Saturday
September 5, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 98° / 78°Hot, and the index says it feels hotter. Shade and water if you are out.
- Air quality 30 · GoodClear air. A great day to be outside.
- Lake Travis 94.6% fullThe lake is close to full — good for boats and for the summer water supply. Down a touch from last week.
- Allergies ModerateGrasses, ragweed and elm are all working. Take the pill before it takes you.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 82,400 megawatts, with 105,300 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:10 a.m.Long light still. The last hour before it goes is the only comfortable one.
Good morning, Austin. Ninety-eight and mostly sunny, which the calendar keeps insisting is September. If you are walking toward campus this afternoon, the shade on Guadalupe is not decoration — take it, and take water with you. There is a small chance of a shower late in the day, which is the kind of number to hold loosely. The lake is nearly full, the air is clean, and the whole long weekend is sitting there in front of us. Go slow with it.
The Briefing
The budget passed last month. The bills arrived this week.
Austin City Council adopted a $6.6 billion budget in August. This week four institutions showed what that arithmetic does downstream, and none of them answered the same way.
The Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) told its board Aug. 27 that last year's deficit closed at $105 million, against $19 million at adoption. Revenue came in $132 million short, mostly from property value protests and a delayed land sale. Its state financial rating dropped to a B, the first time since at least 2017. The district absorbs it.
Farmshare Austin has no such cushion. The nonprofit says city cuts take about $510,000 out of its Fresh for Less produce program over two years, starting in November, and it is asking the public to cover the gap. The city had been paying roughly 64 percent of that program.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport went looking for someone else to charge. As early as Oct. 1, private and other noncommercial aircraft face a $50 landing fee, and $100 on Formula 1, South by Southwest and University of Texas home game weekends. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said the aim is to make "private wealth work for public good." Recreational pilots and flight students pay the same fee.
What's next: Central Health's board adopts its fiscal 2027 tax rate and budget Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Sources: Community Impact (Austin ISD deficit), KVUE (Farmshare funding), Austin Current (airport fees), KXAN (Central Health budget), City of Austin (adopted budget)
City Desk
Money & bills
Central Health puts a price list behind its tax question
The hospital district's board weighed three paths at a Wednesday hearing: a 6 or 8 percent property tax rate increase, or a no-new-revenue rate that holds bills flat. A raise would add $22.1 million for mental health, which the district would pair with $18.5 million from a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) settlement. President and chief executive Dr. Patrick Lee said every additional dollar goes to mental health. KXAN
The school district ends the year $86 million past its own budget
Superintendent Matias Segura and chief financial officer Katrina Montgomery told trustees Aug. 27 that the 2025-26 shortfall finished $86 million above what the board adopted, at $105 million, and the fund balance fell to 8.8 percent against a 15.21 percent target. Required spending rose a net $41 million on teacher retirement costs and new state funding rules. Montgomery said one pass-fail staffing measure cost the rating. Community Impact
Also
Austin plans to charge noncommercial aircraft a $50 landing fee at the airport as early as Oct. 1, raise hangar rents 3 percent and lift the fuel fee to 12 cents. Austin Current
Farmshare Austin says city cuts starting in November take about $510,000 from a produce program it says reaches roughly 33,000 Austinites; it is fundraising to keep its staff. KVUE
Diesel in the Austin area hit a record $5.51 a gallon Friday and regular averaged $3.74, with the American Automobile Association's Doug Johnson saying the Iran conflict has made prices hard to predict. CBS Austin
Overheard on Reddit
P. Terry's switch to worker ownership happened a few months ago now
And it was a pretty big story at the time. For any pterrys employees, how has the switch affected you? Have you started receiving any financial benefits from the transition yet? What is the attitude/worker environment like in the wake of the transition?
Public safety & courts
The Texas Department of Public Safety paused new Flock Safety license plate camera installations statewide after Gov. Greg Abbott's office said agency money cannot fund them; about 900 cameras already operate. CBS Austin
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested Brandon Andrew Miller, 36, of Whitney on a third-degree felony charge over threatening voicemails left at the governor's office on Aug. 21; his attorney declined to comment. KXAN
Personal watercraft, wet bikes and motorized surfboards are banned on Lake Austin from sunset Friday to sunrise Tuesday under the city's annual ordinance; kayaks, canoes and paddleboards are still allowed. City of Austin
Growth & infrastructure
CapMetro's bus contractor and its drivers settle a three-year contract
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 and Keolis, the subcontractor that employs CapMetro's bus operators and maintenance workers, reached a collective bargaining agreement covering 2026 through 2028. It raises wages 3 percent this year, 4 percent next year and 5 percent in 2028, pays a $1,500 ratification bonus and adds time-and-a-half during declared emergencies. It still needs to be ratified. KXAN
Also
Austin holds an open house Wednesday on the Lake Austin drawdown, which lowers the lake about 10 feet from Oct. 12 through Nov. 30; Austin Riverboats says it has already cancelled six weddings. KVUE
Overheard on Reddit
How often are you jabronis getting flat tires or slow leaks from crap on the roads in this city?
