Money must be tight at Google
Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
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Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#12From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company.
It can be, depending on your industry. Financial firms are like this. I don't know if Minneapolis still has a commodities exchange, but if it does it would be attractive to those kinds of people. Probably others I've never thought about.
But overall, I think $15M for a data center is too much. Data centers don't make a dent on employment or property tax in most places they're located.
It may also be worth noting that Cray supercomputers has a big presence in the area.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#13> After construction wraps, with 18 remaining years of tax abatement, there will be a $270,000 tax shortfall for every full-time position created. Maybe add a $270k tax to each of those employees to break even? /s
That figure is for 18 years; it's actually $15k per employee per year. Adding a tax to offset the tax abatement seems to defeat the purpose.
It's also excluding the 2300 people constructing the datacenter for 1.5 to 2 years. Overall, it sounds like they're trading $15M in tax credits for between 4350 and 5500 person-years of jobs over 20 years. So around $2700 to $3500 per person-year.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#14From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
Yeah I don't see any reason a data center would attract a great deal. It's not like folks working in a data center generally are the foundation of startups or starting new businesses or anything like that.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only the states could form some kind of democratic collective action mechanism to avoid getting ripped off like this, some kind of union of states.
Well, isn't it in the collective's best interest that playing favoritism with corporate welfare (or any welfare favoritism) should be outlawed?
Yes, that is what the parent comment is saying; look closely to see the sarcasm.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#16From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
I guess they might have to construct the building? I dunno, doesn't seem exactly compelling. Also energy usage, but that probably doesn't create any jobs.
I'm also skeptical that the other tech companies would invest just because there's a google data center there.
I'm not against tax breaks (in fact, I think there should be lower taxes for just about everything), but google's argument doesn't seem particularly compelling.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#17From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
Yeah I don't see any reason a data center would attract a great deal. It's not like folks working in a data center generally are the foundation of startups or starting new businesses or anything like that.
It actually sounds like just the sort of bullshit line that local city councils eat like candy. These people just have blinders when it comes to anything that they think will sound good in a tweet to their constituents.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#18From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company. It can be, depending on your industry. Financial firms are like this. I don't know if Minneapolis still has a commodities exchange, but if it does it would be attractive to those kinds of people. Probably others I've never thought about. But overall, I think $15M for a data center is too much. Data cente…
Why would a financial firm care about 15ms latency to a google service? It's not like they would be using the cloud in the first place.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#19Do not negotiate with terrorists. They need to build this datacenter somewhere, so if no city/state yields to their demands they will build it anyway, without any tax breaks.
I don't think you know what a terrorist is.
Re: Google Wants $15M in Tax Breaks to Build a Data Center in Minnesota
#20From the linked MPR article ( https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre... ) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google servi…
I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company. It can be, depending on your industry. Financial firms are like this. I don't know if Minneapolis still has a commodities exchange, but if it does it would be attractive to those kinds of people. Probably others I've never thought about. But overall, I think $15M for a data center is too much. Data cente…
Financial firms do locate to optimize for latency, but not to Google.