It blows my mind that (my fellow) Americans are so averse to taxation that they don't even consider that option. Whether you're worried about jobs or faraway tech elites or resource usage....just go straight to the source and use freaking taxes. Blocking is so pointless. All this political will could be a huge opportunity for these locales but instead it's petulant obstructionism. The Millenium Scholarship program in…
Why would the data center operators pay extra taxes to your city when they can just build them somewhere else that gives them a tax break instead?
Pay the citizens the price, or don't burden them in the first place. There are two options, and the data center builders may pick either.