Point of View May 21, 2026 – Hour 1 : American’s for Prosperity

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View, and now, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And welcome to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews, sitting in for Kirby Anderson today, and I'm so glad you're listening today because you're going to love the show.

[00:00:28] Joining me in studio, Genevieve Collins. She is the Texas Director of Americans for Prosperity and a proud seventh generation Texan. I am only sixth generation, so I feel overshadowed here. She was a congressional candidate in Dallas where she lives, and she was an NCAA championship rower, along with the Olympic Development Team rower. Is rowing as hard as it? I hear people say this is just, it's really, really exhausting.

[00:00:58] It is. And it doesn't look like it should be because you're just kind of rowing back and forth. No, it is the greatest paradox where rowing utilizes every muscle in your body, and you go from your largest muscle group, which is your legs, then to your core, then to your arms. And people always think, oh, it's just all arms. And it's like, no, it's actually all legs. And your body switches from aerobic capacity to anaerobic capacity within about 40 seconds of a race.

[00:01:27] So you're basically spending six to six and a half minutes in sheer lactic acid agony. So on the outside, it looks beautiful, coordinated, you know, and it looks great. It just looks great. So when you're rowing and you've got another team here next to you, does the lead person speed up the timing somehow or the other? I mean, I've seen the movies where the Roman galleys, they beat the drum faster.

[00:01:54] Yeah, you have a coxswain, which is basically a tiny person with a Napoleon complex yelling at you. And this person is lovely but dead weight, and their job is to steer the boat and keep you on pace and on time and help you compete because you're not supposed to look outside the boat. And so they're the ones that say, okay, we need to take up the strokes per minute by four.

[00:02:18] And then the stroke seat, who's the person that sets the pace, they have to feel what speed is, and then everyone else follows them. Oh, my. Well, you are the president of Americans for Prosperity, Texas. So Americans for Prosperity is nationwide. I mean, it's around. So tell us a little bit about Americans for Prosperity, and then we'll talk about Texas. Sure.

[00:02:38] Americans for Prosperity was founded about 25 years ago and for the sole purpose of building a nationwide grassroots infrastructure. Because what we're seeing at the political level is that a lot of the conversations are happening at the top, so under the dome and in meeting rooms. But the people don't have a loud advocate, a way to organize, or to have a voice.

[00:03:06] And so Americans for Prosperity really does the simple thing of connecting people with policy across the country and then helps them galvanize and activate their voice to create the change that they want to see in policy. Now, how long have you been president of Americans for Prosperity, Texas? Five years. Five years. And there used to be, I can't remember her name, somebody else who was doing this for a while. And she and I used to work together at times years ago. Yeah, Peggy Venable. Peggy, that's right. I couldn't remember the name. With the governor's office.

[00:03:35] She does the governor's office of appointments. She leads the governor's office of appointments. So you've been there five years. What have you learned as you've been doing this? Because how many employees do you have? So I've got a total of 73 employees. We've got 25 full-time staff and the rest are part-time staff. And so what have I learned through this process?

[00:04:00] It's that we have so much more as Texans and as Americans in common than we do that divides us. I know that that sounds so trite. But in this world that seems so complex and that we are divided in camps and we're not allowed to talk to one another, the reality is that when you look at taxpayer issues, and those are the issues that we focus on,

[00:04:24] so property taxes, your actual taxes, health care, education, energy, immigration, criminal justice, housing. When you look at what taxpayer issues actually are, people have a lot of common ground. And you have what we call unlikely bedfellows. And our job is to help bridge those divides. And it's actually quite easy.

[00:04:50] You just have to have someone help open the door to help facilitate a conversation. And it turns out that when you put people in the driver's seat, they can get a lot done in terms of public policy creation. Do you consider yourself a think tank? Do you consider yourself just an activist organization? Or are you a lobbying organization? What kind of organization are you? I would say we are a do tank. Okay. So we do have policy. We have a massive policy team, and we write public policy.

[00:05:20] We have our own policy points of view. But we also connect real people with policy and have bottom-up solutions. So Dr. Merrill Matthews might have some really great ideas on health care. Well, maybe we should listen to him and have him go talk to his legislator, have him galvanize his community, and come meet at the Capitol, come speak around the state. And we really try to give people a platform to tell their story, share their perspective, and get something done.

