Austin OKs new co-sponsor for Trail of Lights Festival

Austin City Council approved a co-sponsorship deal March 1 with the RunTex Foundation for the Trail of Lights Festival.

The popular holiday event had been canceled for the last two years due to a lack of funding. The foundation will lead a fundraising campaign to cover all aspects of the event, which it estimates will cost at least $700,000.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell said Paul Carrozza of the RunTex Foundation approached him with the idea.

"We could not be more excited to be the team bringing it back," Carrozza said.

Carrozza said the goal is to raise $500,000 within the next three months from major corporations, businesses and individual donors.

The agreement calls for the reinstatement of all the original aspects of the festival as well as some additions, such as a 5K run. According to Carrozza, it is very important to ensure enough funds are raised to bring back the grandiosity of the festival, offer free admission and to put on the event at no cost to Austin taxpayers.

Funding for the event was cut from the City of Austin's 2010–11 budget. Efforts to raise funds by outside organizations fell short, resulting in the cancelation of the festival in 2010 and 2011.

"He—like a lot of people—was saddened by the loss of the Trail of Lights due to budget cuts," Leffingwell said of Carrozza. "It was a million-dollar item out of the Parks [and Recreation Department] budget, and with the recession, we didn't have much choice."

Leffingwell continued, "I know Paul pretty well, and if anyone can make it work, it's him."

Creative jobs added $4.35 billion to economy in 2010; study shows sector has grown 25 percent since 2007

A city-commissioned study shows the creative sector accounted for just more than $4.35 billion in Austin's economic activity in 2010, an increase of about one-third from 2005.

City Council received a briefing March 8 by Jon Hockenyos, president of TXP, the Austin-based economic analysis firm hired to conduct the study.

Results also show the industry, including music, film, gaming and visual arts, generated $71 million in city tax revenues and added almost 49,000 jobs in 2010.

Hockenyos said the creative sector has grown by about 25 percent over the past five years and that creativity is Austin's comparative advantage more than ever.

He said TXP recommends addressing branding to grow the creative sector even more.

"The [slogan] 'The live music capital of the world' has served the city well, but more branding needs to be done to show Austin has much more to offer," Hockenyos said.

As more people move to Austin, he said the city also needs to address mobility and infrastructure needs to ensure tourists have good experiences and would return.

City Council has ordered city staff to produce a plan to implement the recommendations.