Austin Republicans Silence Rural Texas Communities

Just how business friendly do we want to be?

That’s a question Texas’ Republican leaders seem to see very differently than their constituents in rural Hunt County, and the difference is becoming more troubling over time.

While the folks in Austin love to brag about all the corporate relocations to Texas from high-cost states like California, they’re less keen to talk about a different development that’s quietly causing frustration in rural areas all over the state: the steady transfer of regulatory power away from local communities and into the hands of state government.

Here in Hunt County, we’re seeing that erosion manifest itself in two ways. Unwanted data centers are being forced upon us, and gigantic new neighborhoods are being built with little regard for whether the roads, water systems and other infrastructure are ready to support them.

The message from Austin is clear. “We’re going to let big businesses do what they want, whether you like it or not.”

There’s always been a tradeoff that people make when they choose to live in the country. Rural areas generally don’t have zoning rules and come with fewer restrictions on how you can use your land. For those of us with a libertarian streak, that freedom is part of the appeal.

But country people also understand the downside. Your new neighbor might put in a smelly chicken farm across the road. Someone might use their land in a way you dislike. That’s the risk that comes with freedom.

The risks from data centers and giant home-building companies are on another level, though, from traditional rural worries.

People in Hunt County are finding that the beautiful, peaceful farm and ranch land that make them love this area are being eyed for noisy, resource-hungry data centers or jam-packed with houses and concrete. And while that’s always been a risk when rural areas urbanize, what makes this situation so much worse is that the local people feel like we get no say-so in what happens right around us. We feel like we have no recourse and no control because, well, we don’t. Republicans in Austin took that away from us and handed it to big business on a silver platter.

CEOs moving from California love it. But the people who’ve built their lives in Lone Oak, Wolfe City, Campbell and Caddo Mills don’t. We want a voice in what happens in our communities. Those decisions need to be made at City Hall or the County Courthouse, not in Austin or Washington.

There’s a big difference between being business-friendly and letting billon-dollar companies have a free-for-all with our land. We can see the difference here in Hunt County. We’re not stupid. And the longer it takes the state to fix this issue, the more rural voters are going to re-think who we want holding power in Austin.