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Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

fortune.com

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Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#41

Post by wyre »

aspenmartin wrote: post #20
ChadNauseam wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tempting to blame any political outcome you don't like on lobbying. It allows you to believe that almost no one supports the outcome that you don't like, because you can blame it on politicians manage to be bought by a small number of lobbyists. But it might not be the case. Several states (I believe Texas, Georgia, and Indiana) don't charge sales tax to data centers. So from Louisiana's perspective, the alterna…

Well said: why does a tax break bother people so much? That feels pretty populist to me: data centers of this magnitude offer a ton of economic benefits to the area and the state, 3.3B in tax breaks are the price to pay to incentivize them to bring the business to the area, which will then provide a net positive financial benefit. I can see plenty of problems with data center construction that should definitely be ad…

>data centers of this magnitude offer a ton of economic benefits to the area and the state

I have only seen this point being brought up by the exact people that will be owning the data centers with little data to back it up besides temporary construction jobs and few long term jobs, most jobs likely imported and not local.

I think states are offering huge incentives because the politicians approving the construction and tax cuts are easily bought out for pennies on the dollar. I don't know if Louisiana is known for being a paragon of honest politicians doing right by their constituents.

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#42

Post by dgellow »

ReptileMan wrote: post #29
cj wrote: post #9

No one likes to see big companies avoid taxes. But I don't see what other options are available for states to compete with each other if not through tax breaks. Edit: I suppose if you ban tax breaks, if a state wants to be competitive, they still can but through modifying the tax code for everyone instead of giving certain people exceptions. That doesn't seem like a terrible alternative..

Infrastructure is a good one. Universities and high quality labor too.

Do datacenters really require good infrastructure? Given they are planned all around I suspect that’s not really the case. I’m also not convinced university or the quality of labors are strong arguments. Aren’t those datacenters made fairly cheaply and full of automation?

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#43

Post by tormeh »

aspenmartin wrote: post #20
ChadNauseam wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tempting to blame any political outcome you don't like on lobbying. It allows you to believe that almost no one supports the outcome that you don't like, because you can blame it on politicians manage to be bought by a small number of lobbyists. But it might not be the case. Several states (I believe Texas, Georgia, and Indiana) don't charge sales tax to data centers. So from Louisiana's perspective, the alterna…

Well said: why does a tax break bother people so much? That feels pretty populist to me: data centers of this magnitude offer a ton of economic benefits to the area and the state, 3.3B in tax breaks are the price to pay to incentivize them to bring the business to the area, which will then provide a net positive financial benefit. I can see plenty of problems with data center construction that should definitely be ad…

> Well said: why does a tax break bother people so much?

Several reasons. It distorts the market for one. One tax rate for me, another for thee. That's government picking favorites. Generally regarded as a bad thing.

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#44

Post by gonzalohm »

dietr1ch wrote: post #6
dmix wrote: post #5

> Hyperion will be exempt from state and local sales and use taxes on its data center equipment for the next 20 years, which includes the GPUs that train and develop AI models. Sherwood News estimated that since the state’s combined state and local sales tax stands at 9.56%, spending the roughly $35 billion for the GPUs of the center will hand the firm about $3.3 billion in tax breaks.

If they are willing to spend 35B there's no doubt they could spend 30B without asking the government to reach into the people's wallet. The US needs to do something about lobbying. It seems too late already, but maybe you can get things to improve a bit.

It's funny that the US still uses the word lobbying. At this point this has been corruption for years now. Corruption in the US is rampant

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#45

Post by laweijfmvo »

adamredwoods wrote: post #38

From https://sherwood.news/tech/hyperion/ >> Per the report, the package of tax breaks and incentives was achieved through local officials bound by nondisclosure agreements, quietly struck legislative deals, and parliamentary sleight of hand to avoid public scrutiny of the deal. >> So the residents of Richland Parish did not have much of a heads-up on what was coming. No voting, no public interests, only closed-door…

but there will be voting; all of the elected officials will have to face elections at some point, and voters can put their feet down right now: everyone is voted out.

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#46

Post by cyanydeez »

aspenmartin wrote: post #22
cyanydeez wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

compete for graft, kickbacks, energy parasites.

You know I’m sure this is true on some level but if you think this is all or a majority of the motivation I think that sounds pretty conspiratorial.

Stadiums routinely get tons of public funds and never return the same value to the city.

It's not really a conspiracy, perhaps more a delusion.

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#47

Post by dgellow »

ReptileMan wrote: post #23

I think that this is one of the cases in which the Fed government should use it interstate commerce clause to prevent the states to compete until rock bottom. The EU has some regulations that forbid state help to private enterprises and they do seem to have some teeth. Nothing wrong with different states having different tax rates, but states should not be allowed to have favorite companies and kill competition.

The US federal admin is all in the grift. Whoever offers the best kickbacks to the president is the favorite company

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#48

Post by laweijfmvo »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #12
cj wrote: post #9

No one likes to see big companies avoid taxes. But I don't see what other options are available for states to compete with each other if not through tax breaks. Edit: I suppose if you ban tax breaks, if a state wants to be competitive, they still can but through modifying the tax code for everyone instead of giving certain people exceptions. That doesn't seem like a terrible alternative..

Compete for what exactly, in this case?

Seriously. A few thousand construction jobs, short term, and a few tens of jobs long term. For $3,000,000,000 dollars.

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#49

Post by nomorewords »

laweijfmvo wrote: post #45
adamredwoods wrote: post #38

From https://sherwood.news/tech/hyperion/ >> Per the report, the package of tax breaks and incentives was achieved through local officials bound by nondisclosure agreements, quietly struck legislative deals, and parliamentary sleight of hand to avoid public scrutiny of the deal. >> So the residents of Richland Parish did not have much of a heads-up on what was coming. No voting, no public interests, only closed-door…

but there will be voting; all of the elected officials will have to face elections at some point, and voters can put their feet down right now: everyone is voted out.

When the damage is already done?

Re: Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center

#50

Post by newfriend »

ceejayoz wrote: post #30
aspenmartin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said: why does a tax break bother people so much? That feels pretty populist to me: data centers of this magnitude offer a ton of economic benefits to the area and the state, 3.3B in tax breaks are the price to pay to incentivize them to bring the business to the area, which will then provide a net positive financial benefit. I can see plenty of problems with data center construction that should definitely be ad…

> Well said: why does a tax break bother people so much? Because it's their money being handed to a trillion dollar company that has no need for a discount?

A tax break isn't handing anyone money.
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