- On August 13, The Woodlands Township Board of Directors placed incorporation on the November 2 ballot, requiring voters to decide whether or not to abandon our successful township model in favor of creating a new city government structure.
- There is no impending deadline or threat to our way of life that necessitates such a drastic action.
- Annexation, which is often cited as the primary reason to become a city, is not a threat to the residents of The Woodlands. Forced annexation is illegal under state law, meaning The Woodlands cannot ever be annexed without the consent of our citizens at the ballot box. There are two pieces of legislation that ensure this – Senate Bill 6 (passed in 2017) and House Bill 347 (passed in 2019.) Please see letter from House Representative Dan Huberty on Senate Bill 6 and House Bill 347 and its protection of The Woodlands. Click here to read.
- Incorporation represents a very expensive solution to a non-existent problem in a community that has thrived by keeping taxes low and government small.
- Our initial analysis of the Incorporation Planning Study, prepared under the guidance of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors, have found projections that appear to severely underestimate the cost of assuming responsibility for all of the services currently provided by the county, such as road and bridge maintenance and law enforcement, leaving massive revenue gaps that must be filled by increases in local taxes.
- Law enforcement recommendations in the planning study appear to drastically understate the costs of labor, liability coverage, collective bargaining with a new police union, equipment, regulatory compliance and IT services. The enormously expensive proposition that we create a new police department from the ground up without the assurances that it would improve current services and response times makes no sense from a public safety or a financial standpoint. Based on the missing elements of the study, it appears that creating our own police department would significantly increase taxes without improving public safety.
- The flawed study would have us believe that a future “City of The Woodlands” could somehow maintain our current service levels and safety of our community at a much lower tax rate than our “peer cities” and the same as our current tax rate. The truth is that a new city will be responsible for providing all the services currently provided by the County and will require more new city taxes than projected with no reduction in our county taxes. It will be like paying twice the taxes for the same–or fewer –services.
- On July 22, community groups, including The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce, requested that the Board provide the community with adequate time to understand incorporation’s impacts by delaying this election. Many residents and business owners have expressed the same concern. See Chamber Proclamation here.
- Incorporation will not change the current school system. Woodland’s residents that are currently zoned to Conroe Independent School District (CISD) will remain in CISD. Woodland’s residents that live in Harris County and are zoned to Tomball Independent School District (Tomball ISD) will remain in Tomball ISD. Students residing in May Valley in the Village of Sterling Ridge will attend Magnolia Independent School District (Magnolia ISD).