Copperas Cove City Council held a special meeting July 31 to hear public presentations on the fiscal year 2025–26 proposed budget and the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation budget, review detailed tax-rate calculations and give staff direction to return with fiscal alternatives before council votes in August.

Arianna Beckman, the city’s director of budget, opened the budget portion and reviewed the state-mandated tax-rate calculations under the Texas Local Government Code, presenting three headline rates: the current tax rate of 0.661043, the no-new-revenue tax rate of 0.641782 and the voter-approval tax rate of 0.732345. Beckman said the city’s debt portion of the voter-approval rate is 0.278294 and that the city’s debt requirements for 2025 are “a little bit over $6,000,000.”

Beckman told council the city’s certified taxable value growth has slowed — from 16.9% in 2023 to 4.9% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 — and that slower property-value growth reduces future revenue potential. She said, based on the three tax-rate scenarios, the total tax levy would be about $15.9 million at the current rate, $15.5 million under the no-new-revenue rate and about $17.4 million under the voter-approval rate. Under the presentation’s fiscal scenarios, the general fund would face deficits ranging from about $1.9 million (current rate) to a larger deficit under the lower-rate scenarios unless offsets are identified; the voter-approval rate would add roughly $481,000 to general fund revenues in the presentation’s calculations.

Fred Welch, executive director of the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation, opened the EDC public hearing and said the EDC board approved and filed its proposed budget in late May and was available to answer questions.

Council members spent most of the meeting discussing options to narrow the general-fund shortfall identified in the proposed budget. Several council members asked staff to model alternatives for the August schedule: staff should (1) run tax-rate calculations showing the effect of keeping the current 0.661043 rate; (2) show the effect of a 0.71 tax rate as requested by council; and (3) produce scenarios that reduce market-adjustment payroll increases by two-thirds (the council discussed applying that cut to non–public-safety employees) and show the dollar impact of those changes. City Manager Ryan Avila and Beckman said council will formally propose a tax rate during the Aug. 5 meeting and that the budget and tax rate are slated for adoption Aug. 19.

Beckman reviewed budget items included in the proposed plan: one-time expenditures such as a records-digitization project (about $30,947) to scan permanent records after repeated water intrusion in the records suite, a $150,000 match related to the Allen House tax-increment-zone agreement, $100,000 contract labor for Rodey Park and a $67,500 digital conversion and related items. The proposed budget also lists personnel items that would increase recurring costs if approved, including reclassification in municipal court, two police officers and a requested assistant city manager position; Avila said the $140,000 placeholder for an assistant city manager is only an estimate and that full compensation-plus-benefits would be higher.

Councilmembers debated using fund balance to cover an operating shortfall. Councilmember Jack Smith said he favored keeping the current adopted tax rate of 0.661043 and using reserves to cover the gap for the coming year, noting the city’s general-fund reserves. Councilmember Rita Hogan asked staff to quantify the budget impact if market adjustments were reduced by two-thirds and to identify capital or other line-item reductions. Several councilmembers asked staff to provide a clear dollar amount for any market-adjustment options before the Aug. 5 proposal.

Beckman reminded council that state law requires the city hold the public hearing on the proposed budget before adopting a tax rate, and she said staff would provide requested scenarios for the Aug. 5 meeting. The council also discussed hotel occupancy tax requests and a marketing plan the EDC and city may share (Beckman said the city’s share would be about $70,000 if split with the EDC).

No final vote on the tax rate or budget adoption occurred at the July 31 special meeting; council opened and closed the public hearings and directed staff to return with the scenarios and supplemental detail before the August decision dates.