[00:05:49] Texas seems to be sort of a battleground of a lot of ideas that are going on, and we initiate many of them. What are some of those battleground issues? Well, it depends on the day. No. I think in this political environment we are in this week, since we're in runoff elections, that is changing. The battleground issues are ever-changing in terms of whether it's social issues or tax issues.

[00:06:18] The real issue, I think, that we're going to see play up politically and in policies really around the economy. How are we reducing inflation? Are we creating jobs? How are we looking at people's property taxes and ensuring that folks can not be paying an arm and a leg to stay in the home that they already own? How do we fund our schools? And how do we rightfully fund our health care?

[00:06:46] All of those are really economic issues, but they just happen to be kind of used as political football when convenient. One of the things you mentioned on the website is that – and we think of Texas as a very sort of forward-leaning freedom state. And yet you say we are the fifth most regulated state. We are the 20th in regulatory reform. And we're the seventh biggest in property taxes, seventh largest property taxes.

[00:07:13] That doesn't match what I think Texas should be. Correct. That's why we have to fight it. So we are – I wouldn't say we're in great company when it comes to regulations. So we're behind California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey. Say it ain't so. It is. But the good news is that hope is on the way.

[00:07:37] We – so last session we had 274,941 regulations, not words, regulations in our regulatory code. That's crazy. For a state that really shows – says like we're a free market state, we want competition, we want innovation, we can't have this crazy amount of regulatory red tape.

[00:08:01] So that being said, what we did is pass the Texas – the first Texas Doge, and they've already taken out 69,000 words, which is – I mean, may not be a lot to many people, but it's a lot of redundancy, and it's ensuring that Texas is starting to get back on a better path. It's an important point because there are a lot of redundant regulations out there, and sometimes they're sort of close to each other, and you're not sure, should I follow this regulation or that regulation?

[00:08:30] We're talking with Genevieve Collins. She is president of Texas – of Americans for Prosperity Texas. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Have you seen that OpenAI is now offering a chatbot known as the Shepherd, which is a Christ-like shepherd offering an empathetic ear and compassionate guidance? In case you're wondering, the guidance comes from input provided by Reddit. In the past, I've reminded you of the phrase garbage in and garbage out. It's really hard to take seriously an AI chatbot that learned about the world from Reddit. Alex McFarland has been a guest on my radio program many times.

[00:09:30] As you might imagine, he has a few things to say about this AI chatbot. He says, The mind of Jesus derives from the historical record of the New Testament, not Reddit. Artificial intelligence may seem like an amazing cost-saver to cash-strapped ministries, an instantly available counselor for those desperate for answers, but it can't replace a human counselor guided by the Holy Spirit. I think it should be obvious to most people that an AI counselor, even if trained by solid biblical content,

[00:09:58] would never be as effective as a private session with a counselor who can provide biblical principles and guidance face-to-face. At a time when so many Americans are dealing with anxiety and loneliness, what we don't need is more screen time with an AI counselor. A few months ago, I talked about how AI was influencing the church. One survey found that a majority of pastors use AI to prepare sermons. At one end of the spectrum are AI tools that help you polish something you are writing. On the other side is the reality that AI wrote the sermon.

[00:10:27] We shouldn't be surprised that AI has moved into the counseling field. It is one thing to use a search engine to see what the Bible and even prominent Christians teach about mental and spiritual issues. It's quite another to make AI your shepherd. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view. Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net.

[00:10:55] That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And you're back on Point of View with Merrill Matthews, and joining me in studio, Genevieve Collins. She is president of Americans for Prosperity Texas, and we're talking about some of the issues around Texas. In a little bit, we're going to talk about what we're learning about in Texas, how that is being addressed in other states, some of the ways they're addressing things,

[00:11:23] and what we need to do to sort of implement some of these reforms. Genevieve, one of the things you're working on is property taxes. In Texas, we don't have a state income tax. Yay! Yay! I think we're about seven states, seven or eight states that don't have a state income tax. We fund a lot of this with property taxes. I've heard some rumblings of people who say we need to eliminate the property tax, and I wonder, okay, so much of our funding comes from property tax. Talk about property tax reform.

