[nonethewiser]

Purposefully misleading or just misinformed?

There is one permanent job being created, but that's not what the tax break is for.

Cities offer tax breaks because there are other advantages. Vendor services, long term tax base (largely through property tax), infrastructure improvements (grid capacity, fiber, etc)and temporary construction work. You might say the temporary construction work is worth very little, but then you have to recognize much of the tax breaks are bound to the temporary construction phase as well.

We can weigh the pros and cons but this article is not doing that.

[jrflo]

Exactly. The municipalities offer these tax breaks (the article cites the tax breaks are for sales taxes) so that they can continually draw property tax from the site. In the long run, it should provide more tax funds for the community. Not to say there aren't downsides to building datacenters, but it's misleading to pretend it's for 'job creation'.

[satiated_grue]

That's exactly what happened in Ashburn. Loudoun County VA is currently meeting pretty much its entire operating budget with data center tax revenue, and property tax rates have been going down for years. More importantly, Loudoun went from being the fastest growing county in the US, borrowing money and building roads, schools, fire stations, etc. at a fierce clip, to a much more maintainable population growth curve (= more compatible with residential sprawl).

[lux-lux-lux]

They’re also getting a property tax abatement until 2044, so nope!

This is 100% a screwing of the taxpayers, and that’s before you consider all the more productive ways that money could be spent.

[jrflo]

Do you have a separate source for that? The article does not give any detail on potential property tax abatements. Also, this statement at the end seems to contradict your statement: "Porath, for his part, says Rockland County is just following the rules as they’ve been set out. And he maintains that deals like the one the IDA has given to JPMorganChase are paying dividends for the county, turning an asbestos-filled site that wasn’t paying any taxes into one that is pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars per year into local schools and other services."

[pj_mukh]

"infrastructure improvements (grid capacity, fiber, etc)"

Do these projects fund these? Because the crux of the best argument against data centers is hinged on a lack of infrastructure (power, water etc.) availability.

[nonethewiser]

Yes, they do fund them. They depend on local infrastructure providing them.