In the July 12 episode, San Marcos Council Member Amanda Rodriguez tells us city residents of all political stripes demanded action and explains why the city thinks it has the authority to pass Texas’ first data center ban. And Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller discusses why he’s asking for an immediate special session to address data center regulation, and why he’s calling out the Governor in the process.
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This week, Republican AG Commissioner Sid Miller comes out swinging at Republican Governor Greg Abbott. He's just kicking the can down the road hoping he can get reelected. Uh, but I think it's going to blow up in his face once a big data center cheerleader. Abbott recently called for regulations on those huge developments.
But Miller says the governor is all talk. He's passing the buck. He doesn't really want to do it, or he'll do it now. He'll do it today. The commissioner is here with a new challenge to Abbott. This, as the city of San Marcos starts its own data center fight.
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Do we want to sit here and utilize the tools that we still have? Or do we want to sit here and govern in fear? And I refuse to govern in fear. We talked to the councilwoman who pushed the city to become the first in Texas to ban data centers. Also today in a high dollar Senate campaign is James Talarico, whose new fundraising blowout over Ken Paxton.
Really? As big as it seems. And what does it mean? That Texas has a new stock exchange? That's all right. Now, as we go inside Texas politics.
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Inside Texas politics with Jason Whitely starts now. And welcome to Inside Texas Politics. I'm Jason Wheeler in for Jason Whitely this week. Straight off the top here. Let's get you to some of your political headlines here in Texas this week. Just months out from a high stakes midterm election, this state's top election official appears to still be on her way out.
Now, we had to check again whether Secretary of State Jane Nelson is still planning to resign from her post on July 17th, as she announced she would last month because recently reporting indicated she might stay on the job over concerns that Governor Abbott was planning to replace her with one of his advisors, a hard right former lawmaker and 2020 election denier.
But we checked with Nelson's office. They say her plans to resign have not changed, but we haven't heard from her directly, so we will see for sure. Later on this week, $1,500 checks for all. That is a campaign proposal from the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, Gina Hinojosa, wants those payouts to go to each household from the state's rainy day fund.
Hinojosa calls it a corruption tax refund, saying that the state is hoarding an unprecedented amount of money in its savings account and that it should be out in the state economy instead. Her campaign estimates the checks to every Texas household would cost $17 billion, but that the state would still have a healthy $10 billion in reserves even after those payments.
Closing the libraries to close a big budget gap. Furloughs shattered shuttered Dallas Public Library locations on Friday a disappointment for avid readers and citizens hoping to just beat the triple digit heat outside. This is part of city cost cutting to remedy a $30 million budget shortfall. Most nonuniform city employees will be forced to take three unpaid days off over a several month period in order to save money.
Well, big data centers are driving some big political fights here in Texas this week. We're getting into one of those fights right now. By one count. Texas is second only to Virginia with 466 operational or planned data centers here. Those mega developments that require a lot of land, water and electricity have gotten a lot of pushback because of concerns over the resources they use and the pollution they can generate.
Some Texas counties have experimented with stopping those developments, only to reverse their decisions when they're threatened. But the city of San Marcos, south of Austin, is now taking on Big Tech and possibly the state government too. By becoming the first Texas city to ban data centers. Amanda Rodriguez is the city councilwoman who spearheaded that effort.
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I think ultimately it comes to a decision by the council whether or not we continue to take the fight into the court, should it? Should it require that response? But I can tell you, for me personally, absolutely. I think it's ultimately within our authority, which is why I propose the amendment. We are a home rule city, and despite state preemption and all of the things in which the state legislature has done over the last decade to take that authority away from cities, I can't see why this is not within our authority.
And so if we need to be the precedent setting case, for me personally, if it was up to me, I'm ready for it. Have you all been hearing from other municipalities around the state? Oh, absolutely. I can tell you since the vote, I have had people from all across Central Texas, lawmakers from across Central Texas, from down south.
They want to know. They're watching it closely. They want to see how long and weather this sticks. It's making them eager. It is telling people. It is showing lawmakers the authority in which, in the ways in which we can accomplish what our people want. And so, absolutely, people are eager. They are looking to emulate.
And I have had no indication otherwise. And have you all heard anything directly from state leaders? We have not. We have not. I know that the Texas Tribune reporting said that Senator Betancourt was going to reach out to our city. It is my knowledge that has yet to happen. Normally when there are, there is concern.
