one MEEN Ag said:

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Neches21 said:

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They've been keeping taxes higher than necessary to build millions in reserve funds to pay for the increased expenses of operating a city.
The next push will be to stop funding the reserves and lower taxes. They could pass a significant tax reduction.

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I know. There was a chart posted I swear on this thread that showed exactly how big the woodlands warchest is.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

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The Township website says they keep 20-25% of general fund operating expenses (2.5-3 months of operations) in reserve. There is also an undesignated fund reserve, a non-discretionary reserve, and a capital replacement reserve.

This ppt shows the numbers. Go to slide 8.

https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15688/Township-10-year-tax-rate

TXTransplant said:

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one MEEN Ag said:

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Neches21 said:

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They've been keeping taxes higher than necessary to build millions in reserve funds to pay for the increased expenses of operating a city.
The next push will be to stop funding the reserves and lower taxes. They could pass a significant tax reduction.

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I know. There was a chart posted I swear on this thread that showed exactly how big the woodlands warchest is.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

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The Township website says they keep 20-25% of general fund operating expenses (2.5-3 months of operations) in reserve. There is also an undesignated fund reserve, a non-discretionary reserve, and a capital replacement reserve.

This ppt shows the numbers. Go to slide 8.

https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15688/Township-10-year-tax-rate

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That starts in 2025 and goes out to 2030.

Well, shoot…my brain read that as 2015.

This one is for 2022. Go to slide 41.

https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/11642

There will be just under $21 million in the incorporation reserve by the end of next year.

Quote:

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Coworker said they have heard rumors that HHC wants to tear down some commercial/retail space that is empty and "rezone" it to be multi-family. Think the shopping center down Grogan's Mill that is a ghost town since Randall's left.

I had not previously heard this rumor, and I will emphasize it's just that. But there is no doubt that between The Waterway, Hughes Landing/Lakeside, and the various retail shopping centers, there is a lot of vacant commercial space right now.

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I dont think the retail market is as bleak as you make it sound. Office is still bad, but retail is recovering quite nicely from COVID.

Grogans Mill Village Center is 85% occupied which isnt terrible considering they dont have an anchor grocery.
https://communityimpact.com/houston/the-woodlands/business/2021/10/11/concerns-voiced-over-grogans-mill-village-center-vacancies/
The city of Houston average occupancy for neighborhood retail is 90.3% for so Grogans Mill isn't far off. They just need to find an anchor to draw in customers.
I dont really think it is a viable grocery store though so the owners need to get creative. From what i understand, Randalls isnt very interested in selling their vacant space so that will be a challenge.

Not to mention both Randall's had competition from HEBs on either side of them. Something like a sprouts would fare better using less of the space

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to think about that one. I just thought it was interesting that others used it as justification to vote for incorporation.

That whole area isn't as vibrant as say Sterling Ridge or Creekside. Randall's pulling out is just one of many problems.

I pretty much never go down that way. So, it's kind of a non-issue for me.

Thanks for all of this. I found their annual report and it shows a little bit of a different picture than the endorsed slide decks. The woodlands has definitely been building a cash reserve that they would like you to forget about. Its why that township projection revenue model started in 2025 and showed a slight dip out to 2030. They were planning on spending the cash they've built up and then gonna have to do something in the 2030s to fund a city (hint its taxes). I know fund balances \= free cash but you can certainly show yourself to be up to your eyeballs in liabilities or flush with cash with the same books. Depends a lot on what projects, debt renegotiations, and expected future revenue changes are going to happen.

https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/11529 page 74
Total Cash Balance
2020:$116MM
2019:$111MM
2018: $108MM
2017: $96MM
2016: $139MM (They sell something?)
2015: $77MM
2014: $85MM
2013: $82MM
2012: $70MM
2011: $66MM

As a side note, I don't live in the woodlands, but I do find it interesting how these things work. There's such a huge disconnect between what a real estate agent sells you on buying a house, and the innerworkings affecting any homes taxing structures. In general, nobody cares about this stuff until it all blows up.

Have been thinking about this for a while about how to easily model MUDs, taxing authority boundaries, and give informed data to home buyers about how what on their tax roll is going to potentially blow up.

Heck, up here, I don't even think a lot of realtors tell their clients that part of The Woodlands is in Harris County. Or that Creekside is zoned to Tomball ISD and not Conroe.

There is certainly more of a burden on the home buyer/owner to research and understand the differences.

HAR tells all this info....

It does. I didn't say HAR, I said realtors.

There are a lot of clueless homebuyers, too. Blame definitely lies with them, too. But I have seen a lot of confusion in the almost 10 years I've lived here.

Buyers say "I want to live in The Woodlands" without really understanding how the area is divided.

Right, on an individual level HAR gives you the data. But its not synthesized on macro level.

I can't go look at all those taxing authority boundaries are. Or get a quick understanding of their health, or how likely future taxes are going to go up.

Two data engineers did this for the city of layfette and showed just how bad the MUD funding is, and that the sewer liabilities were going to sink the city long term compared to the tax revenue the land was going to bring in.

I see ; I thought you were focused on family burden as opposed to community

TXTransplant said:

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It does. I didn't say HAR, I said realtors.

There are a lot of clueless homebuyers, too. Blame definitely lies with them, too. But I have seen a lot of confusion in the almost 10 years I've lived here.

Buyers say "I want to live in The Woodlands" without really understanding how the area is divided.

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Agreed then; if a person is stupid enough to purchase home without knowing exactly what they're getting and what it will cost over time; there's a few sayings for that:

"A fool and his money are soon parted" /Thomas Tusser
"You paid the 'Stupid' Tax" /Dave Ramsey

This area specifically is definitely plagued by these issues, especially since it expanded into different school districts and another county. And all that has happened in the last 10-12 years.

Heck, The Woodlands is often touted (even locally) as the "No. 1 best city to live in America." And it's not even a city!

I will say, compared to the other areas where I've lived (both in TX and in two other states), the Houston/Harris Co metro area has the most convoluted and confusing government and taxing structure.

Lots of layers with very little accountability or even adequate disclosure of what they are supposed to do. Sadly, local politics has become nothing more than a power struggle between R and D - even at levels that should be non-partisan, like school board elections.

There is a certain elitism among residents here, too. Since I live on the boundary of TW and unincorporated Harris Co, I've seen my neighbors get all bent out of shape when they can't control what happens in unincorporated Harris Co. They actually believed they could prevent construction of a Wal-Mart that the county approved.

The latest has been criticizing rural neighbors in the tract of land just to our north for selling their land to developers. Basically "How dare they sell their property to a developer who will disturb my privacy by building on the green space behind my house!"

Oh, my response to one neighbor was - "It's unincorporated Harris County. You should be glad the developer is building houses and not a strip club."