Data Centers
Some communities are negotiating to the benefit of their citizens when a data center asks to be located in that community. Data centers want to build in your area. Play it so it is to your advantage, with employment, benefits to the school system, benefits to power, and other things that can be negotiated for the benefit of a community.
More deals of that kind. Each line says whether the money is already coming in, only written into a contract, or still a promise.
Paid or operating
Quincy, Washington. Data centers pay about 65 percent of the property tax collected. The levy rate is about 70 percent lower than in 2006, before the centers arrived. The city administrator said the city could not have supported a $100 million high school without that tax base. Seven centers together employ more than 1,000 people. Columbia Basin Herald, January 15, 2026.
Loudoun County, Virginia. Data centers generate 38 percent of the county general fund. Nearly $1.4 billion of that fund goes to the public schools. Loudoun County FY2026 budget story.
Richland Parish, Louisiana. Meta’s first annual sales-tax payment on the Holly Ridge project was $22.4 million. A little over $11.8 million went to the school board. The Advocate, May 20, 2026. The property-tax payment has not started.
Contracted, not money already paid
Sidney, Ohio. Amazon Data Services. Council approved a 30-year property-tax abatement and, as the offset, a $50 million payment over 15 years, with the city intending to send half to the schools. Sidney Daily News, October 28, 2025.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Chirisa, the Lancaster AI Hub. Council approved $20 million in two community funds, $10 million each, and the city summary says Chirisa gets no city tax break. LNP, November 21, 2025.
Independence, Missouri. Nebius. The school board’s resolution projects about $463 million in payments to the school district over the 20-year abatement. That figure is a projection, not a payment already made. Independence school board, February 18, 2026.
Van Buren Township, Michigan. Google. News reports almost $125 million in local tax breaks. The development agreement that was opened does not contain a $15.4 million infrastructure payment or a 51-job promise. It does cap a Haggerty Road sidewalk at $500,000. The Midwesterner, May 22, 2026.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. QTS. The contract requires community-betterment payments of $300,000 a year per phase, up to $18 million. The city also rebates most of the new property-tax increment, and that rebate is larger than the community fund. The Gazette, January 29, 2025.
Slough, England. Equinix. A completed agreement requires payments for economic development, skills, public space, and transport, reported as up to £6.62 million. Slough Observer.
Promised only
Hermantown, Minnesota. A Google draft, not described as adopted, would pay the school district about $40 million over 28 years. Pine Knot News, April 24, 2026.
Claremore, Oklahoma. Beale Infrastructure stated a $180 million payment split over 25 years, including $100 million to Sequoyah Public Schools. The story that was opened does not show a signed, permitted deal. KJRH.
Lowell, Massachusetts. The cautionary tale, not an example of the benefit the other deals show. This is what the math looks like when it does not add up. The Markley site employs about 100 people. CommonWealth Beacon, March 17, 2026, says it is expected to pay the city about $12 million in net taxes over 20 years, after a $77 million tax break. Lowell’s adopted 2025 budget was about $522 million. No community-benefits agreement was found. No training fund, school payment, or cleanup payment to the city was found. Markley gave $40,000 in July 2026 for a youth baseball trip. On March 10, 2026, the council banned new or expanded data centers for 360 days. A later agreement let expansion already underway continue. No additional benefits won in negotiating the deal to have this data center here. This is not a claim that Lowell left benefits on the table. It is that no additional benefits were found. They are the kinds of things a locality would reasonably have negotiated in order to do the deal, and none of them appeared in what was found.
Power
Power is the other half of the data-center question. For the existing page on it, see Nuclear power.