People aren’t mad about technology. They’re mad about being told after the fact that their town might lose water, power, quiet, or tax revenue to a project they didn't have a say in.

Build the future, sure. But don’t sneak it past the people who have to live next to it. If you have to sneak it like that, then maybe it is not worth having.

Get sick of all the shady behaviour and lying. These companies, owners, and CEOs need to be taken down a peg.

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RajT88 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That is fair. Data centers are being built in my town, and indeed the city does not seem to care what people think.

I ran the numbers based on some averages, and property tax revenue at a 50% discount would bring in about a billion dollars a year for a city of around 23k people.

I just am not sure why the city cannot be transparent about data centers offsetting property taxes. They also do not make it clear on their website that there is no water capacity issue. People are going to be mad no matter what though. I think for some this is a proxy issue, and what really is driving them is distrust of big tech and wealth inequality.

I also suspect some of the social media backlash may be an astroturfing campaign. Accounts idle for years all of a sudden posting daily the same talking points.

	▲	xnx 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> property tax revenue at a 50% discount would bring in about a billion dollars a year Those are staggering numbers. In my town a single family home pays about $12K/year in property taxes. To collect a billion in property taxes would be 85,000 homes!

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danans 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> They’re mad about being told after the fact that their town might lose water, power, quiet, or tax revenue to a project they didn't have a say in.

I suspect they might also be a little bit mad (whether they admit it or not) that they are being subjected to all this to make a few people unbelievably wealthy.

These people aren't simple peasants - they are as aware of how the system works as well as the rest of us. Lenox is just a short distance from Flint, where they know all about how a city and its population can be left behind by an industry.

The problem is that all of a sudden they are being made to pay the price in quality of life, instead of some other group of people they could care less about or even dislike.

If this truly matters to them, and it's not just a negotiating tactic for a piece of the pie, they should consider making common cause with other groups affected by this in other areas and look past their traditional tribal alliances. Otherwise, no little municipality stands a chance against the power of capital that effectively controls government.

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AviationAtom 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What gets me though is that hyperscale data centers are nothing new, they've been around for the better part of two decades. What appears to have changed is the arrival of TikTok "reporters" and cryptomining operations being taken for AI data centers.

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skybrian 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why would they lose tax revenue? I imagine these small cities gain tax revenue, but this doesn’t really drive NIMBY politics.

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doublerabbit 7 hours ago | parent [-]

When do enterprises ever proper pay tax? If they did we all would be better off.

They will pay the minimum tax and that will then be pocketed by the local politicians who pushed for the DC. The town gets a pittance compared to the profit produced from these DCs.

One of the incentives to build in these areas are that they can pay low tax in the first place.

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skybrian 6 hours ago | parent [-]

My understanding is that local governments often get more in tax revenue than they spend on additional services. Which explains why they want to do it. Example:

https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-virginia-taxes-da...

> In January, Loudoun County estimated about $895 million in data center real and personal property tax revenue, and the county’s entire operating budget was projected to be $940 million, according to County Supervisor Mike Turner (D-Ashburn).

> Loudoun County’s next budget will spend $4.7 billion in the next fiscal year which includes funding for LCPS, according to the county.

…

> Loudoun County Public Schools will be getting $111.8 million more than last year, and county employee compensation will increase, according to the county.

They’re getting lots of money from data centers and spending it on things like employees and schools, while lowering residents’ taxes slightly.

Apparently you believe differently but where did you learn that?

	▲	AviationAtom 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They have built something like 34 schools, public transit, all kind of projects. It's all in political approach as to how tax windfalls get spent. Here they plan to credit homestead tax bills, eventually down to $0.