Return on Investment · Investigation · 2017–2026
The data-center giveaway. Billions out, a trickle back.
Georgia's own auditors found $474M forgone in one year - and, by the state's own model, 70% of the construction would have happened without the break. At least ten states run programs like this.
FACT
§2 · Thesis
The break mostly pays for construction that was coming anyway - and the states can prove it on their own paper.
If the data center was going to be built regardless, the exemption is not an investment. It is a discount on a purchase already being made.
The number
$474.2M
forgone Georgia state revenue from the data-center sales-tax exemption in FY2025, against ~$41M in direct state tax revenue from the industry (Carl Vinson Institute for the GA Dept. of Audits and Accounts, Dec 2025).
Carl Vinson Institute of Government (for GA DOAA), Dec 2025
The number
70%
of the data-center construction would have happened anyway, per Georgia's own econometric 'but for' model (only ~30% attributed to the exemption) - revised down from the 2022 study's 90%-attributable assumption.
Carl Vinson Institute 'But For' analysis (Dec 2025)
§5 · Graded Claim
Honesty on the board: the same Georgia report credits the activity with ~$1.0 billion in value added and 8,505 jobs. Placed next to $474M forgone and a 70%-anyway baseline, most of that was not bought by the exemption - it was merely claimed by it.
FACT
The industry-favorable side of the same state evaluation.
§5 · Graded Claim
Virginia's exemption cost more than $1 billion in forgone revenue in FY2024 - the largest such program in the country, centered on Loudoun County. A Good Jobs First estimate from state disclosures, not a state audit.
FACT
Good Jobs First estimate (labeled as an estimate).
§5 · Graded Claim
A 2017 Washington JLARC audit found data centers paying ~$22 million in property tax while the state lost ~$57 million in sales tax - a better than two-to-one loss, from a legislative auditor.
FACT
Washington JLARC 2017 evaluation (via Good Jobs First).
§5 · Graded Claim
Nationally: at least ten states forgo >$100M/year each, at least three exceed $1B, and fourteen disclose nothing at all. The disclosure gap is by design - most of this spending is invisible.
FACT
Good Jobs First national survey; Stateline (Apr 2026).
§5 · Graded Claim
The eleven largest data-center subsidy deals averaged $1.95 million in public money per permanent job. Data centers are capital-intensive and employ few once built - the subsidy-per-job math is why the ledger lands where it does.
FACT
Good Jobs First, via America's Plan.
▦ Ledger gaps
Help us fill these lines.
- OpenThe full state-by-state ledger for the fourteen states that disclose nothing about their data-center subsidy costs.
- OpenHow high Georgia's and Virginia's annual costs climb as the AI build-out accelerates against uncapped, largely undisclosed exemptions.
Help fill these →