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Woodlands pre-budget review shows major public-safety cost increases as county reshapes contract
Summary
Township staff outlined preliminary 2026 public-safety costs, including a proposed swap of detectives for sergeants by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, new body/in-car camera expenses and equipment requests that together could add millions to the township budget; board deferred final decisions to August.
Monique Sharp, President and CEO of The Woodlands Township, told the board on July 23 that public-safety contract changes and new equipment will materially raise the township’s 2026 costs.
Sharp said the township currently records an undesignated fund balance of $3,900,000 and a hotel tax reserve of $8,800,000 and warned the board that final budget choices must await August revenue figures from the tax assessor. "Our township enabling legislation ... allows us to supplement but not supplant law enforcement services," she said, framing why the township funds supplemental county positions rather than operating its own police force.
Staff summarized the 2025 contracted supplement as 100 township-funded positions — 87…
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