Southaven’s Mayor, Darren Musselwhite, is right.
Last week he told his aldermen that the data center development coming to his north Mississippi city carries national security implications. He called it patriotic. He pointed out that it will bring millions of dollars into the community, and he said it will rank among the most significant economic developments in DeSoto County’s history. He is right on every count. He is also making that case against the wind. Because there is a backlash against data centers, and it is growing. It could be, as the mayor suggests, that the big companies have not done a good enough job of explaining what they are doing, or of showing the neighborhoods around them how they stand to benefit. Perhaps. But I suspect this is bigger than a communications problem. AI data centers are turning into a live political issue heading into the midterms, with voters across party lines telling pollsters they are worried about higher utility bills and about strained water and power supplies. Most alarming of all, I saw Texas Governor Greg Abbott boasting on X that his directive has halted up to 1,800 data center projects. Now, if I had been a fly on the wall when Abbott’s team decided to send that, I suspect the thinking ran something like this. Issue a directive insisting that data centers must not take water needed by local communities, must not take power needed by the grid, and must not push up the cost of electricity — safe in the knowledge that data centers do not actually do any of those things. On that reading, an anti-data-center tweet is political positioning rather than a substantive move against them. Maybe so. What worries me is what it concedes.Once a Republican governor of Texas has publicly stamped on data centers for being water- hungry, for raising power prices and for disrupting rural communities, it becomes that much harder for anyone else to show that they do not.
We conservatives need to think through our policy response — and quickly. Which is why I was so excited to see Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform propose a brilliant idea. States, he suggests, should require that the tax payments made by data centers go to reduce property taxes at the local level, and income taxes at the state level. Why is Grover’s suggestion so wonderful? Because there is a danger in what is coming. Look at Madison County, where Amazon’s data centers are projected to send around $14 million to the county, its schools and its community college in 2027 — rising to roughly $145 million a year by 2033. That is an extraordinary injection of money into a single county. And extraordinary injections of money have a habit of growing local government. There is a real danger that some municipal government somewhere decides to turn 1970s Scandinavian. Much better if those proceeds go on paying down property taxes instead. That shows a real benefit to a real community. High property taxes are unfair on everyone, but they fall hardest on older folk on fixed incomes. We have arrived at a crazy situation in which a family that has finished paying for its home is essentially having to lease that property back from local and state government for as long as they live in it. Grover’s idea does something else, too. It helps mayors like Darren Musselwhite. Instead of asking a neighborhood to take a development on trust, he could point at a smaller tax bill and say: there it is.
Douglas Carswell is President of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and author of this post.
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31 comments:
Much of the anti data centers protest is being funded by the Chinese Communist Party. I’m sure they’re working for our best interests.
t could be, as the mayor suggests, that the big companies have not done a good enough job of explaining what they are doing, or of showing the neighborhoods around them how they stand to benefit.
Or maybe it is secret energy deals with historically demonstrated less-than-transparent monopolies (blessed by our Legislature) that breeds such distrust.
If data centers don't, and won't, drive up energy prices as Carswell claims they will not, why the secrecy?
"Much of the anti data centers protest is being funded by the Chinese Communist Party." Source?
7:40, no doubt you also believed that Covid originated from a Chinese open market selling edible pangolins.
Just one of several….
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/irrefutable-fact-kevin-oleary-says-185500320.html
Another.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/30/neville-roy-singham-funding-china-backed-influence-campaign-ai-data/
Where have you been, 7:40? China knows Americans are very vulnerable to social media manipulation and are certainly taking advantage of that fact. No reasonable person would deny that. To what extent may be up for debate and you may argue how much is “much” but yes, China is taking advantage of the naive, gullible social media users here.
Here's an idea for Doug, Grover, and anyone else: If data centers are such a wonderful business, treat them like most other new, "start-up" businesses: no subsidies of ANY type from locals (and certainly none beyond some minor tax considerations) and upfront payments of infrastructure costs, that being what nearly every small business in the US has to do and and has had to do since, well, before the US was the US. Any non-government investor(s) can front whatever they think will produce a return, but keep public money out of it until it proves it is an appropriate place to spend public money. Once the risk of loss is put on those who would profit, it'll go a long way to separate the good deals from the bad ones, and when a bad one does get done, it's still at the risk of those who seek to profit from it. Meta, Amazon, NVIDIA, etc., and the shareholders, being able to profit from "compute" is no more a government function worthy of subsidizing than Amazon selling stuff, Meta selling ads, NVIDIA selling chips, etc. Is there any doubt that a private company would happily accept whatever money a government would give it to just ultimately add to or prop up its bottom line? Of course not - think Tesla, etc.
Think about it like this: most people wouldn't invest their life savings into some random risky business but most would take a whole range of businesses if someone wanted to give it to them free and with no accompanying risk. They might not invest every penny they have in some AI stock, but if it were offered free, any sensible person would accept it.
Pattern recognition of events. Use your brain.
Several things about data centers never seem to be mentioned.
Exactly what are the need for them and what do they actually do?
How many people will the data centers employ after they are running?
How much water and electricity do they use?
How much and when will they start paying taxes?
That's not my comment, but here is one news source. There are many others. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/china-spending-billions-to-stop-ai-data-centers-in-us/ar-AA24Mrp0
We roll out the red carpet for data centers but when it comes to solving our massive nationwide housing shortage problem all levels of government have created so many obstacles and hurdles that developers and homebuilders say 'no thanks'.
