Follow the Money
The Woodlands is being deluged with mailers, commercials, social media posts, and of course, the 72 large blue signs proclaiming that incorporation is a bad idea. These will continue, because the forces behind the anti-incorporation effort have plenty of money to spend.
How much, you ask? And who is funding these efforts? There are two main anti-incorporation players, the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) and the PAC of the moment, Preserve The Woodlands (PTW). According to their campaign finance reports, HHC lists in-kind donations to PTW of $153, 452.25. PTW has received other donations that total to date $159,175.00. That’s over $313K so far to persuade residents of The Woodlands that there’s nothing to see here, no need to incorporate.
At some point, the $36, 125 for Grassroots Door-Knocking donated by HHC to PTW will commence. Maybe it already has. And your neighbors may well think that incorporation is not a great idea, because they’ve not heard the other side.
Incorporation gives residents of the City of the Woodlands 100% control over electing their representatives. These representatives, the City Council, would have the authority to deal with overdevelopment and the traffic and flooding that would result. In a city, developer and residents would have to agree on a project, and there ARE projects that they can come together around. Isn't that the way it should be?
Incorporation CAN pass, but it will take residents taking action on their own. Here’s what YOU can do:
1. Print out and share the one-page handouts from our website with your neighbors. We have several topics so that you can pick out what resonates with you and your neighbors.
2. Donate to the Texas Patriots PAC. We don’t need a huge amount of money but we need more than we have now. You’ll be seeing the results of your donation shortly.
3. Put a sign in your yard and a bumper sticker on your car. Request a sign here.
4. Donate to Residents For the Woodlands, who has your signs and bumper stickers.
5. Share this message with those who love this community who may be wondering about what they see. Protecting this community is a non-partisan issue – we can all come together to protect this hometown.