For the second time this decade, Montgomery County voters turned down a road bond referendum May 9. The $350 million mobility bond would have funded 77 road improvement projects across the county’s four precincts.
A total of 16,220 votes were cast against the referendum, or 57.19 percent, with 12,143 voters showing support for the bond, or 42.81 percent. County officials have not yet disclosed plans for a new bond election. However, Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack issued a statement following the election calling for a new road bond in November.
“I’d like to suggest the idea of us having a series of mobility workshops here in this courtroom where we’re sitting up here and have the citizens come in and we’re listening to what they have to say,” Noack said during the May 19 Commissioners Court meeting. “We [could] craft [a new] bond right here together.”
Among the most controversial projects in the failed bond was a proposed expansion of Woodlands Parkway from FM 2978 to Hwy. 249 by Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley, which drew criticism from The Woodlands residents and officials.
“We need a maintenance program, but our current budget simply won’t address it. We’ve got to find ways to do that." —Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal
“As a community [in The Woodlands], we voted over 80 percent against this bond, and in some sections of The Woodlands almost 90 percent,” Woodlands Township Director Gordy Bunch said. “Yes there were other issues raised throughout the bond, but The Woodlands’ biggest issue was the Woodlands Parkway extension.”
Other sources of contention raised by residents in public meetings include an objection to the allocation of bond funds toward maintenance projects, the county’s debt levels and the need for an updated countywide thoroughfare plan.
“To say that maintaining our existing infrastructure is a poor idea is counterproductive to what needs to be done, [especially] when we have professionals telling us we need to address it,” Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal said. “We need a maintenance program, but our current budget simply won’t address it. We’ve got to find ways to do that.”
Julie Turner, president of the Montgomery County-based Texas Patriots political action committee, said voters would more likely approve a modified bond that better addressed priority traffic concerns.
“With [about] 16,000 voters against the bond, it shows that people are paying attention and want their tax dollars spent efficiently,” Turner said. “I hope the commissioners understand that voters will support a bond if waste is taken out. It’s about solving mobility problems.”
Doyal said county commissioners plan to continue working to create a bond package that voters would approve in the future.
“The spirit of cooperation is critical moving forward,” Doyal said. “I think it’s time to come together, but we’ve got to come together realistically. [Residents need to] understand that we need to listen to the financial advisors when they tell us things. I saw numbers out there that said we had close to a billion dollars in debt. That simply wasn’t true.”
