A Texas House committee took the unusual step of unanimously voting down the bill to make Austin a district of the state and not a traditional city.

A bill that would have turned Texas’ capital city into the “District of Austin” was dead on arrival in the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

In other words, the “DOA” bill was DOA.

House Bill 274 by Republican Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park sought to make many of the actions of the Austin City Council subject to review by the speaker of the House and the lieutenant governor.

Cain had cited crime and sundry mismanagement allegations as the basis for his bill. The 11 members of the State Affairs Committee apparently thought the measure was kind of silly. Sometimes when lawmakers want to kill a bill, they try talking it to death. This time, they giggled the life out of it.

More: Here’s what Austin’s city manager is proposing for police, property taxes in budget draft

State Affairs Chairman Ken King, a Republican from the Panhandle city of Canadian, chuckled as he said Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, had made a motion to pass the bill on to the full House for consideration.

Then when Geren actually voted no, there was a snicker or two. By the time King cast the final vote and announced the 11-0 tally, many on the House panel and in the committee room laughed out loud.

It was unclear whether Cain found the exercise, which took less than three minutes to play out, amusing. He doesn’t serve on the State Affairs Committee and he did not return a Statesman call seeking comment.

AUSTIN, Texas – A couple of entrepreneurial 19-year-olds from Austin created a production company that they continue to run in their spare time in between classes at UT Austin.

Like every great business startup story, theirs started in college while they were both sitting on the couch.

Creating JHMG Productions 

What they’re saying:

John Houston and Mark Greenberg are childhood friends, fraternity brothers at the University of Texas, roommates, and business partners. 

“Mark and I are actually lifelong friends,” said John Houston. “I’ve known Mark since I was probably third or fourth grade.”

Greenberg and Houston combined their initials and connections to form JHMG Productions last year as freshmen. 

“We were just like sitting on our dorm room couch and just going back and forth,” said Mark Greenberg. “So this past summer, kind of at the end of June, we had our first concert with him down on Sixth Street, where we sold out roughly 700 tickets.” 

As social chair of his fraternity, Houston already had experience booking events and venues. 

“Live music is crucial, like to that Austin social scene, and it was kind of missing from the UT social scene,” said Houston. 

They both wanted to breathe life into the art of live music. 

“You might think, ‘Oh, that’s obvious, you would need to get insurance,’ but to a 19-year-old kid in college, that’s not as obvious as you would think,” said Greenberg. 

The pair took an idea, turned it into a company, and are learning along the way. 

“We had an idea. We didn’t have any money to start it,” said Houston. “If you’re driven, if you put whatever you have into that, good things will come from it.” 

With their next show only weeks away, JHMG Productions expects their largest crowd to date. 

“49 Winchester really is the pinnacle of what JHMG is supposed to be; that’s going to be our biggest show thus far,” said Houston. “This venue is a lot bigger than, you know, 750 capacity. You know, we could fit 3000 people in here.” 

The next show is on April 10, 2025, at the Far Out Lounge in Southeast Austin.

They are giving out a discount code for viewers. If you use the code “FOX7” at checkout, you will receive 10 percent off your tickets.