Copperas Cove council reviews FY2025-26 proposed budget, discusses tax-rate options ahead of August votes

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…