | News - What We're Reading (September 19, 2017)
What We're Reading (September 19, 2017)
[LOCAL] School district drums up support for upcoming bond package (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
In its campaign to get voters out to pass the most expensive school bond in Austin’s history, the school administration has counted on the age-old aphorism that seeing is believing. Last Thursday, the Austin Independent School District hosted a media tour of three facilities in an effort to illustrate to the public how a bond can revitalize the infrastructure of district schools and provide for students in need.
In June, the AISD Board of Trustees called for a $1.05 billion bond election for this coming November, which if approved would start funding modernization and renovation projects as soon as June 2018. AISD’s budget and finance departments worked meticulously to calculate the maximum number of projects the bond could include without raising the tax rate.
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[State] Abbott remakes top staff ahead of re-election campaign (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
With two regular legislative sessions and a special session behind him and what looks to be an easy run for a second term in 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott refreshed his administration Monday with a mostly new team at the top that seems crafted to play a more hands-on role when the Legislature returns in 2019. Luis Saenz, a low-key former top aide to then-Gov. Rick Perry with deep experience in Texas politics and government, will be Abbott’s chief of staff, succeeding Daniel Hodge, who has been by Abbott’s side since he wrangled a job sorting Abbott’s mail in his first campaign for attorney general in 2001.
[NATIONAL] Cities Try Convincing Amazon They're Ready For Its New Headquarters (KUT) LINK TO STORY
An official from Toronto has called Amazon's search for the second headquarters "the Olympics of the corporate world."
It's a unique situation of its kind and scale. Typically, cities and states vie for factories or offices behind the scenes. This time, Amazon's public solicitation of bids from essentially all major metropolitan areas in North America has prompted reporters and analysts across the continent to run their own odds on potential winners.
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.