January 7, 2026 – A work session was held at the Hopkins County Courthouse on Tuesday, January 6, 2026 to discuss the possibility of a tax break for Cobra Industrial Activites, Inc. Cobra is attempting to push forward a project by Sligsol Solar that was withdrawn from consideration near the end of 2024. The 515-acre facility would produce 81-megawatts of electricity at full capacity. Cobra representatives discussed the build out with county officials during the work session indicating that the project could be online by July 2027.
The tax incentive discussed by Hopkins County, through consultant Jeff Snowden, would involve a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to replace normal tax levies on the value of the taxable property. These PILOT agreements prove to be more lucrative for Hopkins County over the initial 10-year period to hold the payments constant for 10 years and have the payment based on the MW output of the project. Normal tax abatements would discount the current value of the propety taxed then apply the current tax rate to determine each year’s tax payment. As both of these numbers can change: (a) Hopkins County Tax Rate has decreased over the past few years, and (b) accelerated depreciation of the value of the property taxed can diminish the value sharply. The PILOT agreement provides a more constant income for Hopkins County.
Cumby ISD would benefit greatly from the project as school districts in Texas are no longer able to give any form of tax abatement on these projects. Cumby ISD would collect the full amount of taxes on the project although on a diminishing scale from years one through ten. It is believed that the value of the equipment would diminish greatly by year 11 providing taxing authorities a miniscule tax levy.
KSST News was present during the work session, and noticed that the commissioner’s court and county officials have come a long way in these past few years to deal with the multi-national companies. The discussions with Cobra (headquartered in Madrid, Spain) included impacted neighbors to the project (visual and water run-off), fire protection plans, road use during construction, and many other factors. Hopkins County also now utilizes Snowden exclusively as a consultant to tie any of the aforementioned requirements to the PILOT agreement.
The work session held this week by the Hopkins County Commissioners was just a discussion for the project and allows Cobra representatives and consultant Jeff Snowden to iron out the details of the agreement. Once proper public notice has been made, the item will show up on an agenda of a future Regular Meeting of the Hopkins County Commissioner’s Court.
