Copperas Cove city council to hold hearing, vote on Monday for proposed tax rate

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove city council will hold a special meeting on Monday, Aug. 19 during which it will hold a public hearing and take a vote on the proposed tax rate for fiscal year 2024-2025. 

The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the city council chambers, located at 508 S. 2nd St. and is open to the public. It will be live streamed on the city’s YouTube channel and broadcast live on the city’s public channel, Spectrum Local Channel 10. 

On Aug. 6, the council took a record vote to propose a tax rate of 0.661043 per $100 valuation, which is the “no-new-revenue” tax rate.

However, proposing this tax rate means that Copperas Cove voters will see this on the Nov. 5 election ballot.

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. 

Another property tax rate option, not proposed by the council, is the voter approval rate. 

This is the highest tax rate that the city council can approve by law, without triggering a special election. This rate is $0.608079 per $100 valuation, as calculated by state law parameters. 

The council was presented with three options: to propose the no-new-revenue tax rate, which would automatically trigger a special election; to propose the voter approval tax rate and make up the general fund shortfall by using some of the fund balance in the city’s General Fund; or to propose the voter approval tax rate and delay the fire and public safety employee market rate adjustments and COLAs for city employees until January 2025 – a delay of three months for those pay increases. Usually, those adjustments would start with the beginning of the city’s fiscal year, on Oct. 1. 

Because the council proposed the no-new-revenue rate, which is higher than the voter approval rate, per state law the council must call for an election to get voter approval for this rate. 

If Copperas Cove voters approve this rate, the city’s fire and public safety staff will see their full market rate adjustments to their pay and city staff will receive their cost of living allowance (COLA) increase, starting in the new fiscal year which starts Oct. 1. 

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.

Followed by the public hearing on Monday, the council will vote to adopt a tax rate. 

The council has until Aug. 26 to call for a special election to put the decision on the no-new-revenue tax rate to Copperas Cove voters.