They do if you look at my tax bill. This place has the highest taxes of any place I've lived

The bigger question is do we need it or can they rehab the existing one.

Gotta consider who is running the EMCID...remember the Dino park

@Rich EMCID is funded entirely through sales tax, though, so it wouldn't affect your property tax bill, as far as I know.With the huge Earthquest financial hit, I'm especially sensitive about spending so much money again on a project that is not strictly necessary. The $19 million cost estimate does not include the cost of land acquisition for the building. Did EMCID have to pick out literally the most expensive piece of land in East Montgomery County for their building?They mention that other government organizations have offices in town centers, Sugar Land's town hall for example, but neglect to mention that Sugar Land's city budget is $250+ million, and EMCID's budget is only around $10 million.

Sounds like tax and spend to me.

I would much prefer to see EMCID do more for the EMC communities and less for EMCID, itself. The community where I live gets no benefit from our sales taxes -- our share goes to EMCID.And, just what does EMCID plan to do with the present building?

The new EMCID building in Valley Ranch is confirmed. It's expected to be finished in the next two years:www.chron.com/neighb orhood/east-montgome ry/news/article/EMCI D-proceeds-with

@Dinoon What is wrong with the building they have now? This makes no sense to me at all.

@jansworld EMCID claims that their present building is too small, and that they've had to turn down some events which required more room. Grand Parkway is going to carve a chunk out of the present EMCID parking lot, so they'll have less room for public parking (though the Library and New Caney High School have nearby lots in easy walking distance). They got a $5Mill Eminent Domain settlement over the parking issue. I think the money's burning a hole in EMCID's pocket. As I understand it, EMCID plans to sell the current building and use the proceeds and the $5Mill to cover part of the new construction costs.The new building will be 79,000 sqft (with the possibility of future vertical expansion later), compared with 33,000 sqft for the current building. According to EMCID, the additional space is needed to "accommodate future growth and community needs." Maybe it's just me, but it sure sounds like another boondoggle in the making.

@otto
Total EMCID revenue is around $10 million a year. That means it will take the equivalent of every penny of 2 full years worth of sales tax money just to pay for the building ( generously assuming no interest ). They better be turning down a huge amount of event revenue, to justify spending millions of extra dollars on event space.As it is now, we can see in the past couple years of budgets, EMCID has each year estimated a measly $2,000 to $4,000 in Event revenue per year. What insanity is this?

EMCID budget information is available online for people to check for themselves- www.emctx.com/about- us/financial-informa tion

Where is EarthQuest hidden in those budget figures? Is that the $1,080,000 "Building - debt service?"

@otto This really concerns me. We have seen gross mismanagement of funds before with EMCID and the dinosaur park. The head of EMCID is appointed, not voted in. Those two things bring up some serious red flags with me.As far as selling the building, that leave another dilemma. Lone Star College is in that building and we cannot afford to lose them. If anything, they should expand here in our area. I really think this is very premature and irresponsible. The EMCID should be using that money for the COMMUNITY and not themselves.

I should have mentioned this earlier. The plan is for Lone Star to move to expanded facilities in the new EMCID building.

@Dinoon You know, the EMCID could be working with the school district, Valley Ranch center, and Grand Texas about event space. We already are paying on that bond money for the football stadium that gets 6 months worth of use a year. The parking area is huge. There is a reception center. The stands hold 8000 people and who knows how many more on the floor. We are also getting the two amphitheaters, one at Valley Ranch Center and the other at Grand Texas.