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That's what happens every time they give big business an exception in my city. Fedex was the most recent. A city commissioner literally asked the Fedex rep at

That's what happens every time they give big business an exception in my city. Fedex was the most recent. A city commissioner literally asked the Fedex rep at a commission meeting if they would still come without the tax incentive and they replied yes. The commission then still proceeded to pass the incentive. They see 20 years of tax free growth while property taxes go up for everyone else. Google has to spend the money on the data center regardless if it gets the tax incentive or not. Whether the city gives them $15M in a free ride until then is what is in question. It's basically spitting in the face of your new neighbors. The $15M is not important to the success of this data center and it will be a drain on the town for the first two decades.

tptacek 8y ago
How exactly is this a drain on the town? People keep saying things like this and it is not at all clear how that could be happening. The opposite seems likely: Google building a huge data center here will, in fact, be an economic boon (marginal or significant, we can debate). This isn't money the county is paying Google, or that Google is somehow taking from the town. It's a data center built on an empty field in the middle of nowhere, connected directly to a wind farm run by an otherwise struggling power company that owns the land Google is using.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  It's a drain on the people currently living in the town, because the high paid employees will mostly be imports and drive up local cost of living, more than they will drive up the income of people not employed at the facility. It's maybe a boon for the town as a corporate entity, or as a statistical aggregate, but it's not likely a boon for the existing constituents of the town if it comes with a significant tax abatement.
- nightski 8y ago
  The middle of nowhere? Do you even know the area at all? It's right next to the twin cities which has a metro population of 4 million people, home to many multi billion dollar companies (Cargill, Target, Best Buy, 3M, United Health Group, U. S. Bancorp, General Mills, shall I go on?). Many things in a small city are supported solely by property taxes, to which Google would not contribute at all for at least two decades yet gain all of the benefits from. This is not fair to anyone else in the city who is paying those taxes for those benefits. It's better to just not have them exploiting the city's resources for free.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    It's about an hour northwest of Minneapolis. A vacant lot in Dekalb or Manteno might be "right next" to Chicago in the sense that Ulaanbaatar "isn't right next to" Chicago, but: a vacant lot in Manteno is the middle of nowhere. You can just drive around it in Google Maps to get a sense of it, and where it is. I stand by my assessment of the value of this land.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

tptacek 8y ago

How exactly is this a drain on the town? People keep saying things like this and it is not at all clear how that could be happening. The opposite seems likely: Google building a huge data center here will, in fact, be an economic boon (marginal or significant, we can debate). This isn't money the county is paying Google, or that Google is somehow taking from the town. It's a data center built on an empty field in the middle of nowhere, connected directly to a wind farm run by an otherwise struggling power company that owns the land Google is using.

dragonwriter 8y ago
It's a drain on the people currently living in the town, because the high paid employees will mostly be imports and drive up local cost of living, more than they will drive up the income of people not employed at the facility. It's maybe a boon for the town as a corporate entity, or as a statistical aggregate, but it's not likely a boon for the existing constituents of the town if it comes with a significant tax abatement.
nightski 8y ago
The middle of nowhere? Do you even know the area at all? It's right next to the twin cities which has a metro population of 4 million people, home to many multi billion dollar companies (Cargill, Target, Best Buy, 3M, United Health Group, U. S. Bancorp, General Mills, shall I go on?). Many things in a small city are supported solely by property taxes, to which Google would not contribute at all for at least two decades yet gain all of the benefits from. This is not fair to anyone else in the city who is paying those taxes for those benefits. It's better to just not have them exploiting the city's resources for free.
- tptacek 8y ago
  It's about an hour northwest of Minneapolis. A vacant lot in Dekalb or Manteno might be "right next" to Chicago in the sense that Ulaanbaatar "isn't right next to" Chicago, but: a vacant lot in Manteno is the middle of nowhere. You can just drive around it in Google Maps to get a sense of it, and where it is. I stand by my assessment of the value of this land.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]