Election Day

[woody_hawkeye]

At the end of the day on Tuesday, I expect to see a new era in governments and impact on the relationships of suburbia to big cities in Texas. There is at least one other local area considering the approach taken by The Woodlands. Master planned and combinations of master planned communities in regions outside of big cities could be thinking about pulling their resources together to accomplish similar feats. The key is having a plan for sales taxes and a vision of being a good regional partner to the big city. Cooperative regional planning and development will accelerate with such practices. Who else might be getting interested in this approach in the Houston area? I wonder how much attention in national news this will get? The outcome should be a huge landslide for the propositions. What other regional effects could we see besides the obvious?

[KatieDidIt]

National coverage? Heck I couldn't even find local coverage on the vote till I went to the Chronicle page. Looks like the Dukes of Hazard will reign supreme. Good luck folk, and y'all thought Houston was bad.........

[wxman]

All three propositions passed. Not sure what that means, but from what I've heard, it ain't good.

[susan]

All three propositions passed. Not sure what that means, but from what I've heard, it ain't good.

why is it not good to have extra sales tax and extra property tax that would reduce association fee (which is not tax deductible)?

Property tax is fed tax deductible

As far as sales tax is concerned - Outsiders from magnolia and other places were enjoying the lower sales tax now they will also pay more to shop in the woodlands, I don't think the 2% increase will turn them away.

[wxman]

why is it not good to have extra sales tax and extra property tax that would reduce association fee (which is not tax deductible)?

Property tax is fed tax deductible

As far as sales tax is concerned - Outsiders from magnolia and other places were enjoying the lower sales tax now they will also pay more to shop in the woodlands, I don't think the 2% increase will turn them away.

It's who's controlling the money. Also The Woodlands elected a board that has "free reign" so to speak to do what they please for the next three years. Not to mention the rise in sales tax hurts everybody from Spring, Cypress, Magnolia, Oak Ridge North and everywhere else that people come in from to shop. It kind of screwed them over...if I understand it correctly.

[Native1]

That's how I understand it as well. I voted No, No, and No. I think that anyone that expects them to actually lower our HOA dues like they promised is, well, just silly. Now there is nothing to stop them from raising them pretty much as high as they'd like to. Afterall, there is a lot of debt that will now have to be paid for, convienently mentioned the day *after* the election:

http://www.talkofthewoodlands.com/vbulleti...read.php?t=1520

And so it goes...

From the Federal level, all the way down to these little local elections, organized business with the big bucks control our electoral process. Go, democracy. Any guesses as to why the Developer donated so much money to Voice PAC? They obviously had so much to gain with this win.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/woo...ws/5263311.html

"The Woodlands V.O.I.C.E has raised $164,747 for its campaign to get voters to pass three propositions on the ballot. A bulk of that amount

[woody_hawkeye]

Fortunately, we have an 88% vote of confidence that we will not see the government of The Woodlands go amuck and spend all of our hard earned dollars foolishly with incorrect numbers and assumptions. There is a lot of history to this. Some savings opportunities have not even been discussed yet.

It is definately a good thing, and we will save money. The fear of taxation is always in the spotlight, but there was a great deal of care put into the analysis of where the money will come from and where it will go. We cannot live by fear alone. We have to trust and involve ourselves as well. Now we go forward to make sure we get sales taxes in place quickly so that we can start using the money next year.

The Woodlands is a great place to be right now.

The other propositions sponsored by our state senator also passed.

[woody_hawkeye]

Of course everyone knows the outcome of the election, but what has occurred afterward may not be so apparent. The landslide outcome came about as expected. Residents are happy to get on with their lives. Many residents have been watching as now-named "The Woodlands Township" otherwise known as "The Township" and previously known as TCID takes action. The community takes on the almost handshake agreement between the three associations and the Town Center Improvement District over the next few weeks to make the agreement an executable legal document between the associations and The Township. In the meantime, actions to merge the economic development zones into one economic development zone have commenced, and the additional 1% sales tax process for the entire Woodlands area has been started. There is brisk activity on aligning political alliances, with several residents preparing to announce their candidacy. We are on track and expect to grow up over the next few years. This is sort of a larvae stage in our government creation.

Chronicle article documenting the first meeting of The Township board.