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The Austin Bulldog
Lawsuit seeks to halt tax dollars for luxury development
A lawsuit filed this morning in state district court seeks a permanent injunction to prevent the City of Austin from diverting an estimated $354 million in future property taxes from being spent for any purpose by the South-Central Waterfront Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 19 (SCWF-TIRZ). (Cause numbers are not immediately assigned when cases are e-filed. Our link will be updated as soon as the file-stamped copy is made available.)
Austin lawmakers push bill to alleviate fentanyl crisis
Legislators from Austin are helping lead a bipartisan push to legalize fentanyl test strips, which can help drug users know whether they’re about to take a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. Many overdose victims aren’t even aware that they’re taking fentanyl, which dealers use to lace other drugs, such...
Lawmakers weigh axing Project Connect’s ‘blank check’ loophole
State legislators heard testimony Wednesday on a bill that proponents say would eliminate a “loophole” allowing the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) to borrow billions of dollars without voter approval. Transit advocates turned up at the hearing by the House Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee to oppose the...
City auditor’s report confirms Yaft’s conflict of interest
The Bulldog reported March 28th that the chief executive of the city-owned Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (aka AUS) had resigned, possibly over an unreported conflict of interest. Jacqueline Yaft started her job as airport boss June 10, 2019, and 10 days later her former employer, Paslay Management Group (PMG) was hired...
Commissioners approve Central Health performance audit
At long last the Travis County Hospital District, better known as Central Health, is being brought under a microscope that will give the Travis County Commissioners Court a much tighter grip on how the agency is managed. Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a contract with Mazars USA LLP to...
Central Health spending under attack from three sides
The right to use Travis County property taxes to fund Dell Medical School has always been precariously perched on the foundation of ballot language approved by voters in 2012, despite the fact that such funding appears to be a violation of Texas statutes. The Bulldog has published numerous articles on...
Project Connect scope drastically scaled back
Two factors have sparked renewed debate around the cost of Project Connect, the light rail and commuter bus project approved by Austin voters in 2020. The first is a draft law in the legislature, HB 3899 by former City Council Member Ellen Troxclair, who is now a state representative, to restrict the bonding authority of the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP), the local government corporation implementing the project. Though the bill has made little headway in the legislature—it hasn’t even had a hearing in either chamber—it received plentiful coverage in the local press.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport sets records but CEO is out
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport touted a record-breaking year in 2022 with passenger traffic of slightly more than 21 million, up 55.4 percent from 2021. Work is underway on a $4.2 billion 2040 Airport Master Plan to accommodate what seems to be unstoppable demand for the destination known as AUS. The plan projects that 31.4 million passengers will pass through the airport in 2037—a 50 percent increase over 2022. But Samantha Haynes, acting public information and marketing manager for AUS, told the Bulldog, “If trends continue we will hit 30 million passengers by about 2027.
Council not anxious to publish financial disclosures
City officials’ personal financial disclosures are meant to reveal whether they have substantial conflicts of interest in policy matters that they handle, such as a stake in a business being awarded a contract, or ownership of real estate whose value may be increased through rezoning. But council members’ sworn...
The wrong side of town
Almost two years after Winter Storm Uri crippled the unprepared Texas electric system and knocked out power to 40 percent of buildings, Winter Storm Mara slammed a broad swath of Texas. Buildings that lost electricity stretched from as far south as New Braunfels all the way to northeast Texas counties along the Red River. The weight of freezing rain that clung to trees brought them down on powerlines and power poles, knocking out electricity not only for Austin Energy customers but also a noticeable percentage of customers in at least 30 other Texas counties.
Legislation would bar appraisal district lawsuits against property owners
If legislation introduced March 8th by State Senator Drew Springer (R-Weatherford) gets through the legislative gauntlet and is signed into law his bill will snatch away the authority of chief appraisers to sue property owners. Springer’s Senate Bill 1923 would revise the Tax Code to prevent a chief appraiser who...
Appeals court decision draws widespread condemnation
An appellate decision over a TCAD lawsuit has astounded commercial property owners and attorneys who represent them. If the Texas Supreme Court allows it to stand, the decision may encourage appraisal districts to sue more property owners anywhere in Texas. Attorneys and organizations representing major commercial property owners—and even two...
Convention Center plans to retain staff during four years of inactivity
City staff employed by the Convention Center Department could remain on the payroll for four to five years despite closure of the Convention Center itself, according to departmental plans. “We are planning to keep all 300 of our current full-time staff on board,” said Chief Administrative Officer Katie Zamesnik at...
Good news: No big jump In 2023 property values
In what should be good news for property owners, Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler told board members of Travis Central Appraisal District February 17th that she is not seeing the big increases in property values that were experienced last year. She said some areas will be up in values and some will be down. The end result is that she is not expecting the record numbers of value protests experienced in recent years.
City staff failed to stop mayor from misusing city resources
Adler used city-owned television to make political endorsements. City staff failed to prevent Mayor Steve Adler from making candidate endorsements that were aired live on a city-run television station last December, on the first day of early voting, even though he told them beforehand that that’s what he intended to do when he got in front of the cameras.
Extended outages put manager’s job on thin ice
Special-called council meeting to evaluate his employment. Spencer Cronk, 43, has been Austin’s city manager since February 2018, slightly more than five years. That makes him the fifth longest-serving Austin City Manager and six months shy of equaling Toby Futrell’s time in the job (see accompanying chart). Now...
Second effort to find Central Health auditors
Lack of response caused Travis County to issue another solicitation. In response to concerted pressure from groups alleging that Central Health lacked sufficient financial controls and accountability, the Travis County Commissioners Court in September voted to approve a scope of work for an independent third-party performance audit of the agency.
Austin’s got a $2 million mayor
This story was updated at 4:14pm January 26th to correct the statement made about Jennifer Virden’s total spending. The $220,000 she repaid to herself for a loan is not an expenditure that furthered her campaign efforts. In addition, the latest campaign finance reports were due January 17th, not the 16th as previously stated.
Central Health seeks control of Dell Teaching Hospital
Lawsuit reveals Central Health’s ambition to run its own hospital. Central Health and Ascension Texas sued each other Tuesday over a contract dispute involving Travis County’s indigent healthcare program. Central Health, Travis County’s public healthcare district, has paid Ascension (formerly known as Seton Healthcare Family) since 2004 to...
Criminal complaints hit Mayor Adler on final days in office
Complaints arise from Adler using the city’s ATXN TV channel to endorse candidates in the runoff elections. Mayor Steve Adler’s final day in office is this Friday, but he’s getting kicked in the seat of his pants as he leaves. Criminal complaints were filed against him late today for using city resources to publicly endorse council candidates in the December 13th runoffs.
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