Most data centers almost certainly pay property taxes, as well. It is still a deeded plot of land, after all? I'm curious what data center you know of that doesn't have to pay any. I know incentives are common, but they are usually tied to some other growth metric.
I'd go further than common, I don't know any major data center built in the last 6 years that didn't get them. 36 out of 50 US states give away public money to privately owned data centers right now (see https://www.naiop.org/research-and-publications/magazine/202... )
It's not always property taxes (sales tax and/or use tax and/or waived utilities costs are also common). But property taxes are also waived in various cases.
> Most data centers almost certainly pay property taxes, as well. It is still a deeded plot of land, after all?
Not always -- they often waive property taxes too.
I'm told Nevada, West Virginia, and Wyoming all have waivers on property taxes for data centers specifically, and at least 12 other states (including Illinois, New York, Texas, and many others) also waive property taxes for data centers through indirect means.
Locally here, data centers get to skip out on paying 100% of their property taxes for 10 to 20 years. They do this by getting a county to label their property as a 'Renaissance Zone' (more commonly known as an 'Enterprise Zone').
Rules for that also vary. As one example, Connecticut has 'Enterprise Zone' distinction as well, but theirs is only an 80% tax abatement, and only for 5 years.
As you might imagine, this quickly becomes a race to the bottom, on which state is willing to give away the highest amount of public money to these private companies. See https://goodjobsfirst.org/enterprise-zones/ for more details.
I don't know if I can get behind rhetoric like "further than common." It is just common. Period. And you can be opposed to it, just on principle. It would help me oppose if you showed places that were not seeing benefits.
I'm reminded of places like Alabama that would do massive incentives to Mercedes to build a production plant in the state. Again, I know many that opposed on principle, but they were a touch off balance when it came to the benefits that the state was getting from the plants.
And I agree it can be a bit of a race to the bottom, as it were. As things are, there is little to no evidence that that is the case. Building any large industrial building is a large construction project that alone will generate plenty of tax revenue to justify pushing off many taxes. Would it be even better for the localities to not? Yeah, but only if they could still get the build.
