Rick Jackson
Data Hub Development
Running for Governor of Georgia
Mr. Jackson,
My name is Danny Proctor, and I live in Bowie County, Texas, approximately 4 miles from the project you have a financial interest near Hooks, Texas.
I am writing to you personally because I took the time to learn your story, but I also took the time to listen carefully to what you have publicly said about data centers.
You came from poverty and built a level of success most people could scarcely imagine. That accomplishment deserves respect. You know firsthand what it means to grow up without wealth, connections, or powerful people advocating on your behalf. That is precisely why what is happening here troubles me.
Hooks, Texas, is a small community of roughly 2,500 people. According to the recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the median household income is approximately $ 43,555 and about 25.2% of the residents live below the poverty line. That means roughly one out of every four people in this community lives in poverty. These are not numbers buried in an economic report. They are our neighbors.
They are teachers, farmers, ranchers, retirees, parents, and working families. They do not have corporate lobbyists, teams of attorneys, political influence, or millions of dollars with which to make themselves heard.
What they have is their home and this is where I believe your own words matter.
You have repeatedly told Georgians that communities should decide whether they want data centers. You said publicly that “every community needs to have control of whether they have a data center or not, full stop”.
More recently, you wrote that a data center should not be built without the support of the local government and the local community. You said the people who must live with the consequences deserve a meaningful voice. Those are strong words.
Now you have an opportunity to demonstrate whether they are also a standard you are willing to live by. Because, Mr. Jackson, a principle should not stop at the Georgia state line.
If communities in Georgia deserve the right to decide whether a data center belongs in their backyard, why should the people of Hooks, Texas, deserve anything less?
If local residents in Georgia deserve transparency, meaningful participation, environmental safeguards, and a clear local benefit, why should those same expectations not apply to a Texas project in which you have a financial interest?
Your public position creates a very clear standard. The question now is whether your actions in Bowie County will meet it.
Before you close on this property or make an irreversible commitment to this project, will you personally ensure that the people who live with its consequences are heard?
Not informed after the decisions have been made. Not given a presentation after contracts have been signed. Not told what economic development officials have already decided what is best for them. Citizens should be heard before a deal is done. That distinction matters even more because your project would not exist in isolation.
Our area is now facing four data center developments within a roughly ten mile radius. One is the proposed site along I-30 west of Hooks in which you have an interest. Another is associated with TexAmericas and a third is located between FM 1398 and FM 2253, the Leary area, which is adjacent to my home. A fourth is being discussed across the state line on the Arkansas side along highway 71 north. Four major developments in one small rural area. At some point it becomes irresponsible to evaluate each project as though the others do not exist. Who is studying the cumulative impact. What will four facilities do to our water, air, and sound pollution? What will it mean for electricity demand, noise, air quality, roads, emergency response, property values, schools, agriculture, and long term character of our community?
I have spoken to Rob Sitterley of Ar-Tex Redi about some of these issues. I was told that the facility would use a closed-loop water system and would not significantly affect local water supplies or pressure. When I asked what ultimately happens to that water when it must be removed or replaced, I was told the company would “take care of it”. Respectfully “we will take care of it “is not transparency. It is not an answer that should satisfy families, whose wells, farms, homes, property, and futures may be affected. We deserve specifics.
1. Where will the water come from?
2. How much water will ultimately be required?
3. What happens when the water (assuming a closed loop system) must be removed from the system?
4. Who will monitor?
5. What happens if it fails?
6. Who bears the responsibility if neighboring landowners or public water systems experience consequences years from now?
The same level of transparency should apply to noise, power generation, emissions, emergency preparedness, infrastructure demands, environmental safeguards, and any other long term impacts.
If this project is as safe and beneficial as its proponents believe it to be, there should be no reason to avoid answering those questions publicly before construction begins.
Economic development organizations naturally talk about investment, construction spending, revenue, and tax benefits. A multimillion dollar payment does not make the wrong decision the right one. A billion dollar investment does not automatically make a project beneficial to the people who must live beside it.
The real question is much simpler;
If substantial tax abatements or other incentives are requested for this project, the people of Bowie County deserve to know exactly what they are being asked to give up and exactly what they will receive in turn.
1. How many permanent jobs will actually be created?
2. How many will realistically be filled by people who already live close by?
3. What will the average pay be for those jobs?
4. How much tax revenue be abated?
5. How much infrastructure will the public be expected to support?
If millions of dollars in potential tax revenue are surrendered, what measurable economic benefit reaches the community where roughly one in four already live in poverty? This question should matter to you in a very personal way.
I understand you have executives, attorneys, engineers, and consultants who handle projects of this size, however they cannot make the moral decision in your place. Ultimately, you have to decide whether the standard you are asking Georgia voters to trust is also the standard you are willing to follow when your own money is involved.
It is easy to say communities deserve control when speaking from a stage, it is harder when millions of dollars are on the table. It is easy to call for transparency when discussing someone else’s project. It means more when transparency could complicate your own project. It is easy to say that the people who will live with the consequences should have a meaningful voice. The real test comes when those people are standing in front of you asking to be heard. That is where we are now. I currently represent the concerns of over 3,000 Bowie County citizens that do not think they have a say in your project or others.
We are against the idea that rural communities should have less influence over their own futures because the people developing around them possess more money, more attorneys, more political connections and more power. Technological progress does not eliminate the obligation to protect our citizens.
OUR HEALTH MATTERS, OUR WATER MATTERS, OUR PROPERTY VALUES MATTER, OUR CHILDREN MATTER, AND OUR VOICES SHOULD MATTER BEFORE THE DEAL IS DONE.
There is always another tract of land! There will always be another development site.
Families have spent decades or generations building their lives here and cannot simply pickup their homes and history and move somewhere else because industry has decided their community was an attractive place to build.
So I am asking you directly:
Do you absolutely need to build this project on this particular site?
Will you personally meet with the citizens who live near this site before you close on this property?
Will you give the residents of Hooks and Bowie County the same meaningful voice that you have publicly said Georgia communities deserve?
And if the people of this community overwhelmingly tell you that they do not want this development site here, will their voices actually matter? Because that is the question your own public statements raise.
Mr. Jackson, You know something about poverty that most billionaires never will. You know what it means to come from a place where more powerful people make decisions and families without money or influence live with the consequences.
Today, you are no longer the person without power in that equation, you are the person with the power. You have asked Georgians to believe that communities should come first, here is your opportunity to prove that those words are more than a campaign position.
Come to Bowie County / Hooks, meet the families and answer their questions without consultants, press, or talking points.
Why would you come to see us? Because to a corporation this is just another project. To an investor it may be just another asset. To an economic development organization, it may be another announcement, but to the citizens it is our homes, land, where we raise our children, IT IS OUR HOME.
I would welcome the opportunity to sit across the table from you and personally have a constructive conversation.
Respectfully,
Danny Proctor, Bowie County citizen