New Braunfels Gives FY 2027 Budget a Unanimous First-Reading Vote

The budget order added $845,000 in revenue capacity; residents questioned school-resource-officer coverage and whether some street projects should proceed.

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

Published September 23, 2026 at 9:24 PM CDT3 min read

Verified meeting outcome

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Editorial illustration of a municipal building behind an open budget book, with a lock-front schoolhouse, roadwork barricade, balance scale and stacks of coins in cream, navy and muted blue. — Illustration: A civic building framed by symbols of budgeting, public safety and street work.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 ↗

Council unanimously passed Ordinance 2026-50, adopting the FY 2027 operating budget and plan of municipal services, including the budget order.

The budget order said the proposed rate change created $845,000 in additional FY 2027 revenue capacity. The presenter described the proposed rate as the no-new-revenue rate of $0.415613 and estimated that the annual city tax bill on an average homestead would increase by $13. The figure was presented as an estimate for the city portion of the bill, not as the total property-tax bill. That is the clearest documented fiscal consequence of the revised proposal considered Sept. 10.

Staff described the proposed $0.415613-per-$100 tax rate as $0.006677 above the prior-year rate. The city had outlined that proposal, along with planned police, fire and street spending, in an earlier preview of the hearing.

Budget hearing and first reading

The presenter discussed the proposed FY 2027 budget, including the proposed no-new-revenue tax rate, employee compensation, health-plan premiums and city contributions, and 25 positions across all funds. The hearing put those service and staffing choices before council ahead of the ordinance vote.

Council and staff discussed whether additional traffic-calming funding could support more outside contracting; staff said the work uses a combination of internal teams and third-party support. The exchange focused on how added money would translate into completed work rather than merely enlarging a budget line.

The presenter explained that most changes in the budget order resulted from scenario one, including compensation adjustments across affected funds, while other changes moved anticipated one-time costs from FY 2026 to FY 2027. Council then took the separately verified unanimous vote on the budget ordinance.

Citizen comments

A resident raised school-safety and resource-officer coverage concerns, and the police chief explained that the district uses officers assigned to specific campuses and roving officers to provide coverage. The reviewed exchange documents the concern and the chief’s description of the coverage model; it does not independently measure staffing at each campus.

A speaker stated that two school resource officers were absent from the original list and would be added to the forthcoming budget if council agreed that night. The statement identifies the intended budget change, while the later adopted documents are the useful record for checking implementation.

Resident Richard Myrick asked the Public Works Department to review projects more closely, saying Laurel Lane did not appear to need its recent repaving and that postponing other projects might save money. His assessment was a resident’s opinion, not an independent finding about the street’s condition.

The public hearing on the tax rate was opened for public comment and then closed after no one came forward to speak. That finding applies specifically to the tax-rate hearing; the budget hearing included the resident comments summarized above.

Tax-rate discussion

The Sept. 10 agenda described Item D as the first reading of Ordinance 2026-51 to adopt the 2026 ad valorem tax rates. The independently reviewed recording segment establishes the rate presentation and discussion, so this recap treats the rate as proposed at this stage rather than adding an unsupported vote result.

What readers can check next

Readers can inspect the agenda and agenda packet for the budget order, proposed budget and tax ordinance, then compare this first-reading account with Comal.News’ Sept. 14 recap of the later budget and tax-rate action. Finalized Sept. 10 minutes remain the next record needed to reconcile the formal disposition of every item from this special meeting.

The special meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 10, 2026, in the City Hall Council Chambers at 550 Landa St. The official meeting page is the city’s route for checking the agenda, packet and any later minutes posting.

From the source record

Meeting recordNew Braunfels FY 2027 Budget and Tax-Rate Meeting

Public hearings on the FY 2027 operating budget and proposed 2026 tax rate, followed by first readings of the budget and tax-rate ordinances.

City of New Braunfels ↗

The Sept. 10 special-meeting agenda lists four budget and tax-rate items.