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It's a question almost every big Texas city seems to be facing: When is it okay for taxpayers to foot the bill for professional sports teams?
On Thursday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said taxpayers would be on the hook for about $150 million through the county's capital improvements budget to help the Houston Texans build a new state-of-the-art headquarters and training facility under a deal that is still being finalized. The county money would mostly be used for infrastructure improvements and not for constructing the actual facility.
While Hidalgo acknowledged it is fair to question why taxpayers need to help an NFL team worth billions, she said ultimately it is better to keep the team in Harris County than have it consider other counties and move those jobs.
"I think it is a good idea," Hidalgo said. "I think we are going to get more than what we put in in terms of jobs, in terms of quality of life."
It's not unlike the question political leaders in San Antonio have had to grapple with. That city and Bexar County are contributing $800 million to a new $1.3 billion downtown area. That doesn't include the cost of acquiring the land for the arena, which is expected to cost about $60 million, nor building infrastructure in the area to accommodate visitors coming to games and other events.
In 2020, the Texas Rangers moved into their new home at Globe Life Field in Arlington, thanks in part to voters in that city agreeing to pay $500 million to help with the project. And now, the Dallas Mavericks are scouting for a new home that could once again ask taxpayers to foot some of the bill.
In Harris County, Hidalgo said she understands taxpayer concerns. She said there is always a debate over when public taxdollars should go toward incentives to private companies — sports or otherwise. But she also called it capitalism 101, with teams and businesses willing to shop around and potentially move. In the case of the Texans, they had already been reportedly fielding offers from neighboring counties for their headquarters and training facility.
"Ultimately, we have to compete," Hidalgo said.
For the Texans, the proposed facility will be in the Bridgeland area in northwest Harris County, on an 83-acre site. It will be a public-private partnership between the Texans, Harris County, and Howard Hughes, which developed Bridgeland as well as The Woodlands.
As reporter Jonathan Alexander reported, the Texans have long wanted to build a new headquarters and training facility. They currently are one of only five franchises in the NFL to house their headquarters in the same building where they play home games.
"We want something world-class to match where we're headed, and to be competitive on the business side and on the football side," Texans owner Cal McNair said. "I think this allows us to do this a little bit better."
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's Up, Who's Down
A daily stock market-style report on key players in Texas politics.
Up: SpaceX
Elon Musk's company has begun work to double the size of its Starship launch complex in South Texas as it prepares to handle as many as 25 launches and landings a year. The mega-rocket's next liftoff could happen as soon as March, according to Musk, who recently said his commercial space firm has shifted its focus from colonizing Mars to first setting up a base on the moon.The pivot comes as the company prepares to go public later this year. Reportedly valued at $1.5 trillion, SpaceX expects to raise $50 billion in its initial public offering, which would be the largest ever.
Down: Department of Homeland Security.
A shutdown of the agency appeared certain Thursday as lawmakers in the House and Senate were set to leave Washington for a 10-day break and negotiations with the White House over Democrats' demands for new restrictions had stalled. Democrats and the White House have traded offers in recent days as the Democrats have said they want curbs on President Donald Trump's broad campaign of immigration enforcement. They have demanded better identification for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement officers, a new code of conduct for those agencies and more use of judicial warrants, among other requests. The Department of Homeland Security has just under 5,000 workers in Texas who could be affected.
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Susan Barber
A new episode of the Texas Take Podcast will get you ready for the start of in-person early voting on Tuesday. In it, we play some of the nasty attack ads airing in the Lone Star State. You'll hear about hot primary races for Congress in West Texas, a vicious proxy war playing out on San Antonio's airwaves and a fight for political survival in Houston for one of the city's big names. We'll also check in with the hot statewide races for Texas Attorney General and Comptroller. The Houston Chronicle's Isaac Yu, San Antonio Express-News's Bayliss Wagner and Drew Landry from South Plains College in Lubbock all join this week's episode to help me break it all down.
What else I'm reading
A lawyer for President Donald Trump has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Republican Brandon Herrera over the use of the president's image in a campaign ad. Reporter Gabby Birenbaum of the Texas Tribune reports that the letter, it reminds Herrera that Trump has given an "unequivocal endorsement" of Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, in the March 3 GOP primary.
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