Shadow Creek Ranch residents live within a tax increment reinvestment zone, also known as a TIRZ, which uses tax dollars to spur development.

While a TIRZ does collect tax dollars, it does not directly tax residents. Instead, when Shadow Creek Ranch residents pay property taxes to the city of Pearland or Fort Bend or Brazoria counties and Alvin ISD, any taxes above an established base tax value is deposited in a tax increment revenue fund to be disbursed to the TIRZ. Base values are established for each taxing entity at the time the TIRZ was created, which in this case was in 1998.

Values have skyrocketed in Shadow Creek Ranch, which was an empty field valued at $7 million. Now property values are nearly $2 billion and rising, according to the TIRZ annual report. Funds generated by the TIRZ pays for new roads, parks and trails, sewer and drainage, landscaping, fire and police stations, and new schools. Once a project is complete, the TIRZ turns it over to municipalities for maintenance and operation.