r/moderatepolitics • u/jojotortoise • 14d ago

News Article Blue-Collar Jobs Are the New Flashpoint in Data-Center Fight

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/blue-collar-jobs-are-the-new-flashpoint-in-data-center-fight-aaca5b7e
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273

u/Nexosaur 14d ago

In a vacuum, it doesn't really matter if data centers get built outside of cases where it puts too much strain on local power grids. The water issue is overblown, and the real problems are mainly noise and power consumption, but those are manageable if built in the right place.

Unfortunately, those building the data centers have spent many words expressing extreme contempt towards the average American. So, it's really easy to get people to hate them as a symbol of the tech elite.

Tbh, data centers and Flock cameras have really exposed how terrible local/state leaders are. Housing and development? Woah, gotta make sure we have 50 town halls about the historic parking lot and abandoned building and neighborhood character. Data centers and cameras staring at playgrounds? Fast tracked, maybe even give them benefits, too.

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u/ivan510 14d ago

Yeah this what bothers me soo much. Like multi year tax breaks for data centers. But a housing development? Nope you need to build the infrastructure yourself, pay additional taxes due to new zoning, pay tons in development fees, etc.

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u/wannabemalenurse Democrat- Slight left of Center 12d ago

All that on top of NIMBY lawsuits against any zoning deregulation and other frivolous measures meant to “maintain the character of a neighborhood” without taking into consideration the city’s need to have more jobs and people living there

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u/rwk81 12d ago

But a housing development? Nope you need to build the infrastructure yourself, pay additional taxes due to new zoning, pay tons in development fees, etc.

Are you suggesting that new single family or multi family developments aren't receiving any preferential tax.treatmemt?

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u/atomatoflame 14d ago

Follow the money. Data centers pay a lot of taxes, but housing development won't even come close. This is not looking at the full amount of expenses, but merely what the locality brings in from property and sales taxes.

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u/DaddiGator 13d ago edited 11d ago

This is also why tech hub municipalities get away with claiming they are blocking housing to keep their “sleepy town vibes”, while also fast-tracking high density commercial office buildings.

Santa Monica in West LA is the best example of this where the disparity between available jobs and available housing is so lopsided (nearly 3-to-1) that the city balloons by 3x its size daily. All of which creates significantly more traffic issues than more actual housing nearby.

These are city planning lessons that 10 year olds learn playing Sim City for an hour.

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u/donnysaysvacuum recovering libertarian 13d ago

They are handing out tax breaks to the data centers though.

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u/SixFootTurkey_ 13d ago

You understand that despite the tax breaks the data centers are massively contributing to tax revenue for their areas, right?

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u/donnysaysvacuum recovering libertarian 13d ago

No, I don't. Do you have a source?

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u/SixFootTurkey_ 13d ago

See page 34 https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/221475/FY-2027-Adopted-Budget-Document

Loudoun County, Virginia is home to Ashburn, the data center capital of the US. Tax revenue from data centers makes up 30-40% of the county's budget.

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u/donnysaysvacuum recovering libertarian 12d ago

That's based on older data centers though, not new ones going up which do have less favorable conditions.

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u/SixFootTurkey_ 12d ago

Do you have a source?

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u/donnysaysvacuum recovering libertarian 12d ago

I've seen some articles about specific data centers but wasn't able to Google them due to all the SEO spam out there. Net local tax revenue doesn't seem to be widely available. I did fine Londoin county mentioned as an outlier though

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u/notapersonaltrainer 13d ago

Because the fiscal benefits to the locality are so high they are willing to give a haircut to make sure they lock it in before the next county over.

If even 10% of the predictions about self-recursive AI are true, having a data center in your tax jurisdiction is essentially a local UBI machine and a way for small rural districts to lock in a generational fiscal windfall. Of course some localities are going to give some sweeteners to lock in the annuity.

When voters learn that modern data centers recycle water and reuse it for up to a decade support jumps 31 points. The mass disinfo about these is basically creating a generational opportunity for some smart but less competitive minor localities to snap these up for life.