[00:11:53] So property tax reform is the idea that in order to help people keep more of their hard-earned money in their own pockets and help ensure that they're able to stay in their homes longer, we need to look at the entire system of how we're taxed locally and at the state level. So last session, or excuse me, for the previous two sessions, so in 2025-2023,

[00:12:20] the Texas state legislature has sent cumulatively $51 billion back in terms of taxpayer money, back to taxpayers in the form of property tax relief. So we were supposed to feel that when we got our tax bill, our assessments. Unfortunately, I was going to say it didn't feel that good. I sure didn't. My property taxes went up. Yes. And that's the common case for most people. And so what we found is that relief is very temporary,

[00:12:46] and it's also not flowing down to taxpayers because it's being gobbled up by local governments who are continually overspending. So I'm working alongside Governor Abbott, and AFP is working on an entire property tax reform package because we want to make permanent the opportunity for people to not have to pay as much in their property taxes.

[00:13:13] So the governor's laid out a five-point plan, one to basically cap local government spending at the same rate that the state is, so population plus inflation. They're currently held to no standard. Why can't there be parity with the state budget than there are local budgets? Number two, appraisal reform. We're getting appraised every year. Every property, not just homes, these are business properties, these are being appraised on an annual basis,

[00:13:41] and the ceiling to which they can be appraised is 10%. No one starts at 5%. They always go to the ceiling, and then you have to protest your taxes. Well, the governor has proposed that instead of getting an appraisal every one year, you go to every five years, and instead of 10%, you go to 3%. The next is making sure that when people vote for bond elections, for example, or voter-approved tax rate elections, that there's a two-thirds majority.

[00:14:09] Right now we have a simple majority rule on a vote can carry the motion. We believe that raising the threshold to make it harder to raise people's taxes in voting is the right way to do that. Fourth, there's an opportunity for people to protest their taxes as a community to roll back their rates. And lastly, the governor is proposing that the government, state government budget,

[00:14:34] should be taking on the maintenance and operations portion of our property tax bills. So that's about half of our property tax bills usually makes up the maintenance and operations. He argues that the Texas Constitution stipulates that the state government has to pay, or is responsible for paying for K-12 education, so the state should be picking up that tab, not homestead owners. Now, you have traveled around the state, some with Governor Abbott, and listened to people in the local districts and so forth. What are they telling you? What are their complaints?

[00:15:05] One, that they are paying way too much in property taxes. You know, it's quite simple. Our property taxes are going up exorbitantly. And worse, people aren't feeling any relief. The state has been really purposeful on sending money back to taxpayers, but no one's really getting it unless you are a senior. And those property tax rates have been frozen for seniors legislatively.

[00:15:31] So people are really kind of fearful that they can't pay their taxes. They're disappointed in the government for spending, for asking them to pay so much. And they're just exhausted because they're having to pay, you know, $5,000 to $50,000 on property tax. And if you live on a fixed income, $5,000 is a lot of money. So it's been fun.

[00:16:01] I was voluntold by Governor Abbott that we were going on tour, to which I said, yes, sir, I am excited. But the reality is, like, AFP, our goal is to be the taxpayer champion. And if we are not the voice of taxpayers in helping them advocate for their best interest while also meeting the needs of our state budget, then we're not doing our job.

[00:16:25] And so we're having these events all across the state where we have state lawmakers signing up on these bills, on this framework alongside the governor and I. And we're really selling this not just to lawmakers to get on board with doing this, but for them to hear from their own constituents and their communities that people are exhausted and they feel like they're being taken advantage of, even though the state doesn't burden,

[00:16:53] propose the property taxes, all that's done at the local level. The state has to step in because local governments are abusing it. If you get your wish, because it doesn't sound like you're eliminating property taxes. That's correct. But probably lowering them. Correct. If you got your wish, how far would they go down? By half? Would they go down by a third? What would we be looking at? Probably about half.

[00:17:19] And the largest portion is taking the maintenance and operations portion of tax out of people's homestead bills. So that would honestly cut your bill in half. And we think that having some sort of fiscal responsibility across all of Texas, with local and state government functioning in parity the same way, is the right model for Washington, D.C. to follow. They haven't figured out how to spell budget.

[00:17:45] But we think that this is the right way to take care of your citizens, to fund your state, and to set up a model for everyone else to look at. Well, Washington has. It's spelled T-A-X-I-N-C-R-E-A-S-E. Yeah, there you go. There you go. But would the state still be able to do everything it does if it cut those property taxes in half? It would. Because our state is growing and we operate at a surplus.

