US states can't account for datacenter tax breaks. Literally -- The Register

[erronis]

https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/15/us_states_gaap_datacenters/
Dan Robinson

Many US states and local authorities are violating generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) by failing to disclose revenue lost to datacenter tax subsidy schemes, according to Good Jobs First.

The accountability nonprofit has a bee in its bonnet about tax abatement programs for datacenters, which it says are costing states billions in lost revenue, yet few bother to report this.

In a new report, "Data Center Tax Abatements: Why States and Localities Must Disclose These Soaring Revenue Losses," it names 14 states that are failing to disclose their tax shortfall due to server farms, and claims scores of local authorities are doing the same.

. . .

Three states are losing $1 billion or more per year, the report finds. Georgia stands at $2.5 billion, Virginia at $1.94 billion, and Texas at $1 billion.

. . .

[dutch777]

1. Incetnivizing these makes no sense. They create few jobs after construction and have long term infrastructure impacts.

You may as well be building warehouses as they have low job creation too but less impacts other than maybe truck traffic.

[erronis]

3. Obviously some state and local officials will make out nicely from these deals.

But they will probably need to move far away in the future.

[dalton99a]

2. Data centers are a huge scam on taxpayers and homeowners