By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
During its meeting on Tuesday, the Copperas Cove city council did not take action as far as a record vote to propose a property tax rate.
This was the conclusion of more than one hour of discussions regarding several rate options presented by the city.
The City’s No-New-Revenue Tax Rate was calculated at 67.8856 cents per $100 valuation.
The Voter Approval rate option was calculated at 73.2531 cents per $100 valuation.
Another option is the current rate of 68.6419 cents per $100 valuation.
City Manager Ryan Haverlah opened the discussion by reviewing the three tax rate options. Because state law requires cities to fully fund debt obligations first, any change to the property tax rate primarily affects the General Fund, which pays for city operations.
Under the proposed budget, if the council kept the current tax rate, it would result in a General Fund deficit of approximately $1.6 million. Adopting the no-new-revenue rate would increase that shortfall to nearly $1.8 million, while adopting the 73-cent voter-approval rate would reduce the deficit to about $577,000.
Councilmember Rita Hogan said she would support keeping the current tax rate and had prepared a list of possible reductions to offset the deficit.
This included postponing nearly $92,000 in Fire/EMS equipment purchases, delaying an HR compensation study, eliminating the proposed Development Services Manager position, postponing third-party plan review services, delaying nearly $90,000 in personnel reclassifications, and also cutting staff COLA and market salary adjustments by 50 percent.
As staff reviewed Hogan’s list, Haverlah clarified that some of the proposed savings had already been accounted for differently in the budget calculations. He also noted that personnel reclassifications and funding for outside organizations were not included in the original $1.6 million deficit estimate, meaning the actual savings would be smaller than initially calculated.
Some of the discussion also including funding non-city organizations, such as The HOP, the meals on wheels program, Cove House Emergency Homeless Shelter and others. The council had previously made a 4-3 decision on whether to fully fund outside agencies or limit total funding to $95,000.
Haverlah proposed maintaining total funding at approximately $129,500—the current year’s funding level. Under the proposal, The HOP would receive its full funding request because reducing its allocation would directly affect services, while most other organizations would receive prorated allocations. The proposal would require an additional $34,500 rather than the previously discussed $91,000 increase. Several council members expressed support for the compromise.
However, while Hogan proposed cutting the proposed pay increases for staff, she did not want any cuts to the non-city organizations for which funding has previously been allocated but not yet entered into the budget.
“These are all organizations that benefit the citizens that are paying the bill. A million dollars in cost raises. I can’t justify that, considering what everybody else is going through, and that’s me included,” Hogan said. “My income hasn’t increased in two years. My wages are stagnant, just like theirs are.”
Councilmember Dale Treadway was one who proposed reducing the allocations for outside organizations, but suggested the organizations reduce their budgets as well.
“I understand that, Councilmember Hogan. I do, but maybe they can reduce their budget too. I’m not saying don’t help them. I believe in helping. I think they do a lot for this community. I just don’t want to get into a situation where we’re penny wise and pound poor. Absolutely, I agree. But whenever you start cutting things like that, and then people leave, and then you’ve got to go back through and train new people to do those jobs.”
Discussions then turned to proposing a 69.9-cent tax rate – more than the current rate by 2.0144 cents.
Haverlah presented several scenarios showing how that 69-cent tax rate would affect the budget. Without additional adjustments, the rate would create roughly a $1.3 million deficit, but using an additional $400,000 from the debt service fund could lower the deficit.
Haverlah urged council to retain funding for both the proposed Development Services Manager position and third-party plan review services. He said commercial development in Copperas Cove is accelerating, particularly with the construction of the Veterans Affairs clinic, and additional staffing would help move projects through the permitting process more efficiently.
While larger developers generally navigate the city’s review process successfully, he said smaller businesses often need additional guidance. Third-party review services, he added, were specifically intended to keep the VA clinic project on schedule.
Hogan said she could support funding the third-party review for one year but opposed creating a permanent position that would require ongoing funding. Other council members said the city could not afford to slow commercial growth, particularly with the VA clinic expected to attract additional development.
Council also revisited approximately $89,830 in proposed personnel reclassifications affecting 14 employees across multiple departments. Haverlah explained that many of the changes had been deferred for more than a decade and included creating 911 dispatch team leads, reclassifying fire department administrative staff, adding fire engineer positions, updating municipal court supervisory roles, and converting a part-time animal shelter position to full time.
By the close of the discussion, the employee compensation and development-related expenditures remained on the table.
However, because the proposed tax rate discussion included the use of $400,000 from the debt service fund balance, Haverlah explained that a record vote could not be taken on Tuesday.
The proposed tax rate would have to be recalculated and legally republished before council could continue the process at a future meeting.
Because of no proposed tax rate, the council concurred to pull two other agenda items on Tuesday, for setting a public hearing date on the tax rate, and further discussions regarding proposed changes to the upcoming budget.
The next regular meeting of the city council is set for Tuesday, Aug. 18.
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