BG Reads | News - August 23, 2022
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin's 2022 Council Ballot Slate Set (BG Blog)
As of 5PM yesterday the field was set for Austin’s November Council elections.
The following offices will be on the 2022?Ballot:?(LINK TO FULL POST)
Why Tito’s Vodka invested $1 million for housing in Austin (Austin Business Journal)
Austin-based Tito's Handmade Vodka is taking a notable role in an effort to mitigate the city's affordable housing crisis.
The local vodka distillery with a global presence is a key supporter of the Austin Community Foundation, which recently loaned $4 million to Austin Habitat for Humanity to accelerate the construction of 150 new homes in the metro.
Tito’s has committed a total of $1 million to the effort, joining St. David’s Foundation, Bill Wood Foundation, Shield-Ayres Foundation, the Aragona family and a group of donor-advised fundholders at the community foundation in supporting the loan.
“We knew it was something that we wanted to get involved in,”?Amy Lukken , chief joyologist at Tito’s Handmade Vodka, said. “We’re always keeping an ear to the ground and talking with community members and nonprofits to see how we can best help, and we recognize that affordable housing is a growing need in our city.”
The project will provide housing for the “missing middle” —?a group that includes educators, healthcare workers, and arts professionals earning between $58,000 and $118,000 a year, or 60-120% of the median family income in Central Texas…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austinites to vote on $350M housing bond this November (Community Impact)
After?signing off ?on the proposal in concept earlier this summer, Austin City Council officially added a $350 million housing bond to the city's November election ballot Aug. 18.
Council voted 10-1 in favor of putting the new proposal before city voters, with District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly opposed. The housing bond proposition will be the first put to city voters since 2018 when a $250 million bond?passed ?with 72.8% support.
Officials had previously pointed to the need for a new round of city funding for local housing initiatives, given that dollars from the 2018 bond are drying up, and as local housing costs for both renters and owners reached new highs this year.
Citing those factors, council members voted 8-1-1 to increase the proposed bond's record scope from $300 million to $350 million in late July.
The new bond program is laid out with a focus on the same areas as the housing measure included in the city's 2018 bond package: funding for both rental and ownership housing projects, home repairs, and land acquisitions for future housing projects…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin launches a new homeless encampment management team (KXAN)
The City of Austin has a new structure when it comes to handling homeless encampments, launching a new Homeless Encampment Management Team.
A memo released Monday ?from the city manager’s office said the new team has a leadership team and three other sections: planning, operations, and policy.
The leadership team is led by someone from the city’s homeless services department but also includes the Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department, Parks and Recreation Department and Watershed Protection Department.
“If it’s an area of park land, but it presents an issue with potential fire, that really requires a more coordinated response,” said Kathie Tovo, city council member for district 9.
She said this plan makes sure all departments are working together on encampments throughout the city.
Fifteen stakeholder departments came together to generate ideas and develop recommendations…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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[TEXAS]
City of Dallas would commit $325 million for street improvements as part of $1 billion bond proposal (Community Impact)
The city of?Dallas? is proposing $1 billion bond program for the May ballot in 2024. Dallas residents previously voted on a city bond program in November 2017 when voters approved 10 proposals totaling $1.05 billion. As of this June, the 2017 Bond Program has committed 79% of the funds towards city programs.
The 2017 bond program is scheduled to be completed by September 2023. A presentation of the 2024 proposed bond was given during the Aug. 17 city council meeting. According to Adriana Castaneda, director of Bond and Construction Management for Dallas, the 2024 bond would include 11 proposals totaling $1 billion.
The total price of the bond program is subject to public feedback and city recommendations. The majority of bond funding is expected to be used for street and transportation improvements, according to Castaneda…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Houston energy executives react positively to Inflation Reduction Act (Houston Business Journal)
The jury’s still out on whether the Inflation Reduction Act will live up to its name. But energy executives agree that the Democrats’ legislation, signed by President Joe Biden on Aug. 16, can transform the U.S. energy industry and move the country closer to decarbonizing. The Houston Business Journal gathered comments from executives in the Houston metro region — from clean energy pioneers to traditional oil and gas stalwarts — to learn more about how the IRA could impact their companies. In addition to major corporate tax reform provisions, the bill includes policies aimed at a wide array of energy technologies, including carbon capture, renewable fuels and green energy.
The IRA’s proponents said they think the bill will lower energy costs for Americans at the pump and at home, spur more domestic manufacturing of clean energy tech, and decarbonize sectors like power generation, transportation, buildings and agriculture. Detractors say it will increase inflation and reduce the country’s energy independence. Regardless, its $370 billion injection of funding represents the largest federal effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy. “The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest U.S. climate-related investment in history,” said Greg Matlock, a Houston-based partner at Ernst & Young LLP. “It’s likely to usher in historic levels of investments across renewable energy and energy transition technologies and infrastructure.”
Many Houston-area companies that responded to the HBJ are investing in carbon capture, utilization and storage to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, so increased tax credits for carbon sequestration were welcomed by oil and gas players. They’re also excited about hydrogen tax credits, which could play into Houston’s ambitions to be “the epicenter of a global clean hydrogen hub.” The extension of tax incentives for developing more wind and solar power generation, as well as more battery energy storage, should continue to propel the momentum of clean energy projects across the U.S. Oil and gas producers might feel a pinch from higher royalty rates on federal leases. But as Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) continues to pursue fossil fuels production and an ambitious new direct air capture business, CEO Vicki Hollub said the bill’s net effect on her company is positive. “This is very good for our industry,” Hollub said during a call with investors Aug. 3. “Lots of companies will benefit from this. It will provide jobs, and it will help the country meet the goals that the president has set out for emission reduction.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Beto O’Rourke’s risky quest for votes in deep-red Texas (Washington Post)
Everyone in this 3,087-person Panhandle city knows that Beto O’Rourke is coming to campaign for governor today. It’s a major event, a big-time politician coming all the way out here, deep into rural oil country, where the landscape is dotted with pump jacks and cattle and grain elevators, and the worst drought in 10 years has sucked up all the water in the Canadian River so it’s just a dry bed of red dirt. “People are buzzing! It’s a big buzz,” says Suzanne Bellsnyder, who owns the one coffee shop downtown. Local gossip networks have already alerted her that Beto (he’s achieved one-name celebrity status in these parts, like Cher) is next door having lunch. It’s a Saturday afternoon, and he’ll be speaking in a park, with the temperature hitting 105 degrees. People are buzzing in a good way? Like, excited?
Beto is targeting GOP strongholds that former president Donald Trump won with 70, 80 or even 90 percent of the vote just two years ago, making his schedule public and inviting the entire community to join. If there are votes out there to push him over the top, that means turning over every couch cushion in every corner of the state — even in conservative oil, agriculture and ranching country where many people are thrilled with two-term incumbent Republican governor Greg Abbott, who signed a trigger law banning most abortions and who has spent the summer busing migrants to D.C. and New York City, while blaming it all on President Biden. Could a victory for Beto lie not in liberal cities such as Austin or Houston but in spending these last precious three months of the campaign driving his Toyota Tundra to the least populous, most Republican parts of the state, mining for untapped votes? “I mean, there’s a reason to do this,” Beto says in Spearman, sweating through his white button-down. Having been married for 17 years, Beto often says, he knows no two people agree on everything, but he’s hoping people around here might at least like his plans to repair Texas’s power grid or to pay teachers more. If nothing else, maybe they’ll respect that he came…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Today's (162) episode features Austin community leader and serial entrepreneur, Terry P. Mitchell.
She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss her path into the business world, and the founding of the Black Leaders Collective->?EPISODE LINK
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