Legal battle over ballot drop-offs

The latest legal battle to put an end to Governor Abbot’s order limiting counties to one ballot drop-off site will play out in Austin today. The Anti-Defamation League will argue that Governor Abbott has overstepped his authority under the state Constitution by closing dozens of ballot drop sites statewide. 

“Really looking at the governor’s emergency powers not allowing him to interfere with the county clerk’s office to manage and run the election when the governor’s actions exacerbate the emergency and create new constitutional problems,” says ADL Vice President Cheryl Drazin. 

That’s regarding the two enjoined federal challenges the Fifth Circuit ruled late Monday in favor of Governor Abbott, saying his order does not limit the electoral opportunity of Texans

Early voting starts. 

You can officially make your voice heard with early voting kicking off this morning. Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir expects COVID and the political climate to have a massive impact on turnout.

“So because by-mail is gonna be so large this time, I think we’re gonna see some shifting in early voting on Election Day. I do think it’s possible that early voting will still be more popular than Election Day, but we will have a record breaking turnout this time,” DeBeauvoir says.

She expects Travis County to top the previous elections turnout rate of 77%.

Debate about Capital Metro

Supporters and opponents of the multibillion dollar overhaul of Capital Metro’s transit system butt heads in a digital debate. Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty says this will boost property taxes by 25% and that will not help with ongoing affordability and equity problems. 

“We all know how difficult it is to continue to live in this community, and it is going to become even more so if people get duped into signing off on a $7.1 billion transit plan,” says Daugherty

Supporters retort that Daugherty’s claim is misleading and that property owners would only end up paying about 4% more on their total tax bill.

With Proposition A going onto the ballots, a lot of property owners are saying the tax burden may be too much to bear for business owners as well. County Line Owner Skeeter Miller tells KVUE he’s just barely hanging on right now because of the pandemic. 

“We’re already having a hard time paying the rent. So now you’re gonna have a 25% tax increase that is gonna go on forever? I mean, how do we ever catch up?” says Miller.

Miller is one of the numerous business owners and elected officials publicly speaking out against the transit proposal this week. The City of Austin says that a 25% tax increase is just untrue. 

COVID-19 update

There’s been a slow rise in Travis County’s hospitalizations over the past several days. Today, there are 88 coronavirus patients in the hospital and 764 active cases. 30,398 cases have been confirmed. In total, 29,192 are recoveries. 

Williamson County has now climbed above 9,000 for its overall number of confirmed coronavirus cases. Of those 8,695, people have recovered and as of today 163 cases were still active. That’s a decline of 25 over the past day. 18 of those active cases require hospitalization.

AISD funding

Austin School District Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is looking for a workaround the TEA’s decision to stop providing state funding for virtual learning beyond November. Elizalde is not happy about that. 

“We still are advocating for a full year. We think we should be given the same dollars as if every student showed up because there’s been so many additional expenses,” says Elizalde.

She’s considering increasing teacher/student interactions by either rotating kids in the classrooms or rotating teachers. She plans to survey parents about that idea. 

Bar reopenings

Travis County bars have been anxiously awaiting word from County Judge Sam Biscoe as to whether or not he’ll authorize them to open up tomorrow. It’s likely he’ll make an announcement today when the commissioner’s court meets. 

Hays County has joined Williamson and Bastrop county in announcing the plan to let bars open up tomorrow. County Judge Ruben Becerra tells CBS Austin people have been good about following CDC guidelines so he’ll leave it up to individual cities to make sure they’re operating responsibly. 

“The ball will fall on their court to communicate effectively within their municipalities. And if it’s outside of the municipality, then, of course, we will use our county law enforcement,” Becerra says. 

He’ll monitor all the COVID numbers and if he sees a spike, he’ll order bars closed again. 

This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:

https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-10-13-20