>They are never a net positive for the local community

Nobody talks about the local taxes they pay. Its the reason these town councils rush approvals through. My town would chain children to trees to stop a DC, but if they found out it would halve our property taxes, people would volunteer to cut down the trees themselves.

The problem is though that the town council generally wants to do dumb shit pet hobby projects rather than give everyone a tax break.

The datacenter companies are forcing local governments to sign NDAs so they can't discuss the details with other areas, leading to them being pressured in to taking horrible deals that are a net negative for the area without.

They force these NDAs so people can't collaborate and see what a horrible deal they are getting.

> Nobody talks about the local taxes they pay.

We hear about their tax breaks though. Why don’t they get treated the same as other local businesses, and pay the same rates?