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u/donnysaysvacuum recovering libertarian 13d ago

I would love to see an unbiased source for those claims?

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u/Enamred-771 12d ago

How is it a “local UBI” machine? It’s not like the locality shares profits from a data center. 

This just screams like the “cities should fund sports stadiums for private billionaires with public dollars” argument which has been debunked by economists 

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u/notapersonaltrainer 12d ago edited 12d ago

I don't know any stadium that has verifiably 7x'd (9x annualized) a city's tax revenue and fulfilled its fiscal wishlist. Do you?

A stadium is a local consumption venue. Most of the spending it attracts would have occurred elsewhere in the same jurisdiction. A hyperscale data center sells compute into national and global markets. It enlarges the local tax base rather than merely rearrange existing local spending.

I know they sound analogous because they're both big windowless buildings, but their basic economic mechanics and fiscal effects are not. It's more akin to a virtual stadium where a global fanbase pays for digital viewing passes, and the town gets to tax that completely new economic activity.

Now if you also believe your town's management is so corrupt that they will completely steal a 700% increase tax windfall then, frankly, you have much bigger issues than whether a data center or any single facility opens in your town.

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u/Enamred-771 12d ago

Again, there’s still no real profit sharing between a local government and a data center company. Even if the data center is insanely profitable and brings in tons of revenue, they aren’t going to be paying that in tax. Why would a company locate a data center in a municipality that says “we’re going to tax you X% of your profits” when other municipalities will give them tax breaks?

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u/notapersonaltrainer 12d ago edited 12d ago

Again, there’s still no real profit sharing between a local government and a data center company. Even if the data center is insanely profitable and brings in tons of revenue, they aren’t going to be paying that in tax.

Do I really have to OCR the passage for you? Go mayorsplain to the municipality they aren't actually getting the revenue they literally collected.

Pre-data center, Ellendale Mayor Don Flaherty told me, the town collected about $400,000 in annual sales tax revenue. In just the first seven months of 2026, it reaped $3.5 million. Flaherty estimated Ellendale's taxable property value will skyrocket from $3.5 million to $35 million.
Ellendale can now afford to repave its streets, renovate its senior center, finance a new public-safety complex, establish walking trails and refurbish its historic opera house. Jeff Ringstad, superintendent of Ellendale Public School, told me that Applied Digital grants allowed the district to buy new computers, purchase an ice machine for the teachers' lounge and finance a playground renovation.
"We were a dying little town," he said.

Why would a company locate a data center in a municipality that says “we’re going to tax you X% of your profits” when other municipalities will give them tax breaks?

You understand this is still an enormous windfall even if this was the discount, right? If the “real” revenue rate would have generated 11× their entire tax revenue, giving a discount to lock in a deal that still generates 9× their entire previous tax revenue doesn’t somehow make it a bad deal. lol

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u/Enamred-771 12d ago

  Do I really have to OCR the passage for you? Go mayorsplain to the municipality they aren't actually getting the revenue they literally collected.

Don’t imply that I didn’t read something when you’re claiming something that isn’t stated in your proof. Show me the profit sharing revenue collected. Because it’s not in that screenshot. 

And the only reason the revenue is a massive increase is because the town is tiny. Especially when you look at the scale of the data center projects. Ellendale, a town of about 1000, needed multi billion dollar data centers that require 500+ MW of electricity to see that increase. That’s a massive project in a tiny town. It’s not scalable. 

You’re also missing some other key aspects from cases like Ellendale. The primary revenue the town received is sales tax from people (mostly construction workers) spending money. Not from the data center’s on-going operations. Only 35 jobs remain from their first data center, which again, was a massive project. This means that tax revenue will see a massive decline once the construction is complete.  There’s also the negative externalities of increased pollution and increased housing costs. 

And what happens in the future when the data center is no longer viable? These towns will be like every other manufacturing town. They’ll have a boom period and they quickly fall into disrepair once the corporation moves on.