Déjà Vu…All Over Again?

Last week the Conroe Industrial Development Corporation (CIDC) met with the Conroe City Council and made it clear that council’s recent spending trends of Conroe’s 4(B) tax money could not continue.  The figures backing up that concern were provided.  One would think council would have listened to them, as well as learned from the public’s recent reaction to the proposed $465,000 “Welcome to Conroe” sign.  One would have been wrong.

According to Howard Roden’s front page Courier story September 15^th, the city is negotiating with the county to lease the downtown Knox building for 40 years for $125,000.  The need is apparently for “travelling art shows”, among other things.  Wasn’t that why the city bought the Madeley Building?

In any case, the problem with the city leasing the Knox building or the Penney building downtown is the stunning cost of renovation that will be borne by Conroe’s taxpayers.  It will be in the millions of dollars… of your (our) tax dollars.  That’s far too much money for a leased building and far too large a spending commitment to drop on the taxpayers and future councils.

There has been much debate regarding the level of “transparency” on certain spending projects.  Here, transparency would be letting citizens and taxpayers know just how much the renovations would cost before the issue comes up for discussion or a council vote.  The city should make known the “best estimate” appraisal for a comprehensive renovation plan before the mayor ever brings this matter up, and considering our rising local unemployment and economic uncertainty, council should know better than to spend millions on renovating two more aged buildings to further a legacy agenda. 

We don’t need our city government getting bigger and bigger, buying or leasing up more and more buildings, and we certainly have more important things to do with millions of our tax dollars.

Enough is Enough.