Nicholas Miller

And I think evaluations of these incentives have found that yes, they do create jobs, but mostly at the beginning when the data center is being constructed.

There are a lot of construction workers, a lot of contractors, and then once the data centers are actually operational,

It is fewer people who are working there, often on the order of 20 or 50.

And then capital is another big component of that.

These data centers can cost hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

And I think states want that to sort of come to their communities.

And especially when the data centers are being built, oftentimes they are hiring local firms.

So a local construction company, again, a local concrete manufacturer.

And if those billions of dollars are sort of benefiting local industries, I think that's very attractive.

And then a benefit that we hear less about but I think actually might be the most significant in the long term are property taxes.

Data centers are these very expensive facilities, and in the states where the property taxes are not abated, they are paying just millions a year in property taxes to support local cities and school districts.

And in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington, that's data center alley.

The county estimates that half of all of their property tax base is coming just from data centers now.

So I think long term, a lot of communities are looking at these data centers potentially as a revenue stream.

Definitely.

I think states are using their incentives and they're actually structuring the incentives to sort of require that some of those jobs goals are met.

So we know of at least 17 states that require the data center create some number of jobs in order to receive the tax incentive.

And that requirement can range anywhere from five jobs in Missouri and Maryland up to 50 jobs in Nevada and Louisiana.

And oftentimes in a few states, we see a requirement that those jobs actually be well-paying.

And that can mean anything from it must pay above a certain amount to it must pay above the area median income.