Perry addresses water, energy, and education

State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) addressed a wide range of issues before a crowd of local citizens and officials as well as Clarendon College RFO students during a town hall at the Harned Sisters Fine Arts Center Tuesday afternoon.

Perry is the main author of legislation that will help Texas develop water resources for the future if voters approve Proposition 4 on next month’s state constitutional election ballot. The effort would set aside $1 billion in state sales tax funds per year for 20 years starting in 2027.

“We’re 20 years late doing this, but it’s a start,” Perry said.
The senator also discussed the state’s efforts to increase public education funding in the last regular legislative session with teachers getting a substantial pay raise. He also discussed his work to improve discipline in schools, saying that some kids were ruining school for everyone. An example of how slow the political process can be, Perry said it took him three sessions to get his bill passed.

“Why would anyone be against removing kids from class for striking a teach?” he asked. “I don’t know, but that’s the world we live in.”

Perry addressed datacenters coming to Texas and said five such facilities are being planned or built in his district. Amidst public concerns about the energy and water usage of the facilities, Perry said the facilities will likely generate some of their own electricity and eventually sell some energy back to the grid, and he said the water usage could be limited if datacenters used closed-loop systems or took advantage of air-cooling methods.

Perry praised research going on at Abilene Christian University on new nuclear reactor technology that he says could help power data centers and also power future desalination projects to make brackish water usable.

The senator also touched on current events as well as the state’s roll in affecting local property taxes. He encouraged students to participate in government and not just go by what they hear on social media.

“You better be involved and engage, or our democracy won’t survive,” Perry said.

Discussing property taxes and the rise of appraised values, Perry said he will be filing a bill to try to control appraisals, but he said a bigger issue is the way the state has stepped in on local government.

“We’re on a dangerous path with the state stepping in to tell locals how they can tax,” Perry said. “What will happen is counties and cities eventually won’t be able to take care of roads and other things, and then it’s going to be a big issue and take a billion dollar bond to fix things.”

The senator’s final political topic was on the dangers he sees with the unregulated hemp industry in the state, and he closed his statement by encouraging people to have faith and stand on principles in life.