A hot potato: Want another reason why people hate AI data centers? ther than the pollution, noise, and space they take up, of course. A JPMorganChase data center expansion project has been approved for a $77 million tax break even though it is expected to create just a single job.
New York Focus reports that the Rockland County Industrial Development Agency approved the incentive for JPMorgan's expansion in Orangeburg, New York, near the New Jersey border. The deal moved forward with little opportunity for public scrutiny.
The 2024 public hearing on the proposal sounds like a masterclass in public engagement: nobody showed up, 20 minutes passed in silence, and the subsidy was approved two weeks later.
The nearly $77 million package comes in the form of sales tax breaks on materials and equipment for the roughly $1 billion buildout, meaning the subsidy covers close to 8% of the project's cost.
Watchdog groups say that no other project in the US has received such a huge subsidy for so little permanent job creation. The existing JPMorgan data center at the site had already secured about $35 million in tax breaks, and the facility last reported 25 workers.
Local officials insist the one-job figure is misleading. Rockland IDA executive director Steven Porath said the expansion would generate more than 1,400 temporary construction jobs and over $100 million in local economic benefits, arguing that judging these deals solely on cost per permanent employee is outdated.
However, there's little doubt this will worsen the public view of AI data centers. It was recently reported that voters in Festus, Missouri, kicked out four incumbents after they approved a $6 billion AI data center project, further illustrating how the building of these facilities has become a hot-button topic.
Orangeburg itself is already something of a data center hub, with 10 projects across four locations, and at least some have drawn opposition, including one sited very close to a drinking water reservoir.
The contrast with Amazon's recently announced Louisiana data center investment is hard to miss. The tech giant said its $12 billion buildout in the state will create 540 full-time jobs and support another 1,710 positions. Whether every promised job materializes is another question, but it should still be more than one.