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.

In a recent newsletter to stakeholders, Wheatsville Food Co-op stated there had been “a change in plan,” regarding the acquisition of two local Fresh Plus neighborhood grocery stores in North Austin.

What’s happening: Previously, the company had announced plans to take over the two grocers as it prepares to shutter its 50-year location on Guadalupe Street near The University of Texas at Austin campus sometime in late 2026.

Company leaders launched a $4 million community-funded campaign venture in August to support the future co-op grocery store locations in North Austin.

However, in the organization’s October newsletter General Manager Bill Bickford told patrons to prepare for the store’s closure and operation out of its remaining location on South Lamar Boulevard.

“... After a great deal of consideration and based on information obtained during our due diligence period, we shared with owners that the deal we were exploring [with Fresh Plus] was no longer financially viable and that we would not be moving forward,” Bickford states.

• 3101 Guadalupe St., 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."