Poll

[truthwillsetyoufree]

If you were given a choice, which would you choose?

(A) Incorporation of The Woodlands into a new town within 2 years
(B) Expansion of TCID with new taxing authority to govern all of the Woodlands without resident input for 2 years and then phased in election of TCID board members for 5 years and then, at the end of 7 years, the TCID board decides whether or not to call for a vote to incorporate a new town
(C) A new annexation moratorium agreement with the City of Houston to keep the status quo
(D) Annexation by the City of Houston

Do you wish you had been given a choice, or is having only an up or down vote on (B) good enough? Why do you think Plan (B) was chosen for us?

[Wilson]

I would choose A or C, but I'm really undecided which at this point. I don't like having all the same people on all the boards, I think it's a major conflict of interest for Nelda Blair's law firm to be the one collecting taxes for the area, and I'm a general non-supporter of the Good 'Ol Boy Network - here or anywhere.

[admin]

Do you mind if I play around with the poll feature directly in this thread (in hopes of adding the actual poll), or would you prefer I left it alone?

[mdonn76405]

We can still incorporate, we just need to vote "NO" to TCID. We are the ones who made the deal to pay Houston 16M up front and 1/16 cent till the earth ends. Even if we vote it down, the moratorium is still in effect.

[FamilyGal]

Welcome to the board Truth. Personally, I don't care either way since I don't live in The Woodlands, but I don't like the "good ol' boy" system that is in place. But, I think it is in place pretty much everywhere, especially small towns. I haven't really kept up with The Woodland's politics, but I know there is a lot of BS that goes on, as does anywhere else people think they have power.

[truthwillsetyoufree]

Depends on what you mean by "play around" and what you mean by "actual poll".

[admin]

I meant that I haven't used the Poll feature on here so I'll have to test it out first by playing around with the settings and by actual poll... a poll where users Click on the option they want to vote for. They can choose to elaborate, or not. I'll just start a new thread and play around with it there... I tried a few months ago and couldn't figure it out, and gave up rather quickly.

[truthwillsetyoufree]

I talked to a lot of people back when I was trying to build support for a public vote while there were still multiple options available, and BEFORE anyone went to negotiate with the City of Houston. I was able to get a resolution passed by the WCA calling for such a vote to choose between options, but someone got Tommy Williams to cut a backroom deal with Houston while the Governance Steering Committee was appearing to study the matter. You know what they say about appearances ...

[admin]

I started a new thread with the Poll feature used. Feel free to use it, or not! :)

[truthwillsetyoufree]

I agree that a "no" vote on the TCID expansion is the best way to buy time to get a more resident-responsive organization to administer the deal with the City of Houston. It should have never come to this in the first place, as everyone I've talked to would prefer to incorporate ASAP without going through a long interim period with the TCID tail wagging the Woodlands dog (especially in this case where the tail has different interests than the dog!). If Tommy Williams would have listened to his true constituents instead of to the few interests that led him to make this contrived deal, he might have found out that no one who knows the ramifications wants the TCID to run the whole place.

Here's the problem. If I were a business owner on the TCID board, I'd be tempted to use my new property tax authority to shift taxes from my business to the residents. Moreover, I wouldn't care much about such things as enforcing deed restrictions, maintaining residential streets or keeping up parks and playgrounds. That's what's wrong with this proposal.

[truthwillsetyoufree]

The poll looks nice. My only criticism would be that the expansion of TCID option includes a possibility of incorporation after 7 years or so, to be fair, though it is far from a certainty.

[truthwillsetyoufree]

BTW, I forgot to give credit where credit is due. Cheryl Tangen introduced the public vote resolution at the WCA. She has worked tirelessly for residents both on the WCA and the GSC against much opposition from other groups who do not have the residents best interests at heart. If and when we ever get our own town, she deserves to be the first mayor.

[cgwoolf]

Back to orig question, I would preferred to have have had a choice with which to vote and I would have voted A. The sooner we get this over with, the better off we will be inmho.

[truthwillsetyoufree]

You're not alone. Just about everyone I've met wants to incorporate a new town ASAP ... except that is, folks with ties to the developer. I wonder why? LOL

[admin]

I agree - I tried to use exactly what you had wrote, but the poll would not let me exceed a certain number of words within each option. So I added the (see the other post) bit...