[00:18:13] And so the governor's proposing and his budget team, they've done all the math, and they've proposed that we can simply pay for the maintenance and operations portion out of our surplus. Yes. Another issue important to our listeners, education. Yes. And you're involved in education. What are you doing there? So AFP has been on the front lines of passing school choice policy in the state of Texas. We believe that you should fund the student, not the system. Finally got it done. Finally got it done. It only took 40 years.

[00:18:42] I was going to say, as long as I can remember, it's been an issue. Oh, Dr. Matthews, my dad told me, he said, you're never going to get this done. He was so skeptical. My family has been involved in school choice policy since the dawn of time. And my dad was so skeptical. I said, Dad, I will get this done. Now, it was me and a whole lot of other people. But we helped, I would say, help retire some legislators who did not believe that school choice policy needed to happen.

[00:19:10] Did some serious elbow twisting in some of this? Indeed, and we were very helpful on that and very persuasive in certain districts that some folks just needed to go. So, you know, politics is a blood sport, and sometimes you have to get a little bloody to get the right thing done. Did we pass something like you wanted, or does it meet all the things that you wanted in there? It really does.

[00:19:34] So, what we passed was 100,000 students getting the opportunity to choose the school of their choice at the tune of a little more than $10,000 per student. The average, let's say, parochial or private school across the state of Texas is about $8,000 to go to. So, we went to, we are a little bit more than $10,000 per child.

[00:19:58] And one of the things I'm proudest of is that we fought for, we fought to ensure that students in low-income homes and students with disabilities had the first, they were the first people in line. We wanted to make sure, like, if we're serious about kids not being trapped in failing public schools, then we need to ensure that those kids get the first lifeline. Rich people already have school choice.

[00:20:21] We need to make sure that we help support our low-income families well below the poverty line and at poverty line, and then also do right by students with disabilities. So, I was really happy we did that. And then secondarily, we wanted to make sure that we were able to measure student progress, but not in the same way that they have to be a part of the,

[00:20:45] I think it's the tax test, the end-of-the-year test, no, excuse me, the STAR test. So, it's a terrible, we believe it's a terrible way to measure student progress. There's a lot better ways, and we built that into the system. My guest for this hour is Genevieve Collins. She is president of Americans for Prosperity Texas. You can find out more about her on our website, pointofview.net.

[00:21:10] We have information about that, how you can go to the website and find all the things that they're doing there at Americans for Prosperity Texas. Tongue-tied. Stay with us. We'll be back on Point of View. Have you ever met a child you knew would do great things?

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[00:22:05] to the barrage of misinformation from the mainstream media, and the lack of moral grounding in our society. It's not that Americans aren't capable of understanding the truth. It's that they aren't exposed to it enough. You can expose more Americans to the truth when you give to Point of View, where listeners receive facts, perspective, and biblical truth they don't get from society. As long as we have truth, we have hope.

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[00:22:54] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And we're back on Point of View. Joining me in studio, Genevieve Collins. She is president of Americans for Prosperity Texas.

[00:23:23] And we're talking about some of the things that AFP has done here in Texas. In a minute, we're going to talk about what they're doing nationally. But, Genevieve, you talked about getting the school choice in Texas, one of the most conservative states out there. It took us decades to get this done. Surely. Do we – is there more to do there? Do we want to – you talked about 100,000 students. Do we want to try to expand that? What's happening there?

[00:23:45] So the goal is absolutely to expand how many students have eligibility and enrollment for school – for a Texas education freedom account. That's what we're calling them. T-E-F-A. Say that three times fast. And can I use that to go to a Christian school? Can I use it to go to a home school? You can. To just a little community school that a group of families have created? Yes. It's for all types of schools. This was a big thing that I really cared about, making sure it wasn't just private schools.

[00:24:14] But it was private schools, home schools, micro schools, learning pods, online virtual schools. We wanted to give the most flexibility possible because children learn in very different environments. My sister and I grew up in the same house, and we had two very different life experiences growing up in the same house. Same thing is true for education.

[00:24:36] So now moving into the 2027 legislature, we have the data to prove through the comptroller's office – that's our – here in Texas, that's what we call our basically chief financial officer – 274,000 families signed up for 100,000 slots. It's the largest – not only does Texas have the largest school choice program in the country, we also had the largest one month.

