New Woodlands board resurrects $2.5M incorporation fund

Gordy Bunch, John Anthony Brown, Brian Boniface and Bruce Rieser are sworn into office during The Woodlands Township's board meeting Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, in The Woodlands. Gordy Bunch, John Anthony Brown, Brian Boniface and Bruce Rieser are sworn into office during The Woodlands Township's board meeting Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, in The Woodlands. Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close New Woodlands board resurrects $2.5M incorporation fund 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

One of the first actions that The Woodlands Township's newly seated board took was to reinstate a $2.5 million incorporation reserve fund.

The money allocated to the reserve fund originally was sitting, untouched, in a transportation fund. As the board decided on budget initiatives in August, several board members lobbied that the money be designated as an incorporation fund to be set aside for the costs of incorporation, whenever The Woodlands should move toward it.

The $2.5 million reserve initially was approved with a 4-3 vote, but was moved back into an undesignated fund after former board member Jeff Long changed his vote.

The topic of incorporation became the most contentious issue in this year's election. Newly appointed board chairman Gordy Bunch argued that The Woodlands should be more active in planning for incorporation in order to have more control over issues facing the community, particularly over proposed road projects. On the other side of the issue, former chairman Ed Robb and other board members argued that the current form of government is beneficial for The Woodlands, that incorporation could result in a property tax rate increase and that they should take their time before incorporating.

Incorporation was also the focus of an aggressive and well-funded advertising campaign that warned that Bunch and the other candidates were promoting immediate incorporation that would increase property taxes by 70 percent. The campaign, which included TV ads, fliers, billboards, online ads and robo calls, was the work of The Woodlands Concerned Taxpayers, a group started by former board chairman Bruce Tough, and was decried as misleading by several community leaders, including some who were publicly endorsed by the group.

In spite of the campaign, Bunch and the rest of his slate swept the township elections in November, securing a comfortable majority on the board.

At the new board's first meeting, five of the 13 regular agenda items had to do with incorporation. Apart from establishing the reserve fund, board member Ann Snyder asked that the board consider allocating money in the 2017 budget to develop a study to determine the fiscal impact of incorporation and a public input process regarding incorporation.

"This fall, I received many, many questions regarding incorporation and the fiscal impact," Snyder said. "We want to ensure the information we have is the most updated."

Board member John McMullan agreed that The Woodlands should commission a study, but thought that it would be better to wait and see if The Woodlands' lobbyists to the state Legislature are able to clarify some statutory issues around the town's incorporation before moving forward with it.

"We'd get better results if we waited until after the legislative session," McMullan said.

Bunch also argued that the last study on the impact of incorporation, which was conducted in 2011, was flawed because it assumed a worst-case scenario in terms of cost.

"There was no creative thinking involved in the study," Bunch said.

Board member Laura Fillault said that the next study should give the township several options, including looking into what services and infrastructure The Woodlands could contract out instead of providing directly.

Also on the topic of incorporation, McMullan asked to revisit the previously contentious issue of posting answers to questions regarding incorporation on The Woodlands Township website, and Bunch asked to revisit a previously voted down press release about incorporation.

The board unanimously agreed to postpone making a decision on the study, the public forums and the press release until after the board is able to hold a workshop specifically on incorporation in January.