Nicholas Miller

So we know in Illinois, their Department of Commerce releases a really comprehensive report of who is receiving these incentives and how many jobs they've created.

And in Illinois, where the requirement is that the data centers create 20 jobs per

Almost every data center has created exactly 20 jobs.

So there are jobs flowing into these communities, but I think the data centers are sort of keenly aware of the law and of the structure of these incentives, and they're exactly checking the box.

It's sort of a tricky situation almost between the state law and the actual number of jobs being delivered to these communities.

Absolutely.

And

I'll just add to that that states are often, in almost every state, 32 out of the 37 that offer these incentives.

There is a minimum capital investment threshold to receive the incentive.

And that can go anywhere from $2 million in Maryland up to $500 million in Arkansas.

And so that's another way that states are trying to tap in to some of these benefits.

They're requiring the data centers invest.

It's often $100 or $200 million to receive those incentives.

So I do think state lawmakers and states are keenly aware of the tradeoff between offering tax incentives, but also making sure that you're delivering a benefit to the community.

Absolutely.

I think that is something that in the states where they are evaluating their tax incentives, they're keenly aware of the revenue tradeoffs between the tax incentives that are being sort of awarded to these data centers and then possible tax revenues coming in, maybe from the income tax that the workers are paying or sort of knock off economic benefits in their communities.

And again, in Illinois, where they release a lot of data, their Department of Commerce has estimated they have given away, they have forgone about a billion dollars in tax revenue to data centers, but that they've sort of recaptured $2 billion through increased property taxes and increased local taxes and things like that.

And it's a lot harder actually to measure the possible economic benefit versus the direct cost of these data center incentives.

But I do think states are taking a very close look at the return on investment from these data centers, and they want to make sure that they are sort of getting the bang for their buck.

Absolutely.