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by WarmWash 8 days ago
Those things are cash cows for local municipalities. I don't think that aspect is communicated at all, or at least the media leaves that part out.

A town a with a $50M budget can easily have a single large datacenter cover the townsfolk's entire tax bill, and then some. The worst part is the fan noise, but I am sure they can figure that out.
1 comments
dylan604 8 days ago
What? These things are built specifically where the towns give them tax breaks
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WarmWash 8 days ago
Generally datacenters are built in less dense areas that already have low taxes. So the cost to "buyout" the town council (i.e. "We will cover 75% of your municipal budget") is a rounding error for the datacenter builders.

Its states and federal usually offering tax breaks. But at least on the lowest level, it's pretty cheap to buyout a rural town, and that's why you get these town councils voting 9-0 to approve the projects before anyone even hears about it.

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