[00:25:02] That's all parents had to enroll their child into this program, and a quarter of a million families chose to enroll. So there's clearly demand for this, and we need to make sure that we fund more opportunity for school choice policy, and we're putting more money into that. So that is what we're going to be looking at doing in the next Texas legislative session. One of the issues that's happening in Texas, but it's happening all over the country, is declining enrollment in public schools.

[00:25:31] And I listen to people talking about this, and they're not entirely sure – some people may be going to private schools or homeschools, but they're not entirely sure what's happening there. Oh, I hear this all the time, and it's a convenient scapegoat for large school districts in Texas to say, well, school choice is taking away these vouchers – I'm using air quotes for you listeners –

[00:25:56] these vouchers are taking away our students from our public school education system. Well, the reality is that we just have declining enrollment. We don't have as many children enrolling in these schools, and we have children and families moving to different districts. So parents have the opportunity to move closer to their business, or now that so much work is online,

[00:26:19] families are moving to bigger homes out in more rural communities, which is moving away from suburban and urban centers. You know, that's not only going to be an issue for schools, but it's also going to be an issue for entitlements like Social Security. If we have fewer people, they're not going to be paying into that system much later when you're going to be on Social Security. Merrill, I'm not getting Social Security. I said much later. I turned 40 in a month, and I know for a fact I am not going to get it.

[00:26:49] So there's other demographic changes going on there. But Dallas, I think, just recently passed the largest bond issue for education it had ever passed. In the state history. Yes. Are we going into debt to do some of these things just because we don't have the money to do it? So Dallas ISD passed a $6.5 billion, excuse me, $6.2 billion bond.

[00:27:13] $5 billion of that money was allocated to building 26 new schools. Updating infrastructure, HVAC bonds can only be done for infrastructure projects. Unfortunately, bond elections cannot go into classrooms and raise teacher pay or support education. It actually just, it's walls, ceilings, floors, and what's inside the walls.

[00:27:42] Unfortunately, that's tables, computers. It's all infrastructure and equipment. So Dallas passed it with flying colors. What was interesting is, you know, a lot of the people that voted for the bond happened to live in the high-income areas. And there was a lot of signage for passing the bond in those areas, whereas in the low-income areas across the city, there was no talk of the bonds. There was no voter turnout push or quite minimal.

[00:28:11] So these bond elections are, in my opinion, deceiving, but they're up to the voters. And ultimately, the school district has to make the case for what they need, and they should. This is our tax money. They should make the case. You know, in McAllen, they wanted to build a mariachi band theater for $36 million. Well, make the case, you know.

[00:28:40] Like, I think that we should want our school boards to have to be transparent and make an informed plea for why they need all of this new stuff. One of the things that we saw in the last major election is Hispanics ended up voting in larger percentages for President Trump and Republicans. And you have a segment of yours, Libre, I believe it is, that reaches out with Hispanics. Tell us about that. So the Libre initiative is 15 years old.

[00:29:09] It was founded by a gentleman named Daniel Garza. Only in America could you grow up in a family of almond farmers and then grow up to be a cop. And Daniel grew up to be a cop and then a city councilman in the great state of Washington. And ultimately, he was able to work on Hispanic engagement under the Bush White House. Only in America can a story like that happen.

[00:29:33] And he decided that we needed to focus on Hispanic engagement and making sure the Hispanic community was reached out to. Conservatives have, by and large, for the last hundred years, ignored the Hispanic community. Or let me rephrase, abdicated, talking to them consistently. And Democrats had. And so he said, Hispanics, by and large, are conservative. We believe in the family. We believe in God.

[00:29:59] We believe in fiscal responsibility and taking care of each other. By default, we are conservative. However, no one's talking to us. So the Libre initiative was founded to do just that. It's to help communities get connected to the policies that they already believe in but that no one's talked to them about. Now, Americans for Prosperity, you've got chapters all over the country. That's right. Are other chapters doing things similar to what you're doing here in other states?

[00:30:29] I would say we push the envelope a lot here in Texas. You know, like any humble Texan, we all believe that Texas has to lead the way. And so I want all my peers and fellow presidents of their chapters to try to chase what we're doing in Texas and replicate what good policy and good people and good governance looks like. What other successes are they having? Are they doing school choice in other states? Are they getting taxes cut in other states?

