Question of the day
Friday, May 29, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Politico…
Gov. JB Pritzker’s push to pause state tax incentives for new data centers for two years is facing political pushback in Springfield, even as polling suggests a majority of Illinoisans oppose the massive, energy-intensive facilities being built in their communities. […]
This has played out at local government meetings from Joliet to Sangamon County as angry constituents push back on data center construction in their communities. This week, for example, Lockport suspended data center discussions following a community outcry, according to the Daily Southtown. […]
Environmental groups also support a pause, especially after lawmakers failed to advance the POWER Act, which addressed the industry’s electricity demand and rising consumer costs.
Unions, however, oppose freezing tax incentives because it could stall projects that create temporary construction jobs. That split has left some Democratic lawmakers in a familiar bind — weighing affordability and community concerns against union clout. And in an election year, that could make it harder for lawmakers to side with public sentiment.
Unions say pausing the incentives would mean the data centers would instead pop up across state lines while using the same electric grid, or be constructed in Illinois with non-union labor.
Considering the gerrymandered legislative map and the so-far really bad national Republican year, at least some Democratic legislators are more worried about keeping their union allies happy (and contributing to their campaigns) than upsetting their constituents by failing to do anything meaningful about a topic that polls worse than Ebola.
Also, when the enviros and the unions are split on legislation, the bills generally go nowhere. No center ground has been found on data centers as of yet.
…Adding… More than 40 legislators have signed a letter demanding a two-year moratorium. Click here to read it.
…Adding… WCBU…
Congressman Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., doesn’t want to block data centers from coming to Illinois. He also doesn’t want them arriving without conditions and he’s worried some data center developers will try to cut corners to get there.
“It scares me that some are willing to skirt the rules,” he said after a town hall in Peoria Thursday night. “I don’t support that.”
But the alternative scares him too. If Illinois says no, or makes the conditions too steep, the state might not be left out of the discussion.
“That just means that the data center is going to be built in a right-to-work state,” he said. “In Kentucky or Tennessee or Alabama or Texas.”
Sorensen said he sees a way to do it right, and laid out three conditions he wants attached to any data center in Illinois: no facility should be allowed to drive up utility costs for residents; every data center should generate its own renewable power and use gray water that would otherwise need treatment; and they should be sited in industrial corridors, away from neighborhoods.
* The Question: Should state incentives for data centers be paused for two years? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
- Homebody - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:36 pm:
I understand using tax incentives to lure businesses to set up shop can be a net benefit compared to not having those businesses come at all, but data centers produce even fewer jobs and future in state economic activity than even sprawling Amazon warehouses do. At least the warehouse is employing people. The data centers just suck up power and water.
I’d have less concern about data center growth if their existence didn’t drive up electricity costs and water consumption for regular people.
Corporations have far more resources than average residents, and when they are competing for things like water and power, they can always pay more than individuals can. We need to ensure residential water and power, the utilities and resources necessary for basic living, are protected first, before encouraging more data centers.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:45 pm:
I voted yes. Two years is not an awfully long time. Gather information and see what is best for Illinois
- Jack in Chatham - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:46 pm:
I voted Yes. However I don’t support giving State incentives for these valuable data centers, ever. For neary 100 years the rich have not been paying into the Social Security Trust fund which is to support Widows, Orphans, the Disabled and the Elderly due to the maximum earnings limit which is currently $184,500. Further there has been a lack of discussion and false narratives regarding the true nature of these massive data centers and their intended uses and purposes. Read and study up on Cryptocurrency and how it can be used to track, control and limit spending to know more. Sigh. Gotta run. Everyone have a pleasant weekend.
- Proud Papa Bear - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:57 pm:
I voted yes. Maybe it’s just me but this seems to be getting out of hand, like the lead up to the housing market crash, or signing up for something terrible that we can’t get out of.
Take a breather. Let the red states be first to see if it wrecks their economies through exorbitant utility bills and trashes their environments.
As far as the unions, I’m embarrassed that my IEA president endorses this. He talks big on the environment and asks us to “go green” by using slightly fewer pieces of paper at conferences, but then pushes for data centers.
- ChicagoBars - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:57 pm:
Voted yes. Let’s see how the AI bubble plays out.
