OLYMPIA, Wash. –
Washington State is re-arming to do battle with competing
states...chiefly Oregon...for high-tech server farms. The weapons here
are tax breaks and cheap electricity. The prizes are computer data
storage centers operated by companies like Microsoft or Facebook.
[Correspondent Tom Banse reports.]
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has signed into law a temporary sales tax break for the construction and outfitting of large new server farms. The state Department of Revenue estimates the tax break is worth about $28 million for every computer data center built. The Legislature passed and Democrat Gregoire signed the new tax break despite facing a yawning budget shortfall.
Chris Gregoire: “We will put people in the construction industry to work right away, the hardest hit industry in this recession. And we will get financial benefit far greater than any tax exemption we'll give them.”
Gregoire and other lawmakers are convinced that tech titans Facebook and Amazon.com would've built their newest data centers in central Washington...would've except for that pesky sales tax on construction and equipment. Instead, those expensive edifices are located in sales-tax free Oregon. [I'm Tom Banse reporting.]
On the web:
Washington Legislative history for SB 6789 – data center sales tax break:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6789&year=2009
Copyright 2010 Northwest News Network
Comments