[00:30:57] So a lot of states, yes. So a lot of states are passing school choice like West Virginia, Iowa, Arizona. School choice, I mean, we're one of the last to go, but we did it the biggest. So I guess it doesn't matter when you catch the train, just that you're on the train. So school choice policy, there's the RAINS Act. That's been something that AFP has been really focused on. It's a regulatory efficiency act.

[00:31:22] It's kind of basically saying that the legislatures need to reclaim their power and not abdicate it to the executive branch and ensure that there's regulatory efficiency alongside that. So that's something that AFP has been leading in other states. And then, unfortunately, other states have income taxes.

[00:31:41] And so my peers have been working to reduce or completely abolish the state income tax in their states, like South Carolina or Iowa, South Dakota. One of the things I've noticed is that several states, like all red states, have been lowering their state income taxes significantly. And that's been a huge plus for people who have to pay that state income tax. Yeah, it turns out that people want to keep more of their hard-earned money.

[00:32:11] Go figure. Yeah, you know, it's the strangest thing. But ultimately, people want to attain the American dream and attain the life that they want for themselves. And if they get to keep more of their money and not have to pay into the government, that's usually a pretty good deal. Your message is likely well accepted here in Texas among a lot of people because we're a conservative state.

[00:32:32] But I would think in some other states, your group may be getting some pushback because they're coming with a free market freedom message that some of the socialists and politicians don't necessarily like. Well, we have socialists here, unfortunately, here in Texas. But, you know, our team operates in Washington State, which is very socialist or turning that way. Wisconsin, I mean, we're all throughout the Northeast.

[00:33:00] So we're across all 50 states, but some of us have a little easier time than others. My guest for this hour is Genevieve Collins. She is president of Americans for Prosperity Texas. When we come back, we want to talk about some of the things that they'd like to be able to do, some new initiatives that need to be implemented at a time when you've got some states that are just really going in the wrong direction. You can find out more about Genevieve on our website, pointofview.net. I encourage you to go there, find out how to reach out to them.

[00:33:30] And I'd encourage you to do that. You might even make a donation to Americans for Prosperity. So stay with us. We'll be back for our last segment with Genevieve.

[00:33:59] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And we're back on our final segment with Genevieve Collins. And, Genevieve, we've been talking about a number of the issues that you are involved in. But you're also involved in energy. And that is a big issue, not just in Texas, but across the country right now. Absolutely. I think we're at war. And that's affecting a lot of our energy prices right now. It is indeed. So we would be remiss to not talk about it.

[00:34:27] Here in Texas, my point of view is that when Texas is energy dominant, America is energy abundant. Right. And our allies are nationally secure. So that being said, how do we look at the energy makeup of our state? Texas has the most renewables within our portfolio. I think some people are surprised by that. We have the most renewables here. We, like, in order of magnitude. It's over 40% of our mix is renewables, solar and wind.

[00:34:57] I mean, it is pretty windy in the panhandle. It is indeed. And it is blazing hot with nothing to do in the middle of West Texas, so we might as well use the sun. But how do we look at other technologies like nuclear, looking at small modular nuclear reactors, molten salt reactors? How do we look at other types of energy that we can bring online, not just, you know, our typical mix of oil, natural gas, solar energy, but how do we look at Bitcoin and mining? How do we look at data centers? And what are they doing?

[00:35:26] The data centers are every state, I say every state, many states are having to deal with the data centers, as so many companies are wanting to try to implement large data centers that are going to be energy hogs, as I understand it. Yeah, I'm in the process of trying to understand the complexity around the issue, because I see both sides, right? You have these massive data centers that do consume a lot of energy, and some of the older data centers, they're potentially raising rates for their local rate payers.

[00:35:56] But now a lot of data centers are co-locating their own energy, like in their own plants, on site. So, and they're not, because they're co-locating their energy on site, they're not attached to our grid. So they're not removing energy out of their grid. However, there's a lot of, like, water. There's this argument around, like, well, what are we doing with water? Data centers use a lot of water. Well, many of the data centers have closed-loop systems.

[00:36:23] So how is that really affecting our water supply, you know? So that's what I'm trying to understand, the complexity of that issue. And we are using our grassroots communities to help us really understand how they're feeling and how are they seeing this as a local issue. Because a day without data centers, at this point, it means a lot of our phones and lights don't work.

[00:36:47] So how do we balance what our communities want with the need for innovation and to ensure that we don't let China win this big battle on quantum and AI? I'm not sure what the solution looks like yet. And that's one of the things that AFP does really well is we say, hey, wait a second, we need to study this issue. But more importantly, we need to listen to what people are saying. Because a lot of people are right.

