One $5 billion campus, or 750 new houses. Here is what each one pays to our schools and our fire and ambulance service every year.
A data center has a small staff. 750 houses fill the schools and cost money to run.
No school buses. Almost no cars. Very few fire and ambulance calls.
School debt and fire and ambulance taxes stay in the county. The state cannot take them.
How we got these numbers. Full build-out, every year. The 750 homes are valued at $350,000 each, minus the $140,000 school break homeowners get. The campus is a business, so it gets no homeowner break. These are deliberately conservative figures that assume a typical tax break on part of the school operating tax; at full taxable value the total is higher.
Two honest notes. The state can take back part of the school operating tax from a property this big. But the $20 million school debt piece and all $10 million for fire and ambulance stay here, 100%. The exact total depends on the final value and any tax break.
The campus pays more than $50 million a year to our schools and emergency services. That is a big number. Here is what it looks like in real things.
Teachers, medics, deputies. Their pay is the biggest part of any local budget.
The debt piece stays here and the state cannot touch it. That keeps bonds off our ballot.
Few kids, no buses, no new schools. So almost all of it is money in, not money out.
How we got these numbers. The school share is more than $40 million. At the Bastrop ISD average teacher pay near $60,000, that is about 650 teachers. The roughly $10 million for fire and ambulance covers about 80 firefighters and medics. The $20 million is the school debt piece, which the state cannot take back. These are examples to picture the size, not a real budget.
One honest note. The state can take back part of the school operating money. So the clearest local wins are the debt piece, the fire and ambulance money, and the school costs the campus never creates.
A $5 billion neighbor helps pay for the same county services across a much bigger base. And it brings very few kids to school and almost no cars onto our roads.
Our county, our fire and ambulance service, and our school debt all get paid from a bigger pot. When one property pays tens of millions, there is less reason to raise the rate on everyone else. And since the campus brings very few kids and almost no traffic, it does not force new schools or wider roads. A subdivision usually costs more than it pays. This neighbor is the opposite.
Tens of millions a year to schools and emergency services. Far more than any house.
Few kids, no buses, almost no traffic to widen roads for.
A bigger tax base means our slice of the bill gets smaller.
How we got these numbers. We used about half a student per new house, which is on the low side, so about 375 kids for 750 homes. Teaching one student costs Texas about $13,000 a year, so $5 million is a careful estimate. A data center has a small staff, so it adds very few students, far below a subdivision, though not literally none. The school tax numbers come from the tax sheet.
Two honest notes. This is a simple does-it-pay-for-itself view. Texas school funding is more tangled, and the state sets most school operating rates. The clearest local relief shows up in the county, fire and ambulance, and debt pieces, plus the school costs we avoid. And a data center brings few jobs, so its case rests on the taxes it pays.
A campus puts more tax value on each acre than almost anything else. That means less pressure to pave over open land somewhere else in the county.
Every acre used well is an acre that does not get developed somewhere else.
A lot of value on a small footprint takes the pressure off the rest of the county.
Value packed on one site keeps the country around it looking like the country.
How we got these numbers. Rough estimates. A campus of about 200 acres worth $5 billion is about $25 million an acre. A 750-home subdivision on about 250 acres is worth far less after homeowner breaks, near $1 million an acre. Farmland is taxed on what it grows, often near $1,500 an acre. The three are so far apart we show them as plain numbers, not a chart.
One honest note. The real per-acre value depends on how big the campus is, which changes by project. But the gap stays huge under any fair guess.
The scary water numbers come from one kind of cooling. A closed-loop building recirculates its water and uses about what a handful of homes use.
The cooling water goes around in a sealed loop. It is not boiled off, so it is not used up.
One building uses about what five to ten houses use. Not per home, the whole building.
A closed loop saves water but uses more electricity. That is the honest debate.
How we got these numbers. Each closed-loop building runs near 2,400 gallons a day at peak, about 876,000 gallons a year, which is less than 8 million and close to what five to ten Texas homes use. A whole campus of several buildings still stays under 8 million gallons a year. The other kind of cooling, called evaporative, uses hundreds of times more.
One honest note. Closed-loop is not zero water, and it uses more electricity than evaporative cooling. So the real argument moves to the power grid, not the water.
Hard to picture gallons? Put the campus next to houses. A whole data center building uses about what a handful of homes use, while a new subdivision uses far more.
One closed-loop building uses about what five to ten homes use, for the whole building.
Add the buildings up and the campus still uses less water than a small neighborhood.
750 new homes use roughly nine times the water of the whole campus.
How we got these numbers. A Texas home uses about 255 gallons a day, near 93,000 gallons a year. A closed-loop building uses about 876,000 gallons a year, the same as five to ten homes. A whole campus stays under 8 million gallons a year, fewer than about 85 homes. A 750-home subdivision uses roughly 70 million gallons a year.
One honest note. These are annual estimates for a closed-loop design. A campus using the older evaporative cooling would use far more, which is exactly why the closed-loop design matters.
A closed-loop campus uses less water than one golf course or one irrigated field. And it pays back far more than either.
As the county grows, this land becomes something. The choice is what, not whether.
A campus gives back more per acre than almost anything. That protects land elsewhere.
No smokestack, little traffic, and with closed-loop cooling, none of the big fans.
