The Woodlands Township Responds to Allegations Against Incorporation Model; Sept. 16 Board Meeting

THE WOODLANDS. TX — The Woodlands Township held a Board of Directors regular meeting, Sept. 16.

The meeting can be viewed at this link.

The following agenda item was discussed:
Receive, consider and act upon Incorporation Planning Study matters (as requested by Chairman Bunch).
*Skip to timestamp 54:44 for the start of this agenda item.*

Monique Sharp, The Township's Assistant General Manager for Finance and Administration, addressed allegations made against the Incorporation Model. She spoke about the following and more:
Timestamps included

• Maximum Initial Tax Rate 1:19:00
• How does property tax cap work? And how does the Property Tax Freeze for Persons 65+ or Disabled work? 1:22:35
• How can the property tax rates stay the same if expenses are increasing due to incorporation?1:28:30
• Alleged inconsistencies found within The Howard Hughes Corporation’s consultant’s report. 1:33:22
• The Law Enforcement Critique commissioned by The Howard Hughes Corporation. 1:43:56
• Has the Township accumulated over $50 million in reserves for incorporation? 2:01:47
• How was the Incorporation Reserve funded? And how will it be used? 2:06:58
• Why can’t ‘one-time’ funding sources such as reserves be used to lower the property tax rate 2:12:00

Find the summary of these topics at timestamp 2:24:30.

Board Members' response to these allegations can be found at timestamp 2:15:18.

“The public criticism out there from many who are giving speeches regarding incorporation is that we've manipulated our growth in order to achieve an outcome, and that's just not factual,” Chairman Gordy Bunch said. “They're giving no context to the public, they're intentionally misleading people trying to scare them into [thinking] there's some nefarious activity occurring here and it's just not the case.”

He went on to state, “They're really disparaging our staff's work and it's wrong.”

The Woodlands Township will hold an Incorporation Study Informative Meeting Thursday, Sept. 23 at 6:00 p.m. at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott & Convention Center. Residents and businesses are invited.
Address: 1601 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, Texas 77380

Follow this link for background information on incorporation dating back to early 2018, provided by The Woodlands Township.