Copperas Cove adopts $77.94 million budget, raises property tax rate to 68.6419¢

Copperas Cove City Council on Tuesday adopted the city'wide FY 2025'26 budget and approved a property tax rate of 68.6419¢ per $100 of taxable assessed valuation.

City staff said the combined FY 2025'26 budget totals $77,941,133, including a $57,289,921 operating budget and $20,651,212 in other funds; staff told council the adopted budget will raise $1,075,439 more from property taxes than the prior year.

The public hearing required under state truth-in-taxation law was held before the votes. Ariana Beckman, the city's director of budget, presented the budget and explained that the proposed tax rate is above the no-new-revenue rate and equal to the voter-approval rate of 0.686419. The adopted rate breaks down to 45.4051¢ for maintenance and operations and 23.2368¢ for interest and sinking (debt service). Beckman told council the adopted budget includes an increase of $482,799 in general fund property tax revenue and $592,640 in interest-and-sinking revenue compared with the prior year.

Councilmembers voted by record (roll-call) vote as required. Christina Strophas moved to adopt the budget ordinance (Ordinance No. 2025-27); Rita Hogan seconded. The roll call was recorded as seven ayes, zero nays and the ordinance passed. Sean Alzona moved to adopt the tax ordinance (Ordinance No. 2025-28) setting the tax rate at 68.6419¢; John Hale seconded. The tax ordinance also passed on a 7-0 record vote. Council later approved a separate resolution (Resolution No. 2025-19) ratifying the votes as required under Local Government Code section 102.007(c).

During the required public hearing, a resident asked about how the rate would affect the average household. Council staff said the illustrative chart in the packet was based on an average homestead taxable value of $208,210 and that the increase would generally be between about $93 and $189 a year depending on a property's assessed value; Beckman also gave the example that the adopted rate will raise maintenance-and-operations taxes on a $100,000 home by approximately $44.64 and interest-and-sinking taxes by $18.51.

The budget package presented and adopted by the council also included the capital improvement plan (CIP) for FY2026–2030 (FY2026 investments of $27,230,952 across funds), a capital outlay plan (COP) for equipment and vehicle replacements (total FY2026 outlay about $5,800,000), and a personnel improvement plan that staffs said totals 319.5 positions across funds and increases net personnel costs by $178,153. The council also approved the city's annual fee schedule update, which added a new $20 zoning public notice sign fee effective Sept. 1 and clarified commercial hauling account thresholds.

Staff emphasized the legal and procedural requirements during the votes: the budget must be adopted before the tax rate, the tax vote must be taken by record vote, and the city posted required notices. The Coryell County tax assessor and collector produced the no-new-revenue and voter-approval rate calculations that triggered the public hearing.

Council provided no amendments during the meeting and directed staff to implement the adopted FY2025'26 budget and associated plans.

The city clerk will file the adopted ordinances and resolutions and staff said residents should expect property tax statements from the county in October with specific taxable values.