@7:21, every time Fisackerly says the deals need to remain hidden from the public because of their competition, no one ever pushes back to note that they have no real competition in their footprint. They're a freaking monopoly.
If you read this using the internet -- you /me the rest of us are justifying the continued need for more and more and more data centers.. They will be here.. in MS Or Elsewhere...No one is going to stop them.
Regarding idea to reduce taxes. Ha! Bet you a new data sucking device that will not happen.
Regarding the revenue being shared.. Those are all estimates, they always are. These include some brains idea and #'s of what creates revenue.. IE: new residents due of new jobs... new development because they can and get approval.. New cars bought for those new staff to get to x y z job.... that all is part of estimated revenue.
MC saying they will use revenue to pay off debt. That is a good idea.. Sure hope they are transparent and show the public the #'s annually
Y'all go back to scrolling, saving photos and clouding your data.. Every action requires use of a data center whether it is in MS or beyond. .
Google is your friend.
Tech bros spend too much time in their echo chambers. They are the most likely source of information about it being the Chinese who are riling up the natives to resist these electricity and water hogs in our backyards. Yep, the tech buddies are telling you that you are being manipulated by China which apparently causes all reason and education to fly out of your head, bless your heart.
I put more effort into my ignorance than 10000 anons. The esoteric sensation of perfect ignorance is forever beyond most. I’ve made my mind into a fuzzy abyss of anti thoughts and I will never understand. My mind is a thoughtless void. I am immeasurable concept of stupidity manifest.
This is a Google powered blog. Every word goes through a Data Center.
Think of a data center like a landfill. Nobody wants one built near their home, but they are absolutely essential. Of course data centers are needed to support what we are becoming accustomed to in our daily life, but more importantly we have to have them to keep up with the Chinese in the field of AI.
"This is a Google powered blog. Every word goes through a Data Center."
So we should pretend that the current (and massive) AI data center bubble is just business as usual, and totally inevitable, unless we want to go back to horse-drawn buggies?
More proof about foreign influence: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DU8Hu0OFyU0&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD
O'Leary is an idiot. Just one of many data points on that assertion, from the very article cited above and quoting him: "...which he [O'Leary] says are 'under investigation by multiple branches of Congress.'"
Is the CCP attempting to get the upper hand in the world through any and all means it can use? Sure. The US is trying to keep the upper hand through any and all means it can use, too. But a couple of points. First, no one actually knows how many "data centers" are needed, either by countries for their own interests or worldwide. That is because, second, not all "data centers" are created equal, nor are they all for the same purpose(s), nor do they all have the same compute ability/capacity/technology. It would not be a loss to the US at all, and in fact it would be a benefit to it, if the Chinese expended massive amounts of capital and resources on "data centers" that did nothing but produce AI slop and the US had much less "compute" but it was carefully on-boarded to maximize real world usefulness and minimize waste of capital and resources. And the reverse is true, too.
"No one is going to stop them."
Until the John Connors show up.
Ha! 7:40/11:16 used a data center’s AI to craft a response acknowledging how blissfully unaware he is, and everyone on this blog is now dumber for having read it
O'leary had to walk back some of his claims and he is being sued.
Dishonestly named "Data Centers," unfortunately for everyone, by the time people realize their true function, it will be too late
Are they still building one in Brandon? If so, what's the status on that? I know I have been seeing a lot of pushback now online about that one.
For consideration.
Circa 2008, the "great financial crisis," rising interest rates caused ARMs to adjust to a point that many folks could not longer afford to make their mortgage payments. This set off a financial shockwave, and when it hit the structuring done to leverage that weak debt into more and more profit, the whole thing imploded. The historic, Fed-induced low interest rates that followed led to a another real estate boom and housing prices have risen dramatically, along with construction, in much of the US, much of the mortgage debt at lower fixed rates. However, property taxes, or ad valorem - according to value - taxes, mandatory insurance with the premiums also a function of value, maintenance costs, etc. have also risen dramatically. The monthly cost of principal and interest on the mortgages have remained constant and yet, foreclosure rates are increasing and accelerating. It doesn't matter which component of the total cost of home ownership people cannot afford if they cannot afford the total monthly/yearly cost. In fact, since wages have not kept up with the costs of home ownership, and now, inflation is chipping away at budgets, costs that have nothing directly to do with home ownership - gas, food, clothing, medical costs, child care, etc. - could and likely will set off another shockwave.
So, what does this have to do with data centers? Well, remember "too big to fail" and "the government" bailing out the financial system in the "great financial crisis?" That was nothing compared to what can and likely will happen if the spend - all on somebody's credit card - on "data centers" has to be even partially covered by "the government." Building data centers, including whatever power and cooling resources required, that are largely self-supporting through legitimate income streams, paid from legit business cash flow streams, are not a problem, at least economically (NIMBY aside). Even those subsidized by "the government" as to taxes but are otherwise net-positive financially are not a huge problem. But when the construction itself of one or more is largely the profit motive and the source of the developer's profit is based upon credit and OPM, and the source of the user/operator's profit is also credit and OPM, it will end badly. And this time, "too big to fail" is rapidly becoming "too big to bail out."
I am only against them because I am 100 % convinced they will used for evil soon enough. Not to mention they are good targets.
This pro data centers talk sounds familiar...
"Trust the science"
"Proven Technology"
""6 foot buffer"
"Cloth mask prevent the spread"
"Get the vax to save others"
"No side effects at all"
Trust the government!
Sound about right?...
Can't wait till ypu plead the 5th...again
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