Pennsylvania voted 197–5 to repeal a data center tax break projected to cost $517M annually by 2030, stripping benefits from Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet.
  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    14 days ago

    $75–100 million in capital investment and 25–45 jobs

    Only $2M/job! What a steal.

    Dozens of data center projects were already benefiting as of January 2026

    Should be noted that a lot of these data centers can’t turn on, because the grid doesn’t have the capacity. Others can’t turn on because they have no customers lined up, merely trying to front-run demand.

    These tax breaks are subsidizing a business need that hasn’t even materialized yet. And because of the poor regulatory and tax auditing of these highly technical facilities, it is entirely unclear how the state could have recouped these tax losses had the centers ever turned on.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      14 days ago

      Only $2M/job. What a deal

      I love doing this sort of math on things. They could have just paid all those people $200,000 a year for a decade to sit on their ass and it would have cost the same.

      • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        13 days ago

        We were gonna pay Iran $300b so that they wouldn’t charge $8b/month ($2m per ship) in fees for two months.