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Legislation temporarily suspending a state sales tax exemption aimed at attracting data centers to set up operations in Georgia has barely made it through the General Assembly.
The state Senate gave the bill final passage Thursday 29-22, the minimum number of votes needed to pass legislation in the 56-member chamber. The measure cleared the Georgia House of Representatives two weeks ago 96-71.
After the legislature enacted the tax break in 2018, companies flocked to Georgia to build data centers. Such big names as Microsoft, Meta, and Google took part in the surge of construction.
But the industry has become a victim of its own success. The new data centers are sucking up so much electricity that Georgia Power executives testified before the state Public Service Commission recently that the industry accounts for 80% of the additional electrical generating capacity the utility is seeking from the PSC.
“These have taken about the equivalent of one of our [Plant] Vogtle units,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, referring to the nuclear expansion Georgia Power is expected to fully bring into service this spring.
During Thursday’s Senate floor debate, Hufstetler also cited a 2022 state audit that found the tax exemption for data centers was only returning 24 cents on the dollar.
“These do not create jobs,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell. “They create big buildings, but they do not create jobs.”
The industry begs to differ. According to a fact sheet issued by the Data Center Coalition, an organization of companies that build data centers, the construction and operation of data centers in Georgia are had a direct economic impact of $1.4 billion in fiscal 2021, including 1,020 construction jobs and 3,480…
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