Pennsylvania Gives Amazon Potentially Unlimited Sales Tax Exemption
Amazon, the tech and online retail juggernaut, is expanding its physical footprint, with a little help from Pennsylvania taxpayers.
“Amazon plans to spend $20 billion to build two data centers in Pennsylvania, a move that state officials say will generate thousands of jobs over the next decade and stoke considerable economic activity,” wrote Stephen Caruso and Kate Huangpu of Spotlight PA, an independent media outlet. “But many key details, like the centers’ full impact on electricity supply and prices, and the amount of tax revenue the state will forfeit to Amazon, are still unknown.”
“In March 2024, Talen Energy sold its 960-megawatt (MW) data center to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for $650 million,” Jeff Luse wrote in November 2024 for Reason. “The data center is a co-located facility, meaning it will draw electricity directly from Susquehanna Steam Electric Station—a nuclear power plant that generates 2.5 gigawatts of power annually—rather than from the grid.” The other facility will be located in a former U.S. Steel mill and hook into the state’s existing power grid, and there is the possibility of a third facility later on.
The data centers will support Amazon’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing, which require substantial processing power. Rick Siger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, said the project “will drive enormous positive tax impacts for our Commonwealth, counties, and municipalities, and will create at least 1,250 high-paying, high-tech jobs as well as thousands of construction jobs.”
Unfortunately, that’s not a guarantee. “The data center industry has grown rapidly in recent years, and state governors have touted the jobs it would create,” Ellen Thomas wrote at Business Insider. But “once built, data cent
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