Austin leaders kicked off their review of a trimmed city budget following the failure of Proposition Q as they move to approve the plan within the next week.

Whats happening: City Council is now working to adopt a revised fiscal year 2025-26 budget with about $100 million in city services and public programs removed. Spending on those items proposed under the Proposition Q tax hike must now be reversed, and officials are considering how those cuts should be made while maintaining some of their top priorities.

Discussion at a Nov. 18 work session largely centered around funding and staffing for public safety departments, including proposals to boost EMS services with several million dollars and suggestions that long-vacant police department positions could be removed. Review will continue Nov. 19 ahead of possible budget approval Nov. 20, or in the following days.

With new restaurants, an equestrian riding facility and new cafes joining the community soon, Southwest Austinites have a mix of new businesses to check out in the area and keep a handful on their radars. This list is not comprehensive.

LEONA Botanical Cafe & Bar
The culinary destination will feature three counter service restaurants: DEE DEE first brick-and-mortar location, Veracruz All Natural and Bun Bun Burger. The concept is a collaboration between husband-and-wife duo, Lakana and Justin Trubiana and sister-duo, Reyna and Maritza Vazquez.

• Opening Nov. 11
• 6405 Brodie Lane, Austin

• Closing Nov. 11
• 520 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin

As Austin ISD officials near an official vote on school consolidations Nov. 20, a final plan was shared with the community Nov. 14.

What’s happening: District officials began the process of considering school consolidations nine months ago. As of Nov. 14, Superintendent Matias Segura said the final plan that will be brought to the AISD board of trustees recommends closing 10 schools.

The board will also consider turnaround plans for failing schools during a Nov. 20 meeting in addition to the proposed program moves and school consolidations.

In total, 3,796 students would be reassigned, and 6,319 vacant seats would be eliminated under this plan if the AISD board of trustees approves it Nov. 20. The plan is expected to save more than $20 million in costs for the district.

How we got here: The sweeping changes come as AISD looks to address declining enrollment, lower a mounting budget shortfall and provide state-mandated intervention at 12 failing campuses.

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."