4b…..In the Beginning

 When Bill and I were on city council in the early 90’s we as a city council tried to have the 4b sales tax for economic development passed by the citizens of Conroe.  In 1992 they voted against the half-cent tax, because we as a council didn’t explain what we wanted the tax for. In 1994 as members of the city council we resubmitted to the voters a proposal for the half-cent tax again, but this time we let the citizens know what we wanted the tax for.  We told them that we were going to use the funds for economic development such as water lines, streets and other things that the city needed for the development of our community.

 These things were items that were needed so it was either get the half-cent tax and keep property taxes low or raise property taxes to get the projects done.  One of the items we told the voters was that the funds from the half-cent tax would be used in the future to build a water treatment plant for surface water from Lake Conroe, for the city of Conroe, because we were not going to be able to use wells for very much longer. This way we would have the money set aside for the future. This time the voters approved the half-cent tax. 

 Now the city is spending the half cent tax on many items that were never even imagined.  Millions on downtown, that very few receive any benefit from and millions on many other items that were not intended originally. We believe the citizens of Conroe would not have approved the half-cent tax if they knew we were going to spend 450 thousand dollars for a welcome sign or for many of the items that millions have been spent on. Now we don’t have the money left in the fund for a water treatment plant or for many other projects.

 This plus many other things were done for the future, and the future is now.

 Contributing Writers: Melvin Douglas and Bill Cochran Jr.