If datacenters are so great, why can’t they pay their own way?

You’d think their billionaire backers could afford it.

For more about datacenters, including a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

Possible Datacenter Sites, Lowndes County, GA, Irwin County, GA, 2025 and 2026

Drew Kann and Kristi E. Swartz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 3, 2026, Georgia lawmakers leave data center tax breaks intact, punt on energy costs
Consumer advocates call inaction ‘disgraceful,’ while Georgia Power and data center groups tout benefits they say the industry will bring Georgians.

When the General Assembly convened in January to begin its legislative session, few issues seemed to get more attention from lawmakers than data centers.

A flurry of data center bills emerged in the session’s early days, from moratoriums on new developments to measures aimed at the facilities’ energy infrastructure costs and rolling back the lucrative tax breaks the state offers to lure them to the Peach State.

But as the legislature adjourned in the wee hours of Friday morning, the robust debate that began beneath the Gold Dome earlier this year ended in relative silence, at least as far as data centers are concerned.

In the end, none of the legislation consumer advocates said was needed to protect Georgians from the onslaught of data centers successfully cleared both chambers.

A bill to shield residential electricity customers from data centers’ power infrastructure costs fizzled way back in March. Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric utility, and the Data Center Coalition, a trade group for the data center industry, strongly opposed the measure.

But even scaled-back consumer protection legislation passed by the House or Senate failed to clear the other chamber.

The General Assembly also elected to leave the state’s data center tax breaks intact, even after a state report recently estimated Georgia would miss out on $2.5 billion in tax revenue in 2026 because of the perks.

Khara Boender, the director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, said data centers are providing jobs and creating tax revenue for Georgia counties. Boender also thanked Gov. Brian Kemp and state legislators “for their efforts to ensure Georgia remains a key market for industry investment.”

“The passage of this legislation would have discouraged future investment and signaled that Georgia is closed for business, eroding the state’s well-earned business reputation in the process,” Boender said in a statement.

But consumer and environmental groups sharply criticized lawmakers for punting on the issues.

“The data center tax breaks are going to the richest people and the richest companies in the history of the world,” said Mark Woodall, a legislative director for the Sierra Club. “It’s disgraceful.”

There’s more in the article.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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