Copperas Cove city council to hold public hearing on proposed budgets for City and EDC, discuss property tax rate
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
On Thursday, Aug. 1, the Copperas Cove city council will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. during which it will hold a public hearing on the City of Copperas Cove’s proposed fiscal year 2024-2025 budget.
The meeting will be held at the City Council chambers, located at 508 S. 2nd St. The public may attend and speak during the hearings.
The meeting will also be live-streamed on the City’s YouTube channel as well as on local Spectrum Channel 10.
The entire proposed budget, 427 pages, can be viewed online at https://destinyhosted.com/coppedocs/2024/CCW/20240618_2101/12304%5FFY%5F2024%2D25%5FProposed%5FBudget.pdf.
Also at Thursday’s public meeting, the council will be discussing and giving direction on the City’s property tax rate.
The City will be sharing the certified property values as released by the county tax assessor-collector’s office, along with the options for tax rates.
The city council will hear a presentation from the city’s administration regarding certified property tax values and also learn the dollar impact of property rates that they will discuss.
One rate is called the “no new revenue” tax rate and the other is called “voter approval” rate.
The no new revenue rate is the rate that would generate about the same property tax revenue than the current year.
The voter approval rate is the highest tax rate the council can approve without triggering a special election.
The council will not take a record vote to propose a tax rate until Tuesday, Aug. 6 and will not adopt the tax rate until Aug. 20.
Also on Thursday, the city council will also hold a public hearing on the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024-2025.
The EDC’s annual revenue comes from sales tax as approved by Copperas Cove voters, and receives 1/8-cent of the city’s sales tax dollars.
For 2024-2025, the EDC projects to receive $1,133,000 between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025. The rest of its revenue comes from interest on its account.
The EDC is beginning the fiscal year with a projected fund balance of $7,988,000.
It expects to spend $1,033,392 for its operations, which includes $676,888 in administrative expenses.
The EDC’s proposed budget can be seen at: https://destinyhosted.com/coppedocs/2024/CCSPC/20240801_2137/12398%5Fproposed%5Fbudget%5F24%2D25.pdf.
Other upcoming dates of note for the city’s budget calendar, to include meetings and public hearings, are:
August 6 – Record vote to propose tax rate, make any changes to budget, voter approval rate election (deadline Aug. 19)
August 20 – Public hearing on tax increase, adopt budget, adopt tax rate, adopt fee schedule with changes.