Comal County commissioners are weighing a $213.16 million total budget for fiscal year 2026-27 that would give every current and new county employee, including elected officials and law enforcement, a 4% cost-of-living raise. The proposal also funds 32 new positions and continues design and construction work on a jail facility expansion, even as county leaders say new state tax exemptions have quietly eaten into the revenue growth they expected from a booming tax base.
The 4% raise alone would cost the county roughly $3.5 million, according to an Aug. 6 budget presentation described by Community Impact, and is intended to keep the county competitive in employee retention. County Judge Kristen Hoyt has called her overall budget and tax rate recommendation conservative, saying it would maintain the county's good fiscal position going forward, per the same report.
Same Tax Rate, Smaller Windfall Than Expected
Comal County is proposing to keep its tax rate at $0.305015 per $100 valuation, unchanged from fiscal year 2025-26. That's the same rate the Commissioners Court adopted under Order #549 in September 2025, a move that raised maintenance and operations property tax revenue by 15.44% over the prior year. This time around, Hoyt says the identical rate would only increase revenue by 1.7% year over year, generating an additional $1,865,874 in revenue, the county's report notes.
The gap comes down to a shrinking commercial tax base. New properties added to the tax roll had the potential to generate an additional $3,981,210 in revenue, but the county did not fully realize that gain because of new property tax exemptions and decreases in property values, according to Hoyt. Comal County's taxable value simply was not the same as the previous year's, she said, adding that an influx of sales tax further complicates how tax-rate calculations play out this cycle.
Prop 9's Bite on Business Property Taxes
The culprit, at least in part, is Proposition 9, the constitutional amendment Texas voters approved in the November 2025 election. It raised the business personal property tax exemption from $2,500 to $125,000 per location, effective January 1, 2026, according to NFIB. That property category covers equipment, furniture and vehicles, meaning small businesses across Comal County now owe little to nothing in personal property taxes on most of their operating assets — a relief for owners but a hit to the county's tax rolls.
Hoyt has put it bluntly: the no-new-revenue rate is not really the no-new-revenue rate for Comal County this year, since the calculation doesn't fully capture how much the exemption changed the underlying math. County officials describe the sales tax bump the county has seen as an unexpected increase that appears to be a one-time influx rather than a reliable, ongoing revenue stream.
32 New Positions Tied to Courts, Schools and Public Safety
Much of the new staffing in the proposed budget stems from state and local growth pressures rather than county discretion. Thirty-two new positions would address an intake team for the district attorney's office, staff the newly created 511th Judicial District Court, and add school resource officers for Comal ISD. The 511th court was created by legislation enacted during the 89th Texas Legislature in 2025 and takes effect September 1, 2026, according to the Texas Legislature, dedicating a single-county court to Comal County as its docket has outgrown shared regional courts.
The added school resource officers come as Comal ISD prepares for its own reckoning with growth. The district's Board of Trustees officially called a $567 million bond election for November 3, 2026, covering school safety, facilities and growth needs, the Bulverde Chamber of Commerce reported earlier this month. Comal ISD now serves more than 30,300 students across 589 square miles and adds roughly 900 to 1,000 new students every year — a trend Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the bond call.
Beyond staffing, the proposed budget also includes funding for the jail facility expansion's design and construction, a Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 facility design, and a renovation of the county tax office. Those capital projects sit on top of the county's roughly $124 million general fund and about $21 million in road-and-bridge spending that made up the adopted FY 2026 operating budget, according to figures compiled by Citizen Portal.
Growth Is the Backdrop for Every Line Item
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Comal County's population grew 27.8% between 2020 and 2025, climbing from 163,608 to 209,166 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data reported by Community Impact. That surge in residents is the throughline connecting the new judicial district, the swelling school district enrollment, and the pressure on county services that the proposed budget is trying to address.
The county's fiscal footing remains strong on paper. As of December 2024, Comal County held an Aa1 rating from Moody's Investor Services and an A rating from Standard & Poor's, ratings tied in part to a 56% population increase between 2013 and 2023, per bond documents from SAMCO Capital Markets. The county treasurer also reported $7.4 million in year-to-date interest income through September 2024 on county fund balances, cash that has helped cushion budget gaps as the county waits out property tax exemption effects.
What Comes Next
Comal County will hold its first public hearing on the proposed FY 2026-27 budget and tax rate at 8:30 a.m. on August 20 at the Comal County Historic Courthouse in New Braunfels. Any local taxing entity posting such notices must now include a Taxpayer Impact Statement estimating the dollar effect on a median-valued homestead, a transparency requirement under Texas House Bill 1522.
Comal County isn't alone in navigating declining valuations alongside growth. Just next door, New Braunfels' own August budget notices listed a 2026 median homestead valuation of $281,180, down from $287,080 in 2025, and calculated a proposed no-new-revenue tax rate of $0.415613 per $100, according to Comal.News. For county residents, the August 20 hearing will be the first chance to weigh in on how Comal County balances raises, new hires and capital projects against a tax base that isn't growing quite the way it used to.
