Comal County’s 37.7915-Cent Tax Hearing Lasted Two Minutes

Archived minutes record a proposed rate for a nearly $111 million budget, no public testimony and a separate adoption date later that month.

By Comal.News Government Desk · Source-linked local reporting

Published September 6, 2026 at 3:00 AM CDT2 min read

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Editorial illustration of a historic county courthouse behind rows of empty folding chairs, a podium and a clock, rendered in airy cream, navy and muted blue. — Illustration: Empty chairs and a clock outside a county courthouse evoke a brief public tax hearing with no testimony.Original editorial illustration; not a photograph and does not depict the reported event or an exact property.Comal.News Visual Desk · Original illustration · Source ↗ · Comal.News original illustration ↗

At the Sept. 3, 2019 hearing, Comal County presented $0.377915 per $100 as the proposed property-tax rate for its nearly $111 million 2020 budget and scheduled the adoption vote for Sept. 19.

For Comal County property owners, the proposal would set the county levy at $0.377915 for every $100 of taxable value if adopted. Applied to $100,000 in taxable value, that rate produces a county levy of $377.92.

One item, two minutes

The one-item agenda scheduled a public hearing on the county’s 2019 property-tax proposal for the 2020 budget. The certified minutes show the special session began at 8:30 a.m. in the Commissioners Courtroom at 100 Main Plaza in New Braunfels. County Judge Sherman Krause opened the hearing, asked for comments for or against the rate and closed it after no one spoke.

The session record lists Krause, Commissioners Donna M. Eccleston, Scott Haag, Kevin W. Webb and Jen Crownover, along with County Clerk Bobbie Koepp. The court recessed at 8:32 a.m., making the recorded proceeding two minutes long.

How the proposal compared

The county’s effective-rate benchmark was $0.320625 per $100, while the rollback benchmark was $0.386057; the proposed $0.377915 rate fell between them. The proposal was 5.729 cents above the effective benchmark and 0.8142 cents below the rollback benchmark. On $100,000 in taxable value, the proposal produced $57.29 more than the effective-rate calculation.

The minutes say commissioners had approved the 2020 budget during the preceding week and place its total just below $111 million. The agenda framed the Sept. 3 proceeding as a hearing on the property-tax proposal intended to fund that budget. Those records establish the proposal’s amount, purpose and comparison rates without turning the hearing itself into the later adoption action.

Adoption was scheduled for Sept. 19

The minutes scheduled the tax-rate adoption vote for Sept. 19, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. That later proceeding is the next record needed to trace the proposal from the public hearing to the county’s recorded final action and levy.

Readers can inspect the Sept. 3 agenda to verify the hearing’s sole item and the certified session record to examine the proposal, comparison rates, public-comment outcome and meeting times. The later minutes or signed tax order would establish what the court ultimately recorded.

For earlier context on the same budget cycle, Comal.News also reviewed the county’s July 11 budget workshop, which moved department requests through a three-hour public session.

From the source record

Official minutesSept. 3, 2019 Commissioners Court Special Session

Public Hearing on Comal County Tax Increase for 2019 to fund 2020 budget.

Comal County Commissioners Court ↗

The certified minutes record the proposed rate, comparison rates, hearing and next scheduled action.