The state is pretty swift. And so the timing and the delay is making this a whole lot more interesting. Okay, so the most talked about possibility for a challenge to San Marcos doing this is HB 2127, which was passed back in 2023, also known as the Death Star Bill by its opponents. Basically, it took aim at progressive policies in Texas cities, preventing them from enacting ordinances that go further than state law does.
It allows any citizen to sue a city to challenge them if it feels like they've gone too far. Is that the biggest threat that San Marcos is facing here right now? I think so. I think so. I worked the session where that was passed, and I can tell you when when we were, we were when we were staffing that bill. I don't think any of us at that time truly understood the devastation that that bill would carry.
And so seeing it from a municipal side, it is in the back of our mind a concern. Yes. But what for the people who don't know that Bill has not been successfully challenged in court? There's been speculation that because of this, we may see state government in this next legislative session possibly try to move to strip cities of the power to do this.
Are you concerned about that? I think that's a concern every municipality has every time the session meets, regardless of this issue. I can tell you in talking with lawmakers across the different municipalities. We expect that every time they gavel in for a legislation, a legislative session every two years, that there are further powers stripped away each time.
And so now it's a matter of the time we have in between each session. Do we want to sit here and utilize the tools that we still have, or do we want to sit here and govern in fear? And I refuse to govern in fear. And so, yes, it's absolutely a thought in the back of my head. But again, the fight continues. And that means that we have to take it to the state capitol.
Then we take it to the state Capitol. I think the nonpartizan nature, though, of the opposition could be a turning point. I think this issue, compared to a lot of issues I've been familiar with and worked around, feels different in that way. This is not a Partizan issue. This is very much people view it as a human issue.
They want the infrastructure to be able to survive. And that's water. That's clean air, that's a safe place to live. They want that prioritized over the profits for corporations and the like. Have you heard from people opposing these days, senators vociferously who are Democrat, independent, Republican.
Have you heard from all the above? Absolutely, absolutely. And I would even argue people who aren't even engaged in politics. I'll say that has been the biggest surprise, not even just the nonpartisan nature. It's the people who. This is the first issue that has compelled them to get involved, because they are so disheartened at what they're seeing across the country.
We will all keep watching what happens in San Marcos. Again, it has become the first Texas city to ban data centers. Council Member Amanda Rodriguez, thanks so much for being with us here today. I know that this is a really busy time. We really appreciate the discussion. I appreciate your interest. Thank you so much.
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Let's bring in our roundtable now to talk more about the politics of this. We've got Bud Kennedy here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Natalie Hadad, the political reporter at WFAA in Dallas, and Jessica Huisman, the editorial director at Vote Beat. Jessica, let's start with you. You heard the councilwoman there say that other cities are really paying attention to this.
She sees the floodgates opening in more cities in Texas trying this. You're out and about a lot. Do you think that that really is a possibility considering the challenges that may come? You know, I do. I think that the local cities in Texas have been willing to take on the Texas legislature on issues of local control before.
I don't see them backing down on this, especially since public opinion on this has shifted so quickly and fallen into place across both parties in the last couple of months. And I just don't see that going away anytime soon. And I think if city council officials feel like their position to act, they probably will.
Natalie, what do you make of this whole idea? The councilwoman says there that Senator Betancourt was there in the Texas Tribune saying that he will challenge this with the city. She says usually when they have run afoul of the state in this way, where the state thinks they've overstepped, they immediately get a response.
This vote was taken, though, weeks ago, and she says they've heard nothing yet. I'm sure that's. Yes, I agree that it is very interesting. It makes the timing of all of this very interesting, but I wouldn't put it past Senator Betancourt to at least try and take action against the city of San Marcos, because he's been very consistent on how he feels, especially when cities are working against what they are lawfully allowed to do.
Hence the Death Star bill that was on the table. And so I'm not going to put it past Senator Betancourt to bring action to the city. But what do you make of this? Do you think that maybe there is a little bit of a groundswell out there that that might be affecting Republicans? We're even hearing prominent Republicans coming out.
Jason, I want to make a point for everyone out there. It's very important to have a city to live in a city. If you don't have a city where you live right now, you need to start one before a data center wants to come into your land. If you don't live in a city, you live in the Wild West. Anybody can do anything they want.
