ATX-RRK: Impact 9/1/2025

Round Rock City Council approved the first reading of its fiscal year 2025-26 budget and corresponding tax rate at a meeting Aug. 28. The budget requires a second reading on Sept. 11 before can be finally adopted.

What happened: Council members voted unanimously to adopt the $789.7 million budget and $0.372 per $100 valuation property tax rate. The vote followed public hearings on the items.

The breakdown: $418.7 million—or 53%—of the total budget will go towards the Community Investment Program, funding projects to improve roads, utility infrastructure, trail system connection, completing the wastewater treatment plant expansion and projects approved in 2023 general obligation bonds.

The budget also includes:

• $93 million for police and fire departments
• $47.2 million for parks and recreation, the public library, and sports tourism
• $43.5 million for utilities and environmental services, including water and wastewater services

VeraBank will relocate from its current location near E. Palm Valley Boulevard to the corner of I-35 and Hester's Crossing later this year.

The details: A company representative confirmed the relocation to Community Impact in August.

Higher education costs, a booming population and aging workforce are all challenges identified by health care executives at the state and local level in a first-time health care forum held at Austin PBS in August.

The setup: Hosted by Workforce Solutions Capital Area, Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area and the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership, with support from the St. David's Foundation, the State of Healthcare Workforce Forum brought experts from the state and regional level to discuss challenges impacting the health care industry and its workforce Aug. 26. 

Some communities in Flash Flood Alley, which stretches through Central Texas and includes the Colorado and Guadalupe River basins, would be required to install flood warning sirens under a bill advanced by state House lawmakers Aug. 26.

The details: Under Senate Bill 3:

• The Texas Water Development Board would identify areas impacted by the deadly July 4-5 floods that have “a history of consistent or severe flooding.”
• Local governments in the identified areas would be required to install flood warning sirens if they are not already present.
• The state would distribute up to $50,000 in grants to help cities and counties install warning systems.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’ new congressional map into law Aug. 29, declaring in a video posted to social media that “Texas is now more red in the United States Congress.”

The details: Under Texas’ current congressional boundaries, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 congressional seats. State lawmakers have said the new map will help them gain up to five more during the 2026 midterm elections.

Texas Democrats have called the mid-decade redistricting effort unconstitutional and "racially discriminatory," while Republicans asserted that the map "complies with the law" and was designed to help more Republicans get elected to the U.S. House.

Next steps: Texas’ new congressional map is set to take effect in early December, although it will be discussed in court two months earlier. After state senators approved the map Aug. 23, the League of United Latin American Citizens and a group of Texas residents filed a lawsuit asking that the map be found unconstitutional.

A panel of three federal judges will hear arguments in the case Oct. 1-10 in El Paso.

Here are the top trending Community Impact stories in the Austin metro from Aug. 25-29.

1. Former hotel converted into affordable apartment complex in North Austin

2. Georgetown to use eminent domain to complete Williams Drive intersection improvements

3. Georgetown to deliver Round Rock water to Liberty Hill

4. A regional destination: Texas’ second-largest retail store set to bring visitors to Cedar Park

5. New Dave’s Hot Chicken location undergoing construction in Cedar Park

6. Double R Hat House offers hand-shaped cowboy hats 'that last'