Copperas Cove council to review budget and nonprofit funding requests

Copperas Cove leaders are about to confront the hard part of budget season: where city money goes first, and which public services go without. Two special workshops next week will put the proposed Fiscal Year 2026-2027 budget, municipal services plan and outside funding requests under a public microscope at the Technology Center on South 2nd Street.

The first workshop is set for Tuesday, June 23, at 5 p.m., when City Manager Ryan Haverlah will present the proposed budget and outline the city’s plan of municipal services. A second workshop follows Thursday, June 25, at 5 p.m. at the same site, where Budget Director Ariana Beckman will present funding requests from non-city agencies. The June 23 agenda packet was posted June 17, and it shows a General Fund beginning balance of $12,521,573, revenues of $26,326,708, expenditures of $27,098,150 and an ending balance of $11,750,131.

That General Fund plan is not balanced, and the city’s own packet lists the pressure points council members will have to weigh: a tax rate adjustment, use of fund balance or excluding market and COLA pay adjustments. Across all funds, the proposed budget totals $75,916,746 in revenues and $76,846,555 in expenditures, with an ending fund balance of $31,683,733. The packet says the General Fund’s ideal balance is $6,759,091, while the proposed ending balance would stand $4,991,040 above that target.

The clearest pocketbook fight is over nonprofit and civic funding. General Fund requests total $186,584, but the city has only $95,000 set aside for that purpose in the proposed budget. The list includes the Boys & Girls Club of Coryell County, the Children’s Advocacy Center of Central Texas, Cove House Emergency Homeless Shelter, the Hill Country Community Action Association for senior meals, the Hill Country Transit District for The HOP and the Noon Exchange Club of Copperas Cove for Feast of Sharing. Those requests will force council members to decide which community programs get city backing and which do not.

Hotel Occupancy Tax money brings another round of choices. The city has set aside $190,000 for the next fiscal year, while total requested HOT funding reaches $230,550. Organizations on that list include the Copperas Cove Historical Society, Cove House, Krist Kindl Markt, Rabbit Fest and the Visitors Bureau, all of which depend on tourism dollars or event support that can ripple into local spending and visitor traffic.

Copperas Cove’s budget process has become more formal in recent years. The city says it has received the Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for several years, and in February it released a recorded training session for non-city organization funding requests that explained the process, eligibility rules, required forms, presentations and reimbursement procedures. The city adopted its FY 2025-2026 budget on Aug. 19, 2025, after a plan that raised property-tax revenue by $1,075,439, or 7.06%, and included $626,919 from new property on the tax roll.