In the state of Texas, a city can regulate the the location, the traffic. A city at least has some control over the development of an industrial property like this, a city won't be able to completely stop it. Yeah, but that means that there will be a big fight here. And some counties across Texas who've tried this can attest to what you just said.
They are much more hamstrung. Counties can't do it. All right, all of you stick around. We're going to come back with some more issues here in just a few minutes. Thanks for that.
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When we come back, an extraordinary public rebuke of Governor Abbott coming from another statewide Republican officeholder. He won't meet with me. He won't reply to my emails and never returns a phone call. Zilch. Crickets. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller takes his frustration with Governor Abbott public, saying that Abbott is benefiting big dollar data center developers at the expense of Texans and that it could cost Republicans in the November election.
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Also, a new stock exchange gets up and running in Texas. What it could mean ahead on Inside Texas politics
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this week an extraordinary rebuke of Governor Greg Abbott by a fellow state Republican officeholder. Just last November, Governor Abbott cheered big data centers in Texas, touting this state as the epicenter of AI development. But amid growing community pushback on data centers, the governor is now calling for next year's legislature to regulate data center water and electricity use and to eliminate the tax break they get, which has cost the state billions.
But Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says Abbott's new tough talk is just to buy time so he can get reelected. And so more data centers can be built ahead of new regulations. He's now challenging the governor to call a special session to deal with data centers right now.
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The clock is ticking. We don't have time. If we wait until the regular legislative session starts in January, the end of June. Uh, the laws won't take effect till September 1st, 2027. That's over a year away. We don't have a year. We got to get on this now. Uh,
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electricity. Our highest peak load was in 2023. In the summer, we used 85GW. This the current one? If we don't allow any more, just the current data centers, if they all go online,
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almost 500GW, more than five times our capacity, that that dog won't hunt. We. We can't do that. We've got to do something now. We can't wait over, over a year to do something. I first called on Governor Abbott to do a one year moratorium with us, and that would have allowed the legislature to meet, address this problem and get some perimeters around it, some guardrails.
He didn't do that. So, Commissioner Miller, this was one of the more, I think, interesting calls that I've seen from a top ranked Republican in this state aimed at the governor in this state. And I think the most pointed reference in here was, you said, is Governor Abbott genuinely committed to slowing this unchecked expansion?
Or is he sending a signal to data center developers, their investors and campaign contributors that they still have a window to accelerate projects so they can be grandfathered in before the legislature has the opportunity to act? That's not very subtle there. Are you alleging that that's what the governor's been doing here?
Well, right now, with the short of calling it a special session, that's exactly what he's doing. It's a wink and a nod to his campaign supporters that they're going to be grandfathered in. He's going to give them plenty of time to get done what they need to do. Uh, the only way that you get around that and stop it is a special legislative session.
Uh, you know, he even told the the Ercot, you know, to approve these, uh, electric connections and batches, but doing them one by one, just put them all in there and approve them all at once. Uh, you know, and in batches. So, uh, he's he's talking out both sides. He's actually burning the candle at both ends, and his fingers are going to get burnt in the middle because they're going to meet and he's going to have to pay the price.
The Republicans should own this issue, not the Democrats. The Democrats are on this issue. They're right on this issue. They want to stop the data centers. Republicans need to lead on this. We need to protect our consumers. We need to protect our our our rural Texans. And we're not doing it. And we're going to cede that to the Democrats.
And we're going to lose a lot of elections in the fall. Can you talk a little bit about what this is like in rural Texas? I mean, aren't there some people who like this? I mean, they're getting a lot of money for their land. Some of these municipalities or local governments there are getting a lot of money in tax base there.
Don't some people like this? Well, the locals are given tax abatements, so they're not really collecting the taxes. They hope to somewhere down the road. Uh, individuals are selling land at high prices. Those individuals like it, but their neighbors hate it. And the community hates it. And the town hates it.
The county hates it. And commissioners are going to be thrown out of office on their ear for allowing this to happen. So will city councilman that are backing this. Uh, this is the most serious subject in Texas right now. So are you getting an earful every time you're out in rural Texas right now about this issue?
Two issues take up my whole day. Screw worms and data centers. That's the two issues that are everybody's concerned with and not in that order. No, sir. Data centers are by far in the front. Hmm. Interesting. Uh, did you try to reach out to the governor personally about this? To to tell him. Hey, why don't you call a special session?
