{"id":241254,"date":"2026-04-09T01:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241254\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T01:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:13:08","slug":"1-billion-a-year-in-data-center-tax-breaks-get-the-attention-of-texas-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241254\/","title":{"rendered":"$1 billion a year in data center tax breaks get the attention of Texas lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The debate over data centers has moved to the Texas State Capitol. The leaders of the House and Senate are asking lawmakers to take a deep dive into the impact of data centers and whether tax incentives being offered to the industry are worth it. Cheap energy, available land, and a friendly regulatory environment have Texas on the verge of having more data centers than any other state.<\/p>\n

Hutto is the latest Central Texas community at odds with developers and local officials over a surge in new AI data center projects. The City of Hutto must approve a zoning change for Zydeco to build a data center at 450 Ed Schmidt Blvd.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to bring a significant tax value project to the city of Hutto while still being a thoughtful neighbor on a very constrained site,\u201d said Wes Gilmer, Zydeco Development Principal.<\/p>\n

Residents are raising alarms about potential noise, power, and water usage.<\/p>\n

ALSO| Taylor City Council approves 210-acre data center near Samsung chip plant<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest concerns are the water and the electric grid because there could be issues with the facility consuming a lot of water,\u201d said a Hutto resident at Tuesday\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune<\/a> focused attention on an expensive data center issue. According to the comptroller\u2019s office, Texas is giving data centers more than $1 billion in tax breaks<\/a> each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mounting debate over whether people want these centers in their communities over the potential energy costs, the potential water use costs, that is what is creating this conversation over tax breaks,\u201d said Paul Cobler, Economy and Industry Reporter for the Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are already considering whether to limit the scope of the tax break or get rid of the exemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is what the legislature needs to grapple with. Are these tradeoffs worth it anymore, and what is the right balance?\u201d said Cobler.<\/p>\n

Kirk Offel is the CEO and Founder of Overwatch Mission Critical. He will testify at Thursday’s hearing<\/a> of the Texas House State Affairs Committee on data centers. Offel says data centers need to build trust with communities across Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not stop doing it. We just built them safer. We build them better. We build them more sustainable,\u201d said Offel.<\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers will be evaluating the impact of data centers and the pros and cons of incentives over the next eight months, leading up to January’s 2027 legislative session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The debate over data centers has moved to the Texas State Capitol. The leaders of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-241254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}