The revised order raises the General Fund's employee-compensation addition by $351,429, from $2.01 million to $2.37 million. It retains a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for non-uniform employees and a 2.5% adjustment plus applicable step increases for uniform employees, effective Oct. 1.
Public-safety additions include $50,754 for a part-time criminal investigator, $217,736 for two fire inspectors and $406,332 in the Child Safety Fund for two school resource officers. The school-resource-officer plan includes $158,912 in employee spending and $247,420 in capital spending.
The order also proposes $300,000 for citywide concrete and street repairs tied to accessibility requirements, $100,000 as a one-time Humane Society contingency, $84,419 for a crack sealer and $20,000 for a traffic-data counter. Another $65,905 would carry forward for the second phase of the city's curb-management plan.
Other changes carry $300,000 for a delayed parks modular building into fiscal 2027 and shift $500,000 from a 2019 bond contingency to Police Department facility repairs. Those are proposed allocations in the budget order, not completed purchases or projects.
What the household example means
The higher rate and lower median-homestead example are not contradictory. The city's table pairs the rate with a lower median taxable value, so the estimated city levy declines slightly. An individual owner's result will depend on that property's taxable value; the $1,169 figure is an official example, not a forecast for every bill.
The revised proposal marks a change from the flat-rate plan described in Comal.News' earlier tax-rate preview. Readers can also compare the city's prior $24 median-homestead decline and the initial $1,150 estimate, both of which were based on the earlier proposal.
Hearings first, final vote later
The special meeting begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, in the City Hall Council Chambers, 550 Landa St. The posted agenda includes separate public hearings on the budget and tax rate before the two proposed first-reading votes.
The Sept. 10 votes would be first readings; the tax-rate record schedules second and final reading for Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. Council could amend or reject the proposals before adoption, and the recorded votes will establish the result.
Residents can inspect the full agenda packet for the hearing sequence and supporting documents, then use the proposed budget document for fund-by-fund details and the recommended-changes order for revisions made after the original proposal. The next decisive records will be the first- and final-reading vote results.