Why'd you choose to to do it this way? Where you did it publicly? Well, you know, I always reach out to the governor, reach out to staff. I've never gotten. I've never even got a meeting in 12 years with the man. He won't meet with me. He won't reply to my emails, never returns a phone call. Zilch. Crickets. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, thanks, as always for the conversation.
I'm not going to keep you from that inviting pool right there behind you at the ranch. That that's one of the best shots I think I've ever seen in a virtual interview. Maybe some maybe some other time. I've still got lots of work to do today. Thank you sir. God bless. Well, we got better than crickets, but not much better.
We reached out to Governor Abbott's office about the idea of a data center special session, and we asked him about some of those pointed suggestions Commissioner Miller is making about the governor's motivations and allegiances regarding data centers. But Abbott's office simply referred us to his call last month for the legislature and regulators to take on data centers next year in the session.
Other news now, Nasdaq and the NYSE are the biggest stock exchanges in the world. Combined, their listed companies are worth an estimated $68 trillion. But in 2024, a startup called the Texas Stock Exchange or Texas, announced it was taking them on. And now, two summers later, Texas started test trading this week and is scheduled to be fully live, trading thousands of stocks in the weeks ahead.
In addition to that monumental achievement, Those two big New York stock exchanges have also now opened their own offshoot exchanges in Texas to compete. It's a real credit to the Texas Stock Exchange for being the first mover and really being the catalyst that that moved the market from New York to Texas in a in a meaningful way, and one that the New York exchanges had to follow almost immediately.
That was Daniel Hoberman, head of corporate and investment banking at Texas Capital Bank in Dallas. He believes that these developments will accelerate the trend of Texas becoming a major financial center. 11 tier one universities. We have access to young talent in a way that is not comparable by any other state.
We have a great labor force. We have a great attitude, we have an incredibly supportive state government, and I think we're going to continue to see those trends. And and I hope when we look at the S&P 500. Ten years from now, there are more companies that are headquartered in Texas than there are in New York by a wide margin.
It will be interesting to watch this story play out. More roundtable coming up right after this break. Stay with us.
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All right. Let's get back to our roundtable now. We've still got Bud, Natalie and Jessica here with us. Let's start off with this quarter. Two fundraising for James Talarico in the Senate race. Bud pulling in $30 million, more than three times what Republican Ken Paxton brought in in that quarter. Is this a significant thing for James Talarico and for Democrats in general in this?
It's important for Texas Democrats because Democrats will win because of all the money that Talarico spends, whether he wins or not. You know, he he really needs to unite the Democrats behind him. And I'm sure all the Democrats are with him right now, but he will lift some other Democrats over the finish line.
Natalie, let's talk about what this means for Ken Paxton, though. I mean, he can still level this out a lot because the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the the party to be able to just pour money into these campaigns now. Yeah. To Bud's point, the money absolutely matters for Talarico. But let's think about the grassroots momentum that Paxton has got.
And remember, there's still a lot of what might be called Trump Republicans or MAGA who are very supportive of Paxton despite any baggage he may bring. And they are going to pour into him because they are going to try and change what typically happens in the midterms. And that is a change of power. All right.
New issue here for you, Jessica. Let's talk about closed primaries. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says he believes that that will pass in this next legislative session, where you now would have to register with a party before being able to vote in the primary. That'd be a big change here in Texas will be a huge change.
And I think voters should keep in mind that we don't have a system that does that right now. You do not have to register with the party, and you can vote in whichever primary you want. You can only vote in one, but you can pick which one. That is not the case, or that wouldn't be the case anymore. And we would have to create those registration Systems, and that's going to take some time and cost some money.
And so this is something that Texas cannot logistically do right now. It's going to take some commitment to get us there. And very quick follow up there. Could there be a downside there for Republicans. Yeah I think so. I mean, you know, I think that people generally like the open primary system in Texas.
It's easy. People can choose which party they want to vote for. It's popular generally. They've tried this in the past. It's not worked out. And I think the ideological sort of purity test that the Republican parties are putting behind their candidates in every state has driven us here. Right. I think the Republicans are more serious about this than ever.
But how the general population reacts, I think is is a is up for debate. All right. Thank you all. And thank you for watching. We'll see you again next week.