This data center boom feels a lot like the fiber optic buildout frenzy that flamed out with the dot com bust.
- Norseman - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 12:59 pm:
Yes. We’re talking about State tax incentives not State moratorium on construction. Right now there’s a massive push to grab the bucks. Who’s going to pay to fix or ameliorate the adverse consequences predicted after these centers are constructed.
The Unions need to be asked: How many and what type jobs will be available during construction? Ditto, jobs post construction. How long will these jobs last? With increasing automation and AI driven automation at that they may only be short-term jobs. Meanwhile, there will be long-term effects on the community.
What unions tell members when electrical costs increase and water supplies decrease? Hey guys, regarding the high electric bills you have or the restrictions on your water, remember that job you had for a few months years ago. That’s what you are suffering for now.
Have you thought about the multiplying effect as the number of DCs increase throughout region, state, nation?
- Diane - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:01 pm:
The idea that the trillion-dollar multi-national industry that is currently powering our entire economy would need any tax incentives to expand is absurd. And on the part of labor unions, it shows a startling lack of class consciousness to advocate for tax breaks for these massive enterprises just to secure potential, temporary union jobs.
- don the legend - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:22 pm:
Voted yes. Diane +1
- Think Again - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:28 pm:
Voted no - the reality is that Datacenters are going to be built - they generate lots of jobs during the construction phase, and many are developing behind the grid power sources and using closed loop cooling - so site them in IL. If am a Dem member of ILGA, I would also look at the potential of the trades holding back campaign cash
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:29 pm:
===and many are developing behind the grid power sources===
Name one in Illinois.
- 40,000 ft - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:29 pm:
Yes
It’s important to remember this AI ambush started in 2025, post Trump being elected, but didn’t quite go as planned.
The movers on this unwanted paradigm shift tried in the BBB last summer, to nix State’s Rights to regulate AI centers but it failed to make it into the law.
Illinois needs to use this right while it still has it.
Pritzker should lead on this, from the States’ Rights and Against It sides.
Why? Because No One has explained why we need so much compute power. (10x China from my research)
Don’t fall for the construction, or but-China-wins, propaganda. Both of those arguments are falsifiable numerically in multiple ways and using the correct risk:benefit arguments.
From an article about the language that got cut—
“Left on the cutting-room floor, however, was an ambitious attempt to prohibit nearly all state and local regulation of artificial intelligence (“AI”) for the foreseeable future.
The version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, 2025, contained a provision preventing states and localities, for a period of 10 years, from enforcing “any law or regulation … limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems entered into interstate commerce.”
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:31 pm:
===using closed loop cooling===
Which requires even more electricity, which requires even more water.
- Frida's Boss - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:35 pm:
Should we call this list the Brave 40?
Not one of them is in anything that could be called a swing district. I’m surprised there aren’t more, considering the maps pretty much eliminated true swing districts except for Republicans.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:35 pm:
Voted yes.
Technology is moving at incredible speed now, exponentially faster than ever. Things become obsolete quickly.
Who’s to say that in 10 years these massive, power-gobbling, water-guzzling data centers might be replaced by something the size of a boxcar?
If you think that’s impossible, remember your grandmother’s Philco television.
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:38 pm:
===I’m surprised there aren’t more===
See above.
- Frida's Boss - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:40 pm:
Also, for clarity, all union construction jobs are temporary; it’s the actual nature of the job. You build something, then you move on to the next build.
So the narrative of deliberately using the term ‘temporary union construction job’ to try to diminish the importance or real impact of the construction industry is a slight to all the working men and women who build this state.
- Captain Obvious - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:49 pm:
Voted yes. Pausing incentives does not prohibit construction. And what exactly does the state get as a return on those incentives? Not much that I can see. I am not opposed to never giving such incentives. And does anyone else see the irony in unions clamoring to build data centers that will power the AI that will inevitably replace them in work force?
- JS Mill - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:50 pm:
Yes. Norseman +1
- 47th Ward - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 1:58 pm:
Yes. End the state subsidies.
First, Illinois leads the nation in nuclear power generation. That by itself is attractive to data centers, reducing the need for public subsidy.
Second, tech companies have pledges to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into AI. Clearly they do not need any public subsidy.