About these numbers. Water per place, per year. A big food or drink plant uses about 1 million gallons a day. A golf course, 100 to 160 million gallons a year. A 130-acre field of corn, about 85 million. A closed-loop campus, about 8 million. The $5 billion value and $63 million a year in taxes are in the tax sheet.
One honest note. A data center hires fewer people than a farm or a plant. Its edge is a small footprint and a big tax base, not jobs.
The real worry is power, not water. In 2025 Texas passed a law, Senate Bill 6, that makes big power users pay their own way and lets the grid shut them off first in an emergency.
Big users pay to hook up to the grid, including the wires and the studies. We do not pay for it.
In a grid emergency, they can be told to power down or run on backup, with a day's notice. Homes come first.
They must tell the grid about on-site backup that can run at least half the site, and the grid can call on it.
By the end of 2026 the state is setting rules so big users pay their fair share instead of pushing costs onto us.
Hooking up a big user is the developer's cost, not ours.
In an emergency, the grid can power it down so our lights stay on.
On-site power and batteries can help the grid when it is needed most.
Where this comes from. Senate Bill 6 passed the Texas Legislature and was signed in June 2025. The shut-off rules apply to big users that connect after December 31, 2025.
Two honest notes. The grid's long-range forecasts are uncertain and many think they are too high, so the growth is real but the headline numbers are not settled. And the cost-sharing rules are still being finished through 2026. A Bastrop project's protections depend on its own hook-up deal.
A property tax bill is appraised value times a rate. Add one giant new taxpayer, and the same county budget can be covered with a smaller rate on the rest of us.
One property paying tens of millions covers costs the rest of us would otherwise split.
More taxable value means the same budget needs a smaller rate. Loudoun's fell 38%.
Rates are set by budgets each year. A big taxpayer helps, but our leaders still decide.
Where this comes from. Loudoun County, Virginia, the largest data center market in the country, cut its real estate tax rate by about 38% since 2010 as data centers grew its tax base. A bigger base lets a county pay for the same services at a lower rate.
Two honest notes. A data center does not lower the appraised value of homes, and it does not push the rate down by itself. Elected officials still set the budget and the rate every year, so Bastrop's result would depend on those local choices.
Bastrop is going to grow. The real question is what kind of growth. Next to the other things this land could become, a data center is the quiet, low-traffic, high-value neighbor.
| What goes here | Trucks a day | Main downside | Tax base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distribution center | 300 to 1,000 | Diesel, noise, traffic | Medium |
| Quarry or rock mine | Heavy, plus blasting | Dust, blasting, shaking | Low |
| Oil wells | Heavy while drilling | Flaring, fumes, spills | Strong, then fades |
| Heavy factory | Medium | Smokestack fumes | Medium |
| Closed-loop data center | Almost none | Screened and quiet | $5B, the most here |
This land becomes something as the county grows. The choice is what, not whether.
A campus gives back more per acre than almost anything, which protects land elsewhere.
No smokestack, little traffic, and with closed-loop cooling, none of the big fans.
About these numbers. A big warehouse can bring a few hundred to about 1,000 truck trips a day. A Walmart center reported near 300; large delivery hubs can hit 1,000. A data center brings only staff and a few service trips. The downside and tax notes are general. Oil wells put real value on the rolls, but it drops off as the wells run dry, unlike a fixed campus.
One honest note. Factories and warehouses hire more people than a data center. Its edge is footprint and tax base, not jobs.
The full-time staff is small, but building it is real money: a year or more of trades workers, local concrete and steel, and the hotels and diners that feed a crew that size.
This comes whether or not the full-time staff is big, and it lands before the doors open.
Data center work pays more than normal construction, so local trades come out ahead.
Concrete, wiring, dirt work, and the food and rooms for the crew all get spent here.
How we got these numbers. A big campus can have more than 1,000 workers at the peak, over an 18 to 36 month build. Industry pay data puts data center construction near $81,800 a year, about 32% over the typical $62,000.
One honest note. Construction jobs do not last forever. They are a real, big burst of local spending, not a permanent payroll. The full-time jobs are on their own sheet.
A data center is not a jobs machine, and saying it is would only invite the attack. Here is the honest picture: a big build crew, a smaller full-time team that is well paid, and a pull for the next employer.
Saying it plainly, fewer full-time jobs, is what keeps the rest believable.
The techs and engineers earn $80,000 to $150,000, well above the local middle.
The power, fiber, and name draw the next employer. That is where more jobs come from.
How we got these numbers. A big campus keeps more than 200 full-time staff once running, in operations, security, and management, with tech and engineer pay often $80,000 to $150,000. The build crew, more than 1,000 at peak, is bigger but temporary.
The honest part. A factory, a warehouse, or a chip plant all hire more people. The case for a data center is its taxes, its low demand on services, and the businesses it pulls in, not its headcount.
The region is growing no matter what. Turn the campus away and Bastrop still gets the traffic, the housing crunch, and the demand on services. Just without the money to pay for them.
The Austin area is spreading into Bastrop with or without this one project.
A campus turned away here lands in the next county and pays its taxes there.
Bastrop still pays to serve the growth, just without the tax base that would have helped.
The point. The growth is coming either way. Saying no to one project does not lower the housing, traffic, or service demand. It just moves the tax base, the jobs, and the construction money to whichever county says yes.
One honest note. A spot can be truly wrong for a campus, and no can be the right call. The point is that no is not free. It costs the money we give up while the growth still arrives.