Galveston County, TX

No action by Galveston County's commissioners court or its cities on data centers is described in the sources WalletShock tracks. Statewide, the pending question before the Attorney General and the actions of other counties are on the Texas page.

See every county and city action on the Texas page

Adopted tax rates per $100 of value, 2021 to 2025, by taxing unit

Rates are as the Comptroller publishes them in its annual rates and levies files; the change is from the first to the last year each unit reports. A school district marked split reaches into more than one county; the rate is the same in each. TEA's adopted school rates, which run on the school year, are loaded beside these for the Step 9 comparison.

3 Chapter 312 abatement agreements the Comptroller lists for this county

• Gulf Coast Ammonia LLC & Texas City Eastman Chemic with Texas City, 2019 to 2031 (active)

  Commercial/Industrial; Expanding; City of Texas City Gulf Coast Reinvestment Zone #1 · property value $2,591,130 · expires 2031-12-31 · Comptroller record 000003921

  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Texas City, all property (lead taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • College of the Mainland, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10
  • Galveston County, all property (participating taxing unit): 100% of value abated for years 1 to 10

• ELDERBROOK LLC with HITCHCOCK CITY, 2026 to 2031 (active)

  Industrial/Commercial; A New Business; HITCHCOCK REINVESTMENT ZONE 2 OF THE CITY OF HITCHCOCK · expires 2031-12-31 · Comptroller record 000019900

  • HITCHCOCK CITY, all property (lead taxing unit): 60% of value abated for years 1 to 6

• Ashland Inc with Texas City, 2014 to 2019 (expired)

  Commercial/Industrial; Expanding; City of Texas City Ashland Reinvestment Zone · property value $20,704,530 · expires 2019-12-31 · Comptroller record 000004623

  • Texas City (lead taxing unit): 70% of value abated for years 1 to 7

The statewide data center sales tax exemption, by fiscal year

The Comptroller's estimate of state revenue not collected under Tax Code Section 151.359, in millions of dollars, from its January 2025 Tax Exemptions and Tax Incidence report. The large data center exemption is included in these figures. Statewide; no county share is published.

When the Legislature created the exemption in 2013, lawmakers were told it would reduce state revenue by about $14.6 million for the 2014-15 biennium, the exemption's first two years, KUT reported in July 2026. The same report put the current projection at roughly $3.3 billion for the 2028-29 budget cycle. KUT.

Who delivers your power

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric delivers power in Galveston County: EIA-861 lists CenterPoint Energy as serving the county, with 2,485,470 residential customers statewide in 2024, the most of the delivery companies listed for the county. Also listed for parts of the county: Texas-New Mexico Power (233,056 statewide).

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric's residential delivery charges as of September 1, 2026: a customer charge of $2.11 and a metering charge of $2.79 per month, and 0.06413 dollars per kilowatt-hour, which the PUC's report puts at $69.03 for a 1,000 kilowatt-hour month before the retail provider's energy charge. PUC of Texas, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric rates report.

What retailers are offering today

On November 1, 2026, Power to Choose listed 148 fixed-rate offers for homes on CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric (175 offers in all). At 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month the lowest was 6.20 cents per kilowatt-hour and the median 13.05 cents per kilowatt-hour, delivery included, as the site prices them.

The statewide average, by the same month

EIA's statewide residential average was 15.91 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2026, against 15.40 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2025, the same month a year earlier: up 0.51 cents. EIA table 5.6.A.

Five years earlier, in August 2021, the same statewide average was 11.94 cents per kilowatt-hour, so August 2026 stands 33.2 percent higher than the same month five years before.

EIA's annual statewide residential average for Texas was 11.71 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2020, the latest year in its annual file. EIA annual file.

Statewide figures: no county average is published. A month is compared only with the same month of an earlier year, since summer and winter prices differ.

What the state has on record for the grid

1. August 3, 2026

   statewide (ERCOT region)
   As of the Governor's August 3, 2026 audit directive, ERCOT was tracking more than 1,800 projects in its interconnection queue representing over 474 gigawatts, more than five times the grid's record peak demand, with approximately 90 percent of the new power requests being data centers, as the Texas Tribune and the Governor's office reported. Source, Detail.The Part E brief gives 474.7 gigawatts and 90.2 percent as of June 2026; the Tribune and the Governor's release say "over 474 gigawatts" and "approximately 90 percent". The rounded figures are recorded because those are what the cited sources print; the decimals go in when an ERCOT document stating them is added as a source.
2. August 3, 2026

   Statewide
   On August 3, 2026 Governor Abbott directed the PUC and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive verification and audit of every data center advancing through ERCOT's interconnection queue, with any project that fails to comply denied connection to the grid, as the Texas Tribune reported. Source, Detail.
3. June 10, 2026

   Statewide
   On June 10, 2026 Governor Abbott directed the PUC to take action so that data center interconnections result in reduced residential bills and to require data centers to pay all of their electric infrastructure costs, and directed the PUC and ERCOT to review their authorities and report by July 17, 2026, with the PUC to begin action on residential transmission costs by July 31, 2026. Source.
4. June 20, 2025

   Statewide
   Senate Bill 6 of the 89th Legislature, by King, was signed by the Governor on June 20, 2025 and took effect immediately; it gives ERCOT oversight of transactions between generators and large loads such as data centers and authority to cut and redistribute their power in an emergency, as the Texas Tribune described it. Source, Detail.

ERCOT's queue figures are statewide or by load zone and are never broken down by county.

No facility-level dataset of data center water use exists in Texas. No state agency publishes how much water any data center takes, and the Texas Tribune reports that the state does not holistically track water use by the industry, there being no uniform way for reporting or tracking it. Figures for a proposed facility come only from what a developer, an official or residents have said in public, with the source named.

What has been said about proposed facilities here

No water figure for a proposed data center in Galveston County has been reported in the sources WalletShock tracks.

Pages checked with no published figure

On September 24, 2026, WalletShock opened 98 pages across Texas looking for a water figure tied to a specific data center. The pages below mention facilities in Galveston County and give no such figure; each is linked so a reader can look for themselves. Where a page could not be read in full (a paywall, an unreadable document), its title says so.

No page opened on September 24, 2026 mentioned a facility in Galveston County.

Searched, with nothing published found

• Houston-area hyperscale or AI campuses (Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Waller, Liberty, Chambers and Galveston counties): no facility-specific water figure found; coverage was limited to local rules in Conroe, Missouri City and Brazoria County.

A list of pages opened is a record of what was looked at, not proof that no figure exists. When a figure for a facility is published, it belongs in the reported figures above, with its source.

What the county uses

Galveston County's municipal water use in 2024 was 49,518 acre-feet (1,340 from groundwater, 47,619 from surface water, 559 reuse), serving an estimated population of 367,407, in the Water Development Board's historical water use estimates. TWDB.

Water use by category in 2024, acre-feet

• Municipal49,518
• Manufacturing45,380
• Mining4
• Power3,276
• Irrigation5,670
• Livestock105

Whose groundwater district

The county's center point lies in the Harris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District. TCEQ record.

Groundwater conservation districts permit and regulate wells in their area; the boundaries are TWDB's file, current as of November 2019 per its GIS data page, and are approximate.