Bipartisan Michigan Bill Would Repeal Incentives For Data Centers Passed In 2024

[hatrack]

A bipartisan bill introduced Tuesday in the Michigan Legislature would repeal the state’s data center tax incentive laws, which, since their late 2024 approval, have helped attract over a dozen data center proposals.

The proposed repeal comes just as public outrage over, and opposition to, data centers from across the political spectrum is reaching a fever pitch. A “Michiganders Against Data Centers” protest is scheduled at the state capital Tuesday in which activists will call for a moratorium on the projects, after a state hearing last week on one center alone drew over 800 people.

The centers are highly controversial and have pitted local residents against big tech companies developing the centers and the state and federal politicians who back them. Among other issues, residents fear the centers may increase their energy bills, pollute water, drive up water bills and destroy communities’ rural characters. The repeal legislation also comes as the centers, which require a massive amount of energy, are poised to derail Michigan’s transition to clean energy.

EDIT

The existing data center laws provide sales and use tax exemptions for big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, , Related and others that are behind many centers. The tax revenue would otherwise go to the state’s school aid or general fund. Under an earlier version of the incentive, eligible data centers built between 2020 and 2024 avoided paying about $13 million in taxes, the Detroit News reported. That figure would almost certainly dramatically increase as much larger centers, and more of them, make use of the new laws.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16122025/michigan-lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-repeal-data-center-tax-incentives/

[Crowman2009]

1. Good, data centers employ very few workers and consume way too many resources.

All they are is economic parasites.