Scott Felton was 67 and a recently retired Waco bank executive when McLennan County commissioners appointed him county judge to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Jim Lewis.
It was meant to be temporary service, but 13 years and several elections later, Felton is still at it, serving as the county’s top elected official and presiding over the Commissioners Court and its $216 million budget.
Felton, a Republican, plans to step down after next year’s election, but he’s got a full plate in the next year: working on big regional efforts to recruit industries, secure new water sources and complete the transportation network around the growing county.
Felton sat down with me and KWBU-FM reporter Molly-Jo Tilton last week to reflect on his career and the state of the county, including economic growth, data centers, water and a controversial redistricting
You can read a lightly edited transcript of our conversation below, or listen to the entirety of the interview on the show page for “Friday Forum with the Waco Bridge.”
Molly-Jo Tilton: You’re about to start your last year as county judge. What do you hope to accomplish in the time you have left on the court?
Scott Felton: Our court has been very motivated in working on economic development to the best benefit of the community. We feel like if we can grow the industrial side at a faster rate than the homeowner side, then the industrial side will carry more of the tax burden, to pay ahead for the services the county provides including law enforcement and road and bridge maintenance and repairs.
J.B. Smith: You started as county judge in 2012. I remember going to some commissioner meetings before that and I think the county budget was not in great shape.
SF: Correct, we had a $9 million negative budget and were consuming our unassigned fund balance, which is our cash position. That really affects you in access to debt and causes your debt risk to go up. …
The goal was to try to start building back reserves so we could have a good rating because we have to borrow money for long term investments. … That was our goal, and we set out to do it, and we got there within a few years.
JBS: Another thing I remember from that time was there was a push by some people to try to zero out economic development spending. You were opposed to that, and it never happened. Tell me why it’s important to keep investing in economic development even in down times, and how much of a result we can see from that.
SF: Well J.B., you used the right term, investing. When you’re doing the budget it’s not an expense item, it’s an investment and we do get a return on our investment. We have a contract with the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and their economic development team to interview these companies. …
If we cannot get a very positive return on investment, we’re not going to play ball with them. If we don’t have incentives going forward, then there’s a chance all we will get will be companies who come in and pay minimum wage or low wage.
Data center debate
MJT: One of the big stories we saw last month in economic development was a (proposed) data center that could bring in up to $10 billion in tax base for the county. … But there are some drawbacks that community members have been talking about – pollution, water use, electrical burden. How do you weigh those negatives with the positives of that investment?
SF: Well, a lot of those folks are exactly right about being concerned about those kinds of issues that are going to be in their back yard. Some of those issues are going to directly affect them. I’ve never been in a data center but I understand they have a noise to them. Plus breaking up the landscape of rolling hills to a big industrial asset there.
So I can understand the concern. The other concern is I’m told there’s lots of water being used, and of course, those are the things that build our future, having adequate water. This operation is addressing some of the power needs by putting in a gas fired power plant to generate some of the electricity.
The county has very little control over any of those things. The (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) does most of the inspections in regard to air quality and things like that,
So for the county’s purpose, we have not done anything. We’re still looking at it. I’m sure they’ll be asking for some kind of tax considerations.
JBS: Can you use those economic development incentives as a lever to get some of those concessions about water use, pollution and buffering the impact on the landscape?
SF: Absolutely, we can. After we look at the design side of it, we can figure out what those issues might be. If it happens. Texas is a property rights state, so many of these types of operations, big industrial sites, are negotiated between the landowner and user. … We can’t stop the project, is what I’m saying. Now, if not allowing incentives makes it not feasible, then that could be some control point. We’d have to weigh that against what return on investment would be.
JBS: Even if this is a few billion dollars, what impact would we be looking at? Would you be able to lower taxes? Build county parks? Build new roads? What possibilities does that open up?
SF: It would pick up a bigger part of the tax burden for the county, which would incentivize the county not to raise taxes.
Shoring up water supply
MJT: I want to talk about water. The Legislature passed a regional water authority (the Central Texas Water Alliance) which we’re going to be a part of. What do you expect the benefit will be to McLennan County?
SF: Bell County was the initial county to start formulating the idea of bringing water into our region to find the water we needed. … Knowing that the state is growing and our county is growing and water needs will get bigger and bigger, it seemed the right path is to start really looking at bringing additional water into the county.
JBS: That water is going to come from an aquifer some 40 or 50 miles east of here, the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. …Assuming that you’re able to get some of that, what does that open up for McLennan County? How would that water be used?
Felton: The criticism you hear of industries using all the water – you wouldn’t be hearing as much of it because we would have more water to share. As long as it’s used to grow the industry side to lower tax liability on the homeowner, it’s a good use of the water.
JBS: Could that be used for this data center?
SF: Absolutely.
Redistricting fallout
JBS: I did want to ask you a question about politics. The Commissioners Court this October redistricted their own precincts. Precinct 2 was one of those affected, which is a historically Democratic-heavy and minority-heavy precinct now held by Republican D.L. Wilson. The justification for doing that was to equalize the road maintenance budgets in those precincts. It does have the effect of including more Republicans in that precinct. Can you talk about that and what considerations went into redistricting?
SF: What you just said explained a lot of it. Let’s just take Precinct 2 … which includes Mart and Axtell, up to Lacy Lakeview and Bellmead, and compare it with Precinct 4, Ben Perry’s precinct, which is Woodway, Hewitt, China Spring, all those areas. It’s very fast-growing. And so our budgets are becoming imbalanced along with the fact that Commissioner Perry is representing a larger amount of people than Commissioner Wilson. So if you’re saying one person, one vote, it’s disproportionate. There are much more road miles in Precinct 4 than in Precinct 2. …
JBS: Do you think there is a perception that this is politically motivated?
SF: No doubt. No doubt about that.
JBS: I think a lot of people think of McLennan County as being a place where partisan politics is not driving political decisions as much. Do you think this is going to change that balance?
SF: Well, it changes the balance, from a political standpoint, no question about it. But I’ve often believed that the Commissioners Court might be better served if it was nonpartisan.
JBS: Do you think effectively you are nonpartisan, or is there a partisan agenda that Republicans on the Commissioners Court have?
SF: I would say that we’re mainly nonpartisan. I’ve worked hand in hand with the two commissioners before Wilson – Commissioner Miller and Commissioner Gibson – on many issues that didn’t have anything to do with partisanship. … But elections have consequences. So the consequence of us trying to balance all these hard issues that had to do with the budget, did affect the partisanship of each of those precincts – well, Precinct 2.
Looking back, ahead
MJT: You’ve been on the commission a long time. What do people think of McLennan County when they think of it from the outside, and what do you hope it’s going to be in 20 years.?
SF: As I travel around the state and country, McLennan County and Central Texas are considered a good place to live and raise a family and those things. …
We’ve been doing the right things for a long time. I think people are just now noticing what we are doing. …I think industry looks at us as a good neighbor and a good partner. … There’s a smaller regional medical community. We’re looked at as an educational area as well with Baylor, McLennan Community College and TSTC. So there’s a lot of positive things going on, and I couldn’t think of a better place to have all the right pieces in place to have good future growth.
JBS: So you feel like you’re leaving a good legacy for future generations.
SF: Like I said before, it’s the Commissioners Court that makes these decisions, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to lead that. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been a great part of my life but it’s time for someone else to pick up the reins.
