Ideas for The Woodlands
Balanced Budget Amendment for The Woodlands Township!
Why not? You and I have to run our house on a Balanced Budget if at all possible. I have to run my small business on a Balanced Budget. Why not have the governing body with the power of the purse be required to run The Woodlands Township on a Balanced Budget.
This all falls in line with my Commonsense Conservative platform. Simply put a Balanced Budget Amendment would limit the spending of the Township to be equal or less than the revenue it collects each year.
Included in the amendment would be a provision for emergencies (I don’t know what those are, that’s why they are called emergencies) where we could spend more but it would require a unanimous vote of The Township Board and before the vote could be held there will be a 7 day public notice requirement.
According to information I received at The Woodlands Township Candidate School March 10, 2010, the expected revenue for 2010 is $77,794,624, and the expenses for 2010 would be $78,123,653. Simple or fuzzy math concludes based on that information we are going to be operating 2010 with a deficit of $329,029. That’s a lot of money and even in our infancy we determine we can’t be trusted. We need a Balanced Budget Amendment.
If you also think this is a good commonsense approach to governing then please help me get elected and go to the Contributions page and the Get Involved page and join me in my campaign for The Woodlands Township.
Public Safety and Emergency Call Boxes
The Woodlands is where I have decided to call home for a lot of reasons. One of those being public safety and quality of life. Recently The Woodlands has had some publicity of a shooting at the mall. Additionally, The Woodlands Community Policing Report in Dec 2009 cited that car burglaries were up from 597 to 928 for the same time period a year earlier.
The Woodlands has approximately 180 miles of Hike and Bike Trails and approximately 120 parks. All of these public amenities are reasons we moved here and love this community so much. Unfortunately recently there have been reports of residents being attacked on these trails or in the parks while exercising or just enjoying the scenery.
I propose placing Emergency Call Boxes in a phased in program at the most densely used parks and sections of the Hike and Bike Trails. Emergency call boxes are a long term investment that provides for additional public safety measures at a reasonable cost. I have met with the company that provides Emergency Call Boxes and have learned what it takes to for initial investment and for maintenance costs.
Many of you have seen these Emergency Call Boxes at universities or even at some of the parking garages in The Woodlands. These call boxes are directly wired to the local public safety dispatch and upon the request of the caller can have access to appropriate public safety. In addition these call boxes can be used with speakers and cameras on top for Public Safety Announcement and for video footage of those that use the call box and anyone that may vandalize or be committing a crime.
The picture below is an actual call box located in Oyster Creek Park and Trail in Sugarland, Texas.
Oyster Creek Park and Trail in Sugarland