In the last year I have had to have multiple tires replaced because of nails and screws in them. Fortunately all have been under warranty at discount tire but damn this really feels excessive vs. other major cities I have lived in. It’s gotten so bad that I bought an automatic sealing and inflating kit to keep in my car so I don’t have to risk my life changing a tire on the side of the road.
City code inspectors mailed a notice of violation Wednesday to the owner of Noble 2500 on San Gabriel Street after residents reported a gnat infestation; pest control is scheduled Tuesday. KVUE
Overheard on Reddit
Management Company destroyed Federally Protected Barn Swallow Nests at my Apartment Complex
These beautiful Barn Swallows has 2 clutches of 10+ hatchlings in the few months I’ve been here. In just this one nest above my door. There were nests everywhere, we live right off the Violet Crown trail at Nichols Park newly managed by Embrey Management services. And in their haste to beautify the area with power washing their active nests were destroyed. I would say good morning and good night t
City Hall & county
City Council set new review rules Aug. 27 for parkland other governments move to condemn; sponsor Ryan Alter said Austin ISD has taken nearly 100 acres at 11 campuses since 2020. Community Impact
City crews made hundreds of site visits in the first month of Austin's new encampment management program, Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray told Council on Sept. 2; only May-to-June results have been released. Community Impact
City offices, courts, libraries, museums and recreation and senior centers close Monday for Labor Day; curbside collection runs on schedule and parks, golf courses and year-round pools stay open. City of Austin
Schools
The state board signs off on the new social studies standards
The State Board of Education gave final approval Friday to revised high school standards in U.S. history, government and world geography, including language saying radical Islam motivated the Sept. 11 attacks. Muslim speakers had objected that the early Islam section dwells on military campaigns, slavery and female captives. Board member Julie Pickren, who worked on the underlying law, called the vote "such a huge accomplishment." FOX 7 Austin
Also
Texas approved Alpha School, the Austin-founded network whose artificial intelligence software teaches lessons in two hours a day, for its voucher program after the state board rejected its charter bid. KXAN
The University of Texas at Austin hired more than 20 faculty for national security work and opened a Defense Technology Fellowship pairing science students with Austin defense employers. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
Bars around campus spent months preparing for Saturday's 2:30 p.m. Longhorns home opener; Cain and Abel's manager Jaxen Bailey said the kitchen added burgers over the summer. KVUE
The Boardwalk Cleaning Co., which Paula Jones and Jessica Duarte started in Austin in 2003 after leaving tech jobs, won a $25,000 grant from the software company Jobber, one of nine awarded. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Even with the changes to ordering, I've been an Alamo Drafthouse apologist...until now.
I was at Lakeline last night for an early evening show. I had a guy in front of me full-tilt, maximum brightness, texting and browsing for 10 minutes at eye level. Not even an attempt to hide it. So I reported it in the app. A manager walks up the stairs to the top, clearly sees this is going on, watches it for 3 or 4 minutes, then just leaves without addressing it. Continued to happen for the res
Steve Jones brings the Sex Pistols to Emo's on Sept. 12, the band's first Austin show; on its 1978 Southern tour it got no closer than Randy's Rodeo in San Antonio. Austin Chronicle
Overheard on Reddit
Austin shop pets are why I leave my house
I regularly go to the Vortex just to see what Smokey is up to and I'm confident I'm not the only one. https://liteandbriteatx.com/2026/09/02/lite-brites-guide-to-austin-store-pets/
Weather
Today: mostly sunny, high near 98, heat index up to 102, with south-southeast wind under 5 miles per hour. No active alerts for Travis County. Tonight: partly cloudy, low around 78. National Weather Service
A few showers and storms pop up late this afternoon over about a tenth of the area, KXAN's forecasters say, with better chances Sunday as moisture from a tropical wave along the northern Gulf moves in. Labor Day dries out, and highs climb back toward triple digits through the week. KXAN
Meteorological summer ended Sept. 1 with one of Austin's longest triple-digit streaks on record, and a wet June and July that included dam operations at Tom Miller Dam on June 14 and days of heavy rain across South-Central Texas starting July 11. CBS Austin
The Back Page
37 days until Lake Austin comes down · The lake drops about 10 feet from Oct. 12 through Nov. 30, with an open house Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Austin Smiles has been sending volunteer surgical teams out of this city for more than forty years, repairing cleft lip and palate for children in Central Texas and across Latin America. The condition affects about one in every 700 children and shapes how a child eats, speaks and grows. Dr. Carolyn Biebas, who has been going on the trips for decades, said the moment that stays with her is not the surgery. It is handing the baby back afterward. "The stories of people traveling great distances and enduring great hardship just to get there to see us," she said. Dr. Stan Eckert said the work reaches well past appearance. Forty years of Austin doctors spending their vacation days on other people's children is a quiet thing for a city to be able to say about itself. CBS Austin