Some politicians think jobs come from taxes. They give your taxes to large corporations to entice them to grow their businesses in Texas, assuming this is the only source of jobs. In doing so, the impact of growth is your burden, instead of the responsibility of those consuming more water and energy, putting more cars on the road, putting kids in schools, and increasing demand on public safety and emergency response.
This is not sustainable.
Free market sustainability means growth pays for itself. It requires those who impact demand for resources to pay for them. It welcomes growth and rewards those that cover all of their costs and succeed. It recognizes that growth can originate from anyone with an idea that organically and locally grows their business
Texas leads the world in data centers, and more are popping up like Hill Country bluebonnets. Texas will not be sustainable if the burden of growth falls solely on you. Free market sustainability is the right policy for Texas.
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I recently did some deep diving into why water rates are so high in the city of Georgetown TX. I had a $950 bill last fall when I put new sod in my t iny back yard and had to water by hand because we had no rain. I learned that current residents are paying for all the growth that Georgetown is experiencing and that the State regulates how much cities can charge developers for impact fees. All the costs for road expansion, schools, water and wastewater facilities, law enforcement, courts, etc is passed on to current residents. Senior citizens in Sun City Georgetown will soon be priced out of their own homes by rising water costs – already the highest in the area, are on a schedule to increase 14% per year for the next 5 years. I recently asked the city counsel to consider a cap for senior citizens which, of course, they denied. I also found out that the city transfers 10% of the utility proceeds (amounting to between 17 and 19 million per year) to the general fund to pay for the above mentioned entities that require additional funding because of “growth”. This practice borders on being fraudulent in my mind . It’s bad enough that current citizens have to pay for all the new water infrastructure to accommodate the grow – but to find that our payments for utilities also goes into the general fund to pay for everything else required by the growth is alarming to say the least. Texas doesn’t seem to be a state that protects quality of life for citizens – Abbott policies instead land on the side of businesses and developers.