BG Reads | News - May 26, 2022
[BINGHAM GROUP]
Join Bingham Group CEO A.J. and co-hosts on June 1 (6:30PM) for a fundraiser supporting Austin Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison. The Council Member is seeking re-election to Austin Council District 1, an area encompassing Central East Austin and parts of Downtown.
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[AUSTIN METRO]
Samsung approved to submit 11 incentives applications in Manor, Taylor (Austin Business Journal)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has secured the go-ahead to seek incentives that would come with a massive investment at its current and future sites in the Austin area.
The South Korean tech giant — which last year pledged to build a $17 billion next-generation fabrication plant in the small town of Taylor, and has had a presence in North Austin for decades — on May 24 was approved by the school boards in Manor and Taylor to pursue 11 new incentives agreements designed to provide tax breaks for large manufacturing projects.
While the company did not reveal the scope and size of the potential projects, including capital investment and job totals, the type of incentives sought by the company signify major potential expansion — and additional fabs — both at the Taylor site and at their long-occupied location in North Austin, possibly bringing billions more dollars and hundreds more jobs to the region.
During separate school board meetings May 24, both boards voted to accept "multiple" Chapter 313 incentives applications from Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLC, the company's local subsidiary. The total in Manor was two, while officials in Taylor noted there were nine new applications in the district. They'll head to the Texas comptroller's office for review before returning to the boards for further approval.
The boards also widened the tax increment reinvestment zones for both sites to include land already owned by Samsung — including at least 258 additional acres within the boundaries of the Manor school district off East Parmer Lane in North Austin and more than 1,200 acres in Taylor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Williamson County allocates $72.5 million toward water infrastructure (Community Impact)
Over $72 million in federal funding will go toward improving water and wastewater infrastructure in Williamson County, the Williamson County Commissioners Court announced May 24.
“Today is a historic day in Williamson County,” County Judge Bill Gravell said at the commissioners court meeting. “Providing water resources to our residents must be a top priority.”
Commissioners unanimously passed a motion to allocate $72.5 million of its remaining American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds to carry out new water and wastewater projects. Prior to May 24, Williamson County had only allocated $36.5 million of its $114 million in ARPA funds. Now, only $5 million remains.
“We have been talking about water and related infrastructure for a long time, and as the county has grown, this continues to be a big issue,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said at the meeting.
Connie Odom, Williamson County public affairs manager, said Winter Storm Uri in 2021 highlighted flaws in the county’s water infrastructure… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Hancock project to house the homeless sails through Planning Commission (Austin Monitor)
The Planning Commission unanimously supported a zoning change Tuesday that would allow the construction of housing for people exiting homelessness in the Hancock neighborhood.
A group of affordable housing developers hopes to rezone three lots at 1004-1008 E. 39th St. to Multifamily-Moderate Density (MF-4-NP) in order to build 100 units of permanent supportive housing, an arrangement where tenants remain long term and have access to on-site support services.
“This project helps answer the need for the most vulnerable that we see in Austin, those that we see struggling to find stable housing as we drive through our great city,” said Megan Lasch with Saigebrook Development and O-SDA Industries.
The project, called Cady Lofts, is proposed as a three- and four-story building with studio apartments. The development team includes Austin Affordable Housing Corporation and SGI Ventures as developers, and New Hope Housing, Saigebrook Development and O-SDA Industries as consultants. AAHC is a nonprofit affiliated with the city of Austin.
Even without the rezoning, the project would likely get built anyway – just with six stories instead of four – using Affordability Unlocked, a program that waives parking and compatibility requirements for affordable housing. But Lasch said that’s not ideal. Building taller is more expensive, and a shorter building fits better with adjacent single-family homes, she said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Audit report finds city making slow progress on website accessibility, usability (Austin Monitor)
The city has moved slowly in making its website as accessible and useful as possible for residents and falls short of federal principles to ensure usability for people of all abilities, according to a recent report from the Office of the City Auditor.
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At Wednesday’s meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee, staff presented a follow-up report on a pair of audits conducted in 2013 and 2017 that found the city needed to develop a comprehensive planning process, assign responsibilities related to the website, and increase the services offered while also improving accessibility across the site.
One of the two recommendations issued in 2013 was completed with another still underway, while two of the four recommendations in the 2017 audit were completed, leaving the service offerings and accessibility items still a work in progress.
A recent test of AustinTexas.gov found that its performance in three categories – the ability to quickly find key information, easy navigation and the intuitiveness of its setup – had declined compared to a similar test in 2017. The site did improve in its usability for information tools and devices used by those with disabilities… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin-area school districts increase law enforcement presence after Uvalde shooting (Austin American-Statesman)
With the last day of school and graduation ceremonies around the corner for many Central Texas school districts, officials increased law enforcement presence on some campuses in the wake of the deadly shooting Tuesday at a Uvalde elementary school.
Several districts such as Austin, Hays, Leander and Pflugerville increased the number of officers at some campuses and for graduation ceremonies. Some districts, including Leander, were holding graduation ceremonies Wednesday.
