A trade association of tech companies called NetChoice is encouraging the states to create tax breaks in order to compete among themselves for the data centers. NetChoice representatives told the House panel on Tuesday that Kentucky should enter the contest where states like Virginia and Ohio already are celebrating ribbon-cuttings…
However, NetChoice representatives urged the House committee to consider the positive impact on local communities where a data center might be built.
“Once we’re done building it, up to 100 data center employees come on board, and we pay excellent salaries to those folks. So it’s not a giant impact on a local community but all the jobs are very high-paying,” said NetChoice president Steve DelBianco .
“America’s top investment heroes are tech firms,” DelBianco added. “Those tech firms made $70 billion in capital investments in the U.S. alone last year. That is more than any other industry, including energy, pharma, telecom or manufacturing. Thing is, no enterprise data center like I’ve been describing has ever located in Kentucky nor in any other state that imposes sales tax on data center equipment for the last eight years.”
The committee voted 18-to-2 in favor of the data center tax breaks.