[00:37:16] There's got to be a way to have mutual benefit where Texas can be the lead innovator in AI and beat China and make sure that we're nationally secure without sacrificing our communities and our precious natural resources. There is definitely a solution. Don't know what it looks like yet, but that's what we're trying to sort out. Are there other bond issues out there? Well, yes, there's always bond issues.

[00:37:42] Unfortunately, our local governments have put Texas citizens into $500 billion worth of debt. So you mentioned the Dallas ISD bond. So it was $6.2 billion for a bond package. Well, Dallas already has $6.5 billion in debt. So they doubled their debt overnight.

[00:38:05] And what we're seeing is that these local governments, whether they're school boards, municipality utility districts, community colleges, you name it. There's all these taxing entities. They're raising people's debt a lot. And we want to make sure that people actually know about it. The Texas Bond Review Board has a website, and it's super transparent.

[00:38:33] And we're encouraging other states to be this transparent to see it's now going to cost $94,000 in debt for my child, who's 10 months old, to go to school. That's how much debt he's going to carry on in just one year. And by him, it's his head that I'm paying for, you know, and so over time. So we're just trying to make sure that when we think about bonds, people know that it's a tax increase.

[00:39:02] People actually show up to vote. That's a real issue. You know, bonds are in off-cycle elections. We need to make sure that they're on the same election cycle as most of our elections. Do the bonds ever get paid off, or do they just pay interest from now on? No, they never get paid off. Have you ever heard of one? I don't know. I've never heard of one. We both know that you're much smarter than I am, and we both know the answer is no. I've never heard of one being paid off.

[00:39:29] Yeah, Dallas ISD, in the $6.2 billion bond that they just passed, a portion of the bond is to go pay off old bond debt while they're still accruing new interest on the new bond. So it's just, it's a total sham. And like in town just north of Dallas, it's called Van Alstine. They had a bond election last November. There's no election in November of an even year, or excuse me, of an odd year.

[00:39:57] So they passed a bond. They proposed an $350 million bond. Do you know how many people live in Van Alstine? How many? 7,231 people. I want you to guess how many people showed up to vote in a $350 million bond election. 40. Close. 80. Huh?

[00:40:20] And 43 of them decided no, and 37 of them said yes. So a simple majority, 43, voted no, so the bond didn't pass. How about that? But can you imagine it's 1% of the whole community that showed up to vote on $350 million of debt being passed on to each of those taxpayers? We've talked about the 250th anniversary of America here on Point of View several times.

[00:40:49] You're doing something with that regard. Yes. Listen, what a great time to be alive. We're living in the greatest nation on the history of the planet, and we get to celebrate America's 250th birthday. What a time. So we at AFP are hosting our big celebratory event not on July 4th, but on Friday, November 13th. Not my favorite day.

[00:41:14] However, we wanted to make sure that we were celebrating our veterans. So we wanted to do an event around Veterans Day to celebrate America's 250th birthday and make sure that people know that being an American requires participation. And so to that end, here in Dallas and folks listening, you are welcome to join us Friday, November 13th at the National Medal of Honor Museum.

[00:41:40] We're going to have a military fitness challenge at the museum alongside the secretary of the VA, Doug Collins. We also have Commander Major Carlos Ruiz is scheduled to come. He's the number two person active duty in all of the Marine Corps. And then a couple other major headliners scheduled to speak and join us all alongside a workout to honor our veterans,

[00:42:06] to realize that being an American requires participation, but service to our country, our communities, and our family are really important. Sounds great. Now, talk a little bit about Americans for Prosperity, your website, which isn't AFP. It's a little bit different. So talk a bit about that. So you can go find out all the information about Americans for Prosperity Texas at our website. It's super easy to remember. Freedomisbigger.com. Everything's bigger in Texas, and I'm making sure that freedom is part of it.

[00:42:35] So visit us at freedomisbigger.com or on Twitter at Texas AFP. Well, thank you, Genevieve, for joining us and telling us what AFP is doing here in Texas and some of the other things it's engaged in around the country. When we come back, we're going to be talking about Radio Christi. This is a group that works with students and so forth on Christian apologetics, how that's set up, what they're doing, and how they're achieving their goals. So stay with us. We'll be back on Point of View.

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