Poll: 69% nationwide believe data center costs outweigh benefits

By Jon Styf
The Center Square

A majority of adults in the U.S. believe that the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits with 69% believing the costs are greater and 30% believing that the benefits are higher, according to a new national poll from the Marquette University Law School.

The results were an increase from the 62% who believed that the costs outweighed the benefits in January.

The results mirrored results from a survey of 850 registered voters in Wisconsin, when 69% of those voters said the costs outweigh the benefits.

Questions were asked of 982 voters nationwide between April 8-16.

Large-scale data center projects have popped up across the country in recent years with the tax incentives often hidden in tax increment districts and waiving sales tax on construction materials.

A recent Good Jobs First report showed that 14 states and scores of local governments fail to properly disclose how much revenue they are losing to data center tax breaks while a deeper look at just three states showed that they are losing more than $1 billion per year to data center tax breaks.

A Wisconsin waiver on sales tax on large-scale data center construction materials has led to that $70 million in forgone sales tax in its first two years, a number that is expected to multiply as data centers in Mount Pleasant, Verona, Beaver Dam and Port Washington have now been certified by the state to be eligible for the sales tax exemption.

The new Marquette Poll showed bipartisan opposition to data centers with 62% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats, and 73% of independents saying the costs are greater than the benefits. Those numbers all increased since a January poll.