TLDR
-va gov reports show its incredibly cost effective
-not really an expenditure, since sales tax is not supposed to apply to B2B in the first place
-there are better tools to tax data centers
-the design of the electricity excise tax is bad
Posted by Guy9ty
1 Comment
What the fuck, no it’s not good. We all generally agree that tax revenue from data centers is good, yes? If so, then the tax exemptions should instead be seen as rent seeking in form of giving implicit subsidies to data center owners. It’s taking away revenues from other states by doing a race to the bottom in tax exemptions.
Imagine if other states start doing this as well. Everyone would lose because tax revenue would be decreased compared to if everybody had just not given exemptions in the first place. Better to establish some sort of law that establishes a common property tax for data centers that is distributed to states so that there’s no discrimination where data centers are built.
This would also incentivize expansion of electrical grids and power because now states must compete on industrial costs rather than just rent seek.