Taxpayer group: Some state tax policies disadvantage data centers

(The Center Square) – The buildings that house thousands of computer servers powering cloud computing and artificial intelligence have increasingly caught heat over environmental and energy concerns.

Another common criticism is that state and local governments offer data centers sweetheart deals to attract them, including tax breaks and other incentives, potentially leaving ordinary residents to shoulder some of the costs associated with their development. But the National Taxpayers Union has released a pair of studies in a series arguing that at least two common state tax policies treat data centers less favorably than other industries.