About $40 billion have been and will be invested in data centers around the state through 2030, according to a study released Thursday by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Research Foundation.
That will come with an 800% increase in energy demand from the electric-intensive facilities over the next six years, according to the study. Right now, it takes between a year and a half and three years to build a data center, while building out the electric grid takes anywhere from five to 10 years.
Rick Carfagna, a senior lobbyist for the Chamber, said the economic benefits outweigh the energy demands and environmental costs. The Chamber will continue to make the case for pro data center policies across the street at the Statehouse.
“What they’re doing in terms of bringing GDP and jobs and local revenues,” Carfagna said, “They are bringing in $1 billion alone, in 2024, in state and local tax revenues.”
The study concluded the industry contributed more than $1 billion in state and local tax revenue last year, though only $260 million of that was a direct contribution. Since 2017, direct, indirect and induced tax revenue contributions total $5.2 billion.
But lawmakers and lobbyists from across the aisle have said before they believe it’s time to rein in the incentives offered to data centers. Among many measures in House Bill 96, the biennial state budget, the legislature eliminated an exemption from sales taxes on materials contractors use to build the facilities.
Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed that. The study argued the elimination of the exemption would result in 35% less in investment and $500 million less in revenues by 2030.
“It has allowed this industry to flourish,” Carfagna said.
Research released in January from left-leaning policy firm Policy Matters Ohio, however, concluded that if it benefited project investments pledged by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in the last two years alone, the state and its local communities will miss out on close to $1.6 billion in revenue.
The Ohio House has signaled it is still considering whether to override that veto.
