[saulrh]

I'm just surprised as the absolute magnitude of the number. Virginia has hundreds of thousands of unemployed right now; 54 is probably within measurement error. Even if they're off by orders of magnitude, 500 is a drop in the bucket, and 5000 is barely noticeable. It just seems weird to me that that number is big enough to be worth trumpeting from the hills.

[tssva]

Latest unemployment figures for VA show a 3.9% unemployment rate with 152,545 unemployed in the state.

[NetStrikeForce]

It's good PR to bring more tech companies; it signals there's a talent pool in the area, because high tech companies are established there.

[niftich]

This amount of job growth seems typical at first blush. A haphazard sampling [1] of job creation announcements in Virginia as a result of state grants reveals:

April 2013: 25 jobs in secure document and card printing

March 2014: 40 jobs in new lumber mill

August 2014: 25 jobs in manufacturing coating spray for aircraft turbine parts

August 2014: 25 jobs in new lumber mill

August 2014: 500 jobs in parts for automotive engines

October 2014: 75 new jobs in parts of automatic transmissions

December 2014: 97 new jobs in HQ consolidation for medical device company

April 2015: 160 new jobs in food processing for fruits

May 2015: 100 jobs in lighting fixture manufacturing

January 2016: 50 jobs in tamper-evident label manufacturing

February 2016: 50 jobs in ingredients for cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries

March 2016: 15 jobs in new lumber mill

March 2016: 1800 new jobs in client support and consulting

September 2016: 50 jobs in paper towel manufacturing

[1] http://www.virginiabusiness.com/search/google?q=jobs+grant

[dorfsmay]

On top of 54 jobs there are additional tax on profit + all indirect benefits, more computer hardware maintenance, HVAC install and maintenance, etc...

[tssva]

Usually the big tax gain for the locality is property tax on the equipment located within the data center.

[patrickg_zill]

Not sure that all municipalities charge a tax on the servers. However they get taxes on power and utilities like water. Also a larger base of utilities means the capital costs are spread across more billing.

[tssva]

They may not all do so, but the largest data center concentrations in the US are in Loudoun County, VA and in the Dallas/Fort Worth areas. You will pay local tax on your equipment in both locations.