SpaceX Seeks Starbase Tax Breaks for a $24 Billion Power Plant and Super-Compute Facility
A City of Starbase notice sets a Dec. 9 hearing on Chapter 312 and Chapter 380 agreements for a gas-fired plant and computer facility on about 444 acres near the Port of Brownsville.
SpaceX wants Starbase to consider tax breaks for a gas-fired power plant and "super-compute facility" whose initial phases are estimated at about $24 billion, according to a City of Starbase public-hearing notice posted on the city's ordinances and notices page.
The Starbase City Commission will take the proposal up at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 48491 State Highway 4. The notice does not approve anything. It invites the public to be heard on two proposed agreements: a property-tax abatement under Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code and a related economic-development agreement under Chapter 380 of the Texas Local Government Code.
The Texas Tribune reported the news Tuesday afternoon, calling the project a $24 billion data center and power plant just outside Brownsville.
What the notice actually says
The applicant and property owner is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a Texas corporation. The site is described as an approximately 444-acre tract inside Starbase city limits in Cameron County, just east of Brownsville, between Boca Chica Boulevard and the Port of Brownsville, listed as Cameron County Property ID 171887. It would be in the Cameron County Enterprise Zone, which state law treats as a reinvestment zone for tax-abatement purposes.
The estimated $24 billion is "capital investment for initial phases of the project," the notice says, "which may be constructed over multiple phases and include future expansions." It does not say how large a tax break SpaceX is seeking, how long it would last, how much water or power the facility would use, how many jobs it would create, or when construction would start. Those answers are not in the notice.
SpaceX did not respond to the Tribune's questions about the project.
How the land left Brownsville
According to the Tribune, Brownsville de-annexed the tract earlier this year at SpaceX's request. The company offered to fund $220 million in city water and wastewater projects and pressed for a quick vote, the Tribune reported. After the de-annexation, Starbase annexed the land. Brownsville's 90-day data-center moratorium, which the Tribune said took effect last week and covers the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, would not apply to land already outside Brownsville.
Brownsville stood by the de-annexation, the Tribune reported, saying it was based on information available at the time, that the sale was between private parties, and that the $220 million would fund water infrastructure. The city also said it takes data-center concerns seriously and will evaluate future de-annexation requests independently.
Dock Line has not independently reviewed Brownsville's de-annexation ordinance; those details are attributed to the Tribune.
The statewide fight over data centers
Texas has seen a wave of local moratoriums and state scrutiny of data centers over power, water and utility bills. Gov. Greg Abbott directed grid operators in August to pause some data-center connection requests pending audits, the Tribune reported, though a project that supplies its own electricity might not need a grid hookup. The gas plant in SpaceX's notice could, in theory, serve that purpose; the notice itself does not say whether the facility would connect to the state's grid.
Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged a statewide pause on data-center approvals until lawmakers act "to protect Texans." We covered the limits of that promise in Hinojosa Promised a Ban on New Texas Data Centers Until Lawmakers Act. Here Is What Could Change in January. A December hearing in Starbase will test how far a local tax deal can move before a new governor takes office in January.
South Texas Environmental Justice Network has announced a protest, arguing the facilities would pollute the air, use water and raise energy bills, the Tribune reported. Brownsville teacher Janie Melendez told the Tribune that SpaceX has brought jobs and that her home's value has tripled since the company arrived, and that she tries "to find a balance in everything."
Count the cost in public
A $24 billion figure in a hearing notice is not a finished deal, and a tax abatement is not free money. It is a decision about whose taxes pay for roads, water and schools while a private plant and computer hall go up. Jobs and higher property values are real goods. So are air, water and honest electric bills.
Luke 14:28 asks, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?" Starbase commissioners should put the abatement terms, water use, emissions and job promises on the table before Dec. 9, and residents should show up and ask. Texans elsewhere should watch too. If a project this large can be planned around a city moratorium by moving a property line, the next Legislature will have to decide whether statewide rules mean anything.
