Texas Data Centers Are Growing Fast. We Can Welcome the Opportunity Without Writing Blank Checks.
Ryan Pollock, Executive Director of the Texas Building Trades Council


If you've noticed massive new facilities going up across Central Texas and around the state, you're seeing the leading edge of a major data center buildout nationwide. These projects support cloud computing, streaming, and artificial intelligence. For the construction industry, they represent a significant share of the work pipeline for the next several years, especially for crafts that are already in incredibly high demand.
The story being told about this boom is simple. Texas is perfect, approvals should be automatic, incentives should flow freely. But working people and taxpayers deserve to ask "What are we getting in return?"
The Texas Building Trades Council represents the men and women who will build these facilities. We want this work. Texans should be doing it under standards that reflect the scale, complexity, and public investment involved. Our position is straightforward. When public dollars are on the table, the public deserves enforceable commitments in return—good construction jobs, transparent deals, and communities that benefit long after the ribbon-cutting.
If they're coming anyway, negotiate
Texas is attracting data centers because of fundamentals: available land, strong logistics, major connectivity, and the capacity to build at scale. That is exactly why public giveaways should not be treated as automatic. When Texas is already an attractive market, incentives should not be a blank check. They should be treated like any serious investment decision: if public dollars are involved, what exactly is the public purchasing, what commitments are enforceable, and how do we verify performance?
If the argument is “they are coming because Texas works,” then it follows that Texans have negotiating power. We should use it.
What often goes unmentioned
Data centers create substantial construction demand, and we want Texans to capture that opportunity under standards that reflect the complexity, safety requirements, and schedule pressures of major industrial construction. When projects are planned transparently and built responsibly—with proper consideration for water systems, air quality, and local infrastructure—communities genuinely benefit from the construction activity, employment, and development.
But these facilities typically employ relatively few permanent workers compared to the scale of the build, while placing long-term demands on power and water systems. Without transparent planning, those demands can shift real costs onto residents and local budgets. Our members aren't just workers on these sites. They’re also neighbors, parents, and taxpayers living with the consequences. We won't support construction jobs that come at the cost of our members' own communities and quality of life.
This is avoidable, however, as strong construction opportunities and good deals for taxpayers aren't mutually exclusive. They just require transparency and accountability from the start. That's why we focus on the terms.
When transparency breaks down
In Taylor, a data center was approved on 87 acres that were deed-restricted for parkland[1].
The result was that, instead of a park, the neighborhood got a windowless industrial facility within 500 feet of homes. No public access. No local jobs. No community benefit.
This is what happens when communities lack leverage and developers face no requirement to negotiate terms early. With the right standards in place from the start, it's avoidable.
The workforce challenge affects everyone
Texas faces a skilled trades shortage that threatens every major sector, not just data centers. Electricians, pipefitters, and other crafts are already stretched thin across grid buildout, industrial expansions, and infrastructure projects statewide.
Without serious workforce development commitments, data center projects compete for the same limited pool of skilled workers. That drives up costs, delays schedules, and creates a squeeze that affects every project in the pipeline. Every major industrial project in Texas is competing for the same electricians and pipefitters.
That is why apprenticeship investment and workforce standards matter. They are not add-ons, they are how Texas builds the capacity to sustain growth.
Our standard: early engagement and enforceable commitments
We insist on accountability.
That means public approvals and public incentives should come with early engagement and enforceable commitments. Early matters because once incentives are granted, zoning is locked, and utilities make major allocations, the public’s leverage collapses. Early engagement is not politics. It is basic planning and risk management. It means developers and communities work through the fundamentals before incentives are finalized—workforce sourcing, infrastructure capacity, water and power demand, and timeline. Those conversations happen either early, when they're manageable, or late, when they turn into lawsuits, delays, and cost overruns. Early is better for everyone—owners get certainty, workers get clear schedules, and communities avoid surprises that tank public support.
Accountability also means that when a developer requests tax abatements or other public support, the public should receive measurable commitments in return. That includes a credible construction workforce plan that matches the project’s scale and timeline and reflects the reality that electricians and other crafts are already stretched thin. It includes jobsite standards that protect safety and quality. It includes real investment in apprenticeship and training, because Texas can’t meet rising demand—data centers, grid buildout, industrial work, everything—without growing the workforce development pipeline. All of this can only be guaranteed by a project labor agreement.
And it includes transparency about the value and duration of incentives, with verification and clawbacks if commitments are not met. How much is the abatement worth over its full term? What specific job commitments are being made? What infrastructure upgrades is the developer funding versus what the public is covering? These should be the basics of any deal involving public money.
Where we go from here
We will support projects that create real construction opportunities, respect the public, and protect the communities where our members live and raise families. We will oppose blank checks, long giveaways with vague promises, rushed approvals that shift environmental and infrastructure costs onto residents, and any development that degrades the quality of life for working Texans. If a project cannot be built without harming the environment our members depend on or without robbing them as taxpayers, then that project should not be built. Responsible development is possible. Texas is strong enough to lead the modern economy, welcome this growth, and still insist on fair terms that work for everyone.
The data center boom is here. The question is whether Texans will get a good deal and whether the work will be performed under standards that match the importance and scale of what is being built.