Years After Mega Tax Break, Cryptomine Pays Less Than $8K to City of Corpus Christi

By Julia Strong, Beatz Alvarado

Highlights:

• Councilmember backtracks on championing local cryptomine.
• Public information requests reveal serious lack of oversight and enforcement of Industrial District Agreements.

Terms/Definitions:

• Industrial District Agreement (IDA): Legal contract that keeps certain industrial projects (ie. refineries) outside of city limits and exempts property owners from paying traditional property and sales taxes, as well as franchise fees. Companies instead give PILOT payments to the taxing entity (ie. City of Corpus Christi).
• Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT): Negotiated fees outlined in an IDA that are a fraction of what the taxable property value would be if there was no IDA between the taxing entity and the company.

A cryptocurrency mine’s Industrial District Agreements (IDAs) with the City of Corpus Christi are coming under scrutiny after news coverage exposed that they were poorly negotiated and are actively depriving city coffers of much needed revenue amid its “water crisis.”

At-large councilmember Roland Barrera, who helped broker the IDAs between the City and the cryptomine’s original owners in 2022, told the Texas Observer this month he now thinks the agreements should be terminated.

Two IDAs were established between the cryptomine’s original owner, Bootstrap Energy LLC, and the City on March 29, 2022. The agreements granted uniquely large tax breaks to the energy-intensive project.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Site Quietly Begins Pulling Water Amid Drought

Read more: Who Are the Largest Water Users in the Coastal Bend?

As part of the agreements, the City agreed not to collect about $70.5 million in traditional property and sales tax revenue, as well as franchise fees, on the cryptomine’s large electric load over a 10-year period. Bootstrap touted in 2022 that the site is powered by two 300-megawatt (MW) substations, which can power more than all residential housing in Corpus Christi at any given moment.

In exchange for the $70.5 million in forgone revenue, as well as not providing city services for site operations under the IDAs, the City Council was originally promised up to $31.7 million in “Payments in Lieu of Taxes,” also called PILOT payments.

From 2022 to September 2025, the varied cryptomine’s owners gave a total of $7,396.17 in PILOT payments to bolster the City’s General Fund, according to public information requests shared with Chisme Collective and reporting by the Texas Observer.

Ninety percent of PILOT payments from all IDAs go to the City’s General Fund, while 10% is equally distributed between the Street Maintenance Fund and the Residential / Local Street Fund, according to the City’s adopted Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26.

Long-time opponent of IDA agreements between the City and surrounding industrial projects, District 2 councilwoman Sylvia Campos, lamented the loss in revenue.

“This bitcoin (mining site) is the latest for the city and is not even close to fulfilling any of its obligations," she said when PILOT payment totals were shared with her.

"They are Trojan horses. We need to put a stop to them."

HOW TF DID WE GET HERE?

In one fell swoop on October 10, 2023, Bootstrap amended one of its IDAs to scale back its mining plans to develop a battery storage facility and reduced its PILOT payments to the City significantly.

The agreements approved by the City Council in March 2022 promised investments of more than $1.1 billion over a 10-year period, which was dropped to about half – $630 million – in 2023.

PILOT payments for the City were also reduced from the promised $31.7 million to $13.9 million.

In addition to reducing revenues for the City via the new agreement terms, the collection of PILOT payments from the cryptomine’s varied owners, as well as the enforcement of other IDA stipulations, have proven to be a problem.

For example, in October 2025, the City had only billed $4,426.12, according to public information requests obtained by Chisme Collective in 2026. That’s about .2% of what should've been billed that year.

Furthermore, City staff also neglected to penalize mining operators for missing a construction deadline for the battery storage system that had been extended during the October 2023 City Council meeting.

Per the agreement, if the battery storage system was not in place by December 31, 2025, the company agreed to give $100,000 in PILOT payments to the City.

As of the publication of this article, the battery storage system was still under construction.

On June 9, after more than 15 email inquiries from a concerned community member, city staff confirmed they billed mining operators the owed $100,000 for breaching the IDA, according to emails shared with Chisme Collective.

Defaulting on PILOT payments, or breaching the terms of an IDA, should’ve also resulted in the mining site being annexed by the City and stripped of all tax breaks. That has not happened.

IT GETS WORSE

In the fall of 2024, city staff renegotiated more than 80 of its active IDAs with corporate partners in a bulk move during executive sessions, which are closed to the public. Both agreements for the cryptomine were renegotiated then. 

City of Corpus Christi IDA Negotiators 

• Heather Hurlbert, (former) Assistant City Manager 
• Michael Rodriguez, Deputy City Manager
• Miles Risley, City Attorney 
• Ryan Skrobarczyk, Director of Intergovernmental Relations
• Amy Cowley, Director of Management and Budget 

Industry IDA Negotiators

• Valero Energy Corporation
• CITGO Petroleum Corporation
• Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY)
• Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (Exxon Mobil Corporation & Saudi Basic Industries Corporation SABIC)
• Flint Hills Resources (formerly Koch Petroleum Group)
• LyondellBasell Industries
• The Chemours Company
• Equistar Chemicals (subsidiary of LyondellBasell)
• Buckeye Texas Partners
• TPCO (Tianjin Pipe Corporation)

Two members of the City’s IDA negotiation team have left their positions, citing the current political climate. Then Assistant City Manager Heather Hurlbert resigned in September 2025, according to reports. City Attorney Miles Risley also announced this month he will retire.

During the 2024 renegotiations, City staff agreed to extend the duration of all IDAs by 5 years, opting to lock the City into the agreements for 15 years instead of the traditional 10.

Renegotiations also resulted in the cryptomine operators having to pay 0% on new property improvements for the first four years, an extension from the original IDA stipulations that required no payments for the first two years.

The original section of the IDA regarding Business Personal Property also no longer exists. This was to be the largest source of revenue for the City.

The City would’ve received an additional $6.8 million over the span of 15 years if the section was left intact.

CAN THIS BE FIXED?

It’s unclear whether the loss in revenues for the City can be legally recovered. It requires a formal request for a public discussion by three council members, also known as a three-person memo. 

Mark Muenster contributed to this report.