Officers who serve at Austin school district high schools that are closing over the next three days will be redeployed to elementary and middle schools, said district spokesperson Jason Stanford. That is in addition to normal security measures, such as locking all doors and monitoring social media for threats… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
This time, Gov. Greg Abbott has few suggestions on how the state might prevent future mass shootings (Texas Tribune)
Six mass shootings have occurred in Texas during Gov. Greg Abbott’s 7½ years in office. He has offered prayers and condemned each.
The murders of five police officers in Dallas were “acts of cowardice.” The killing of 26 in Sutherland Springs was a “horrific act.” The high school shooting in Santa Fe that took 10 lives was an “act of evil.” The slaying of 23 at an El Paso Walmart was a “senseless act of violence” while the shooting deaths of seven in Midland-Odessa three weeks later were a “senseless and cowardly act.”
The slaughter of 21 at an elementary school in Uvalde was a “senseless crime,” which, Abbott added at a news conference Wednesday, “could have been worse.”.
In the past, Abbott has suggested state leaders could do something — would do something — to prevent the next mass shooting. That same call to action was missing from the governor’s remarks at Uvalde High School. Though at times his voice wavered in anger, Abbott made no specific proposals for the coming legislative session to address gun violence.
He raised no issue with the fact that the alleged shooter had been able to purchase two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition without raising suspicion. He suggested mental illness drove the troubled young man to violence and called for increased access to health care.
"I asked the sheriff and others an open-ended question … ‘What is the problem here?’” Abbott said. “And they were straightforward and emphatic — they said we have a problem with mental health illness in this community and then they elaborated on the magnitude of the mental health challenges they are facing in the community and the need for more mental health support in this region.”
But Abbott also said authorities were unaware of any criminal or mental illness history of 18-year-old Salvador Ramos that could have identified him as a potential threat… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
O'Rourke's standoff with Gov. Abbott over Uvalde mass shooting marks the new era in Texas politics (San Antonio Experss-News)
The rawness of a new era of Texas politics was on full display on Wednesday in Uvalde as Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke were eye-to-eye in a high school auditorium in the aftermath of one of the state’s worst gun violence tragedies. After Abbott struggled, his voice cracking, to recall the children gunned down in their elementary school on Tuesday — saying “we urge all Texans to come together” — O’Rourke lurched out of his chair in the front row toward the stage, pointing his finger and shouting at Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “The time for you two to stop this was after the Santa Fe ...” O’Rourke said. Abbott was looking down, arranging papers on the table in front of him. “You’re out of line, and an embarrassment,” said Patrick, seated at Abbott’s right.
“This is on you until you choose to do something about it,” O’Rourke shouted as police began herding him toward the exit. “Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed.” It got even more heated as Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, standing onstage behind Abbott, shouted at O’Rourke, “Sir, you’re out of line,” later calling him a “sick son of a (expletive).“ It was yet another public display of the hostility that has been brewing in Texas politics for the past six years, as Democrats make gains in the Texas Legislature and battles for statewide office, while the Republicans in power push further and more aggressively right on guns, abortion and gay rights. Just in the last two years, Republicans in the Legislature have changed rules in the Texas Senate to squelch out already outnumbered Democratic resistance and wielded redistricting as a partisan tool to end careers of Democratic lawmakers. O’Rourke has for months been far more intense in his campaign against Abbott than in his 2018 campaign against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. In that race against Cruz, Democrats worried O’Rourke wasn’t tough enough on Cruz… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas schools can already arm teachers. Politicians may push for more after Uvalde tragedy (Dallas Morning News)
Hours after Texas’ deadliest school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, state Republicans called for efforts to harden schools and arm more teachers. “We can’t stop bad people from doing bad things,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Fox News. “We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly. That, in my opinion, is the best answer.” On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, about 85 miles west of San Antonio, killing at least 19 children and two adults. The shooting was the deadliest in Texas history, surpassing the death toll from the 2018 Santa Fe High School tragedy. After the Santa Fe shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled a school safety plan that, among other things, called for the expansion of a program that allows campuses to arm staff. Lawmakers eventually budgeted $100 million for the “hardening” of public schools.
Also on Fox News on Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested Texas did “a lot of things” after the Santa Fe shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people. “Obviously, we have to do more,” he said, adding that the state has to harden “these targets” so no one can get in except through one entrance. There’s no assurance that an employee with a handgun can halt a school shooting. For instance, during the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, an armed school resource officer never went inside the high school or attempted to engage the gunman during the attack. Reports are circulating that a school police officer was on campus at Robb Elementary on Tuesday. The officer exchanged gunfire with the shooter and was shot and injured, according to Fox News. Texas schools already have two options to arm teachers and campus staff: appointing school marshals or enacting what’s known as the “Guardian Plan.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Today’s episode (158) features City of Kyle Council Member Dex Ellison. He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the growth and associated challenges with one the fastest growing cities in Texas.
According to the U.S. Census, the city grew from a populations of 5,000 in 2000, to just over 52,300 (and growing) in 2020.
First elected to Kyle City Council in November 2019, Council Member Ellison was re-elected in November 2019. -> EPISODE LINK
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