I get where labor is coming from. But I don’t agree we should give handouts to tech firms. They will build these data centers with or without public subsidies.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:00 pm:
===Technology is moving at incredible speed now, exponentially faster than ever===
Still waiting for my self-driving car; wasn’t everyone supposed to have one by now?
- Vote Quimby - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:12 pm:
Voted yes. One of the things government does best is overreaction. Incentives were passed before we knew the consequences… a two-year pause for incentives — not a ban on construction — seems reasonable.
- Annonin' - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:30 pm:
Yes. The centers will come where there is biz. This is gravey
- Excitable Boy - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:33 pm:
End them. These subsidies are pocket change with the money these companies are throwing at these projects.
- Chambanalyst - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:53 pm:
I would be very open to hearing what the falsifiable numerically in multiple ways argument is for why we do not need more compute capacity and how no one has explained that. That would seem to disagree with peer-reviewed technical literature (2020 OpenAI; Kaplan, 2022 “Chinchilla” Hoffmann et. al) & published research that compute demand now scales along multiple axes (training and inference). Additional publications include the NSCAI final report in March 2021; an independent commission that found the U.S. is not sufficiently prepared to defend or compete against China in the AI era. CSET published a report analyzing thousands of Chinese-language open source requests published by the PLA between January 23 and December 24 providing direct evidence of the PLA’s priorities and ambitions for AI-enabled military technologies. The 2024 Biden National Security Memo on AI outlines the US Government’s plan to lead in AI innovation for national security. In 2020, OpenAI trained GPT-3 using 3.14 petaFLOPs of compute. By 2025, leading AI labs are deploying 50+ exaFLOPs for next-generation models. A roughly 16,000x increase in five years. All of these have direct compute infrastructure implications. Did the belief that advancements would be made stop us from constructing the first supercomputers? The world is changing faster than we would all like to admit. Where does the investment go if Illinois doesn’t get it? The financially responsible position for Illinois is to: regulate the specific harms (grid cost, water consumption, noise), capture the fiscal benefits, and don’t keep flashing the signal to everyone that Illinois is an even more hostile regulatory environment for the one sector of the economy that is deploying capital at $700 billion per year.
- Near Westside - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 2:57 pm:
I voted yes for many of the reasons provided by other commenters: two years isn’t that long, the potential negatives could be here long after the temporary construction jobs are over, and lastly, I have yet to see any true demonstrable benefit from AI. Just a lot of promises from the tech bros. Where’s that cancer breakthrough?
- Dotnonymous x - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 3:01 pm:
Voted Yes…Data centers rely on thousands of servers that require constant cooling, producing a loud, low-frequency hum. When the grid is stressed, they may fire up on-site diesel generators for backup power, emitting harmful particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and greenhouse gases.
- old guy - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 3:57 pm:
They are a pig in a poke at present. More information is needed before committment required of such a massive project.
- Shytown - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 4:12 pm:
Waiting two years is multiple years that Illinois will lag behind in having any kind of competitive advantage for data centers - and they are not all the same - which means less jobs and revenue for the state and our communities. We can do better at regulating them while staying competitive and growing our economy. This is not hard.
- thisjustinagain - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 4:30 pm:
No, because Illinois taking 2 years to study anything is a year too long. The basic issues are well-known already. So our illustrious leaders can decide to decide, craft a bill in consultation with all concerned, and either do or don’t do data centers in Illinois.
- Mad dog - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 6:41 pm:
First, thank you Frida’s. Well said. I voted no. Other states on same grid are not gonna stop building dat centers. Yet a yes vote leaves out construction, permanent jobs, and much needed tax revenues. But as I’ve seen first hand , nobody wants anything built near them or if it doesn’t correspond with their social media followings.
- Yooper in Diaspora - Friday, May 29, 26 @ 9:43 pm:
I had voted for the compromise, but feel the pull of the yes arguments. I appreciate Sorensen’s proposal. I would like to see values (environmental responsibility, corporations not shifting energy costs to everyone else, etc.) placed above fear of losing out or falling behind. But given the steady turn to outsourcing reading and writing to AI I see among too many students (with D’s or F’s a frequent result), I see wonder generally about our capacity for collective wisdom about any decisions about navigating this new technology.