* Gov. JB Pritzker sat down for a wide-ranging interview with WVIK’s Robin Johnson. Here are his comments about data centers…
We can’t continue to have data centers coming here using our water, using our power and increasing people’s utility rates. So, my solution to that is they should pay for it. They should bring their own power. They should have closed loop recycled water systems, and we should require that for new data centers. Now, the legislature didn’t get to pass what’s called the Power Act, where that would take place
And so just after the end of the legislative session, I suspended any tax credits that would otherwise go to a data center, because we’ve got to take a pause here and make sure the legislature is going to pass something that’s going to deal with the problems, water, power, and noise, you know, that’s been a problem in some areas too.
Now I will say that if we could figure those things out - I’m not saying that they have figured it out and that we’re done with it - but if we could figure it out, and I think we could, the result is kind of two positive things that can occur.
One is lowering people’s property taxes, because those data centers, even though they don’t employ a whole lot of people every day and every year, they do, by the way, allow lots of construction jobs that take place, but that’s only while you’re building the facility. But they pay a lot of the property taxes, and we’ve seen counties where property taxes have gone down as a result of these data centers moving in. Again, I’m not saying that we should do it without all the other regulations we just talked about, but, that’s one thing.
The other is that these data centers should be contributors to the community. These are big companies, these are wealthy companies, and they should be contributors to the well-being of the people that they’re neighbors to. And I don’t think they understand that yet, and we’ve got to make that clear to them.
So, those are a couple examples, anyway, of what we ought to be doing with data centers. But we just can’t have them coming here. We have water, we have power in this state. They want to come here. I know that, they want to come here, but we don’t want them if they’re going to take advantage of us.
Please pardon any transcription errors. Thanks.
* Related…
* CNI | Here are the Illinois data centers on track for more than $650M in tax credits: Illinois committed an estimated $666.6 million in tax credits to data center projects through 2025, according to an annual Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity report. The agreement, which spans periods up to 20 years, were inked before Gov. JB Pritzker directed the department to pause processing new data center incentives beginning Wednesday.
* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Invenergy cancels wind leases for Wisconsin gas plants: As part of a deal with the Trump administration, a national energy developer will end offshore wind projects and redirect some of the money to its natural gas portfolio, which includes two new plants in Wisconsin to power hyperscale data centers. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on June 16 it will refund $765 million to Chicago-based developer Invenergy in exchange for “voluntarily” terminating four offshore wind leases. Invenergy agreed to redirect the money toward the development of natural gas plants in Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, as well as geothermal projects in the western U.S.
- TNR - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 1:43 pm:
Bit of a word salad by the gov, but he ain’t wrong.
That story about Wisconsin points to one of the directions this is heading. The “bring-your-own-energy” demand of data centers is gonna lead to a lot of new gas-fired generation. Not here so much because of CEJA, but it will happen in our neighboring states.
- levivoted4judy - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 1:48 pm:
This seems to be one more thing to add to the “to-do” list. The experiment of the two chambers not being in town much at the same time seems to have failed.
- Dotnonymous x - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 2:24 pm:
Our governor needs an editor.
- Captain Obvious - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 3:35 pm:
I’d like the gov to name the counties where taxes have decreased due to data centers. Also some actual numbers. Perhaps an intrepid reporter could ask him
- Sue - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 4:05 pm:
Not sure by County but a friend who lives in VA - which is like ground zero for data Centers claims that data centers have become significant contributors to the tax base greatly benefiting public schools
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 4:27 pm:
==data centers have become significant contributors to the tax base==
That’s not a reason to support them. That is the argument the data center hawks always try to make. It’s great for tax revenue. Yeah? So what? There are plenty of negatives to go along with that.
- thisjustinagain - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 5:43 pm:
Anybody wondering where all that waste heat is going, even in closed-loop cooling systems?? It will be going into the atmosphere. What’s the environmental harm from all these data centers?
Also, JB needs hard numbers to claim that data centers have positively impacted residential property taxes. We can do property tax relief without data centers. Otherwise it’s just like the false claims about public-funded stadiums being such a huge benefit, when they are not in every non-industry-funded study.
- Whimper - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 6:07 pm:
I’ve followed the advice of a wise man and made Google my friend. It seems every American uses a data center 100 times a day and that usage will grow exponentially. Personally, I remain undecided on the issue. Seems we have to either live with that and adapt as best we can or go back to the 1980’s. I’m not ready to give up my iPhone and its conveniences
- HUCKLEBERRY1926 - Tuesday, Jul 7, 26 @ 7:19 pm:
Lowering property taxes? Ridiculous. It will RAISE property taxes for any M2 industrial zoned properties near them because these data centers are paying up to $200,000/acre. Yes, that is not a typo, so it will inflate the property values of industrial zoned properties near them also inflating…you guessed it, their property taxes. Any residences near them will see a decrease in property values because their property values just plummeted. Yes, the closed-loop system will lower the water usage, but is that glycol they are using for that cooling? Don’t let that spill! It will be here for decades in the ground. BTW, internal cooling means industrial fans in the dozens on the roof up to 70’ high. They are already loud, but put them up at that height only intensifies the noise! Disagree with me? When was the last time anyone saw a tornado warning siren at ground level? They are 50’ high to emanate the sound warning a much further distance. Does orgainized labor mention any of these facts when marching into towns saying how great they will be?????