Copperas Cove city council adopts tax rate, budget, calls for special tax rate election

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove city council held a special meeting on Monday, Aug. 19 during which it held a public hearing prior to unanimously adopting a tax rate for fiscal year 2024-2025. 

The council adopted a tax rate of $0.661043 per $100 valuation, which is the “no-new-revenue” tax rate.

After adopting the tax rate, the council called for a special election on the Nov. 5 election ballot for the Copperas Cove voters to make the final decision on this rate. 

The no-new-revenue rate is the rate that will generate the same amount of property tax revenue that it has for the current year. 

However, the election must be held because this rate is higher than the lower rate, the voter approval rate, $0.608079 per $100 valuation.
Three months of market rate adjustment pay for Copperas Cove fire and police, along with three months of cost of living adjustment (COLA) pay for city staff hinge on the election results. 

According to documentation, the tax rate will effectively be raised by 16.71 percent and will raise taxes for maintenance and operations on a $100,000 home by approximately $64.02 annually.

If voters approve this tax rate, all the above staff will get these pay increases at the start of the fiscal year, or Oct. 1, 2024. 

Otherwise, if the measure fails, these increases would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2025. 

Both the no-new-revenue and voter approval rates are lower than the current year’s tax rate, which is $0.672652 per $100 valuation.

City Manager Ryan Haverlah told the council that the city will prepare informational materials to distribute and will also hold town hall meetings. 

“We will also be preparing a presentation that will walk our residents through the impact of the proposed tax rate and our adopted tax rate. We also prepared a one-page flyer, a document that gives enough information for voters to make an educated decision to vote for or against the adopted tax rate. 

“We’ve also talked about preparing a video, because many residents and voters prefer to consume some type of multimedia information so that audio type video presentation of the information would also suffice in that regard. 

“We will reach out and meet with civic groups and any other groups that wish to have a discussion or be educated on this matter.”

Haverlah said that this does not change the tax for those who have their taxes frozen, such as the over 65 or disabled. 

Councilmember Joann Courtland shared her thoughts on the election.

“The more we get out and talk about this, the more people are really going to understand that this is for our public safety, this is for our police, this is for our firefighters,” she said.

Haverlah cautioned the council on how they approach the election with voters, that they simply provide information. 

“When we get this information prepared, you can provide it as educational information. This is not something that at this point the city council can advocate for or against. It is simply education. That’s what staff can only do, is provide education on it, for or against. We cannot advocate one way or another, from when the city council orders this special election.”

The council also adopted the 2024-2025 fiscal year budget for the City of Copperas Cove on Monday. 

Altogether, the city’s General, Water & Sewer, Solid Waste, and Golf Course Funds have a budget of $50,234,262 in operating expenses. All of the City’s budgeted operating funds will end the next fiscal year with an estimated total of $19,813,174 in fund balances, which is $7,254,608 over the ideal (90 days’ worth) fund balance for all accounts. 

A budget summary can be found at https://destinyhosted.com/coppedocs/2024/CCSPC/20240819_2165/12418_Exhib...