ATX-SWA: Impact 11/11/2025

The Backwood Bar is now open in Southwest Austin. Previously, the location housed Giddy Ups dive bar.

What they offer: Owned by locals Paul Hur, Rick Wright and JD Dunn, the patio bar features drinks, live music, putt putt, pickle ball and bocce ball.

• 12010 Menchaca Road, Austin

Austin leaders are preparing to trim about $100 million from the city's budget after voters rejected a tax increase that would've provided added funding for services like public safety, homelessness response and parks maintenance.

The details: With the failure of Proposition Q in the Nov. 4 election, City Council members must now adopt a scaled-back version of the fiscal year 2025-26 budget they voted for in August. After the election, Mayor Kirk Watson called for a "coherent, straightforward budget process" focused on the basics and with minimal edits.

The city budget office released its recommendations for the more limited spending plan Nov. 7. City Council will begin deliberating that outline Nov. 13 and could adopt it as soon as Nov. 20.

From school closures to accountability ratings, read about three education stories affecting Southwest Austin and Dripping Springs.

1. Austin ISD to hold off on 3 school closures, delay boundary changes: The Austin ISD board of trustees will no longer vote to close Palm, Bryker Woods and Maplewood elementaries in November. 

Additionally, the district will postpone any proposed attendance boundary changes until next year, excluding those related to intervention at failing schools, Superintendent Matias Segura announced in a letter to families on the evening of Nov. 4.

2. Former Rosedale School slated to serve as multifamily housing development: Austin ISD’s former Rosedale School campus in North Austin could be developed into a six-story apartment complex.

3. Dripping Springs ISD receives perfect financial accountability score: Dripping Springs ISD scored 100 out of 100 points, or “A,” in its Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, or FIRST, rating for the 2024-25 rating year, which accounts for data collected in fiscal year 2023-24.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced his bid for a fourth gubernatorial term Nov. 9, laying out an ambitious six-pronged plan to make “out-of-control property taxes finished in Texas.”

The details: Abbott's goals include eliminating property taxes charged by public school districts, which make up the majority of an average homeowner’s property tax bill. Some conservative groups and lawmakers pushed for an end to school property taxes during recent state legislative sessions.

The governor’s plan to limit local tax increases includes:

• Limiting annual local government spending
• Requiring approval from two-thirds of local voters for all tax hikes
• Allowing local residents to petition for an election to roll back tax rates
• Requiring property appraisals to occur once every five years
• Capping appraisal increases at 3% per year, down from 10% today
• Asking voters to eliminate school property taxes