Washington, D.C. — As states and municipalities wake up to the harmful consequences of secretive data center deals in their communities, the American Economic Liberties Project today released a new brief, How to Rein in Big Tech’s Secret Data Center Deals, to arm legislators with tools to rewrite their own rules to end these closed-door arrangements, cap subsidies, and require full disclosure of energy and water use that’s now treated as “proprietary.”

“At a time when families are struggling with rising costs and state governments should be investing in housing, healthcare, and infrastructure, Big Tech is demanding enormous amounts of public money and resources for data centers while refusing public scrutiny,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Some single projects receive subsidies worth many times more than a county’s entire annual budget — and in return, communities get higher utility bills and maybe a few dozen temporary jobs. States and counties are beginning to respond to the demands for accountability from their residents by ending the nondisclosure agreements at the center of these deals. This brief is a roadmap for lawmakers to take on these shady data center arrangements, reclaim power for their communities, and stop Big Tech from bullying and buying its way into exploiting public resources.”

The brief reveals how Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft plan to spend more than $320 billion on infrastructure this year — more than double just two years ago — with much of that funding from billions in taxpayer subsidies. Thirty-two states currently offer open-ended tax breaks or abatements to attract data centers, costing local communities hundreds of millions of dollars annually. These sprawling facilities typically create only a few dozen permanent jobs while consuming vast amounts of power and water — costs often shifted onto residents through higher utility rates. A report from Bloomberg reveals that wholesale electricity prices are up 267 percent in the last five years in areas near data centers.The brief sheds light on some of the largest individuals deals, using data from Good Jobs First, including:

• $8 billion to Amazon in various incentives for a data center complex in Indiana in 2024 – more than the state’s FY24 state funding for health and human services ($5.7 billion).
• $687.6 million to Meta in tax incentives for a Texas data center in 2023. (In the form of city and county tax abatement in El Paso) – enough to fund the El Paso Fire Department ($157.39 budget) for 4 years.
• $320 million to Apple for a data center in North Carolina in 2009 – enough to fund the state’s entire social services budget ($238,942,261) for more than a year.
• $376.8 million to Google for a data center in Oklahoma in 2007 – enough to fund the state’s Department of Health ($64,737,964) for 5 years.

Yet states are starting to push back: legislatures in New York and Michigan have advanced bills to ban nondisclosure agreements in economic-development deals, and Pima County, Arizona recently enacted reforms to ensure transparency before public votes. The brief calls on lawmakers to ban NDAs, cap or eliminate subsidies, mandate public hearings, and require full disclosure of data centers’ energy and water use to restore accountability, lower costs, and ensure communities can decide themselves how public resources are spent.

Read the full brief here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.