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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

#91

Post by amluto »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #81
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…

[flagged]

This is a strange comparison.

If a real estate developer already owns land and wants to build at their expense on their own land, quite a few people think that, in general, they should be permitted to do so as long as they comply with applicable laws.

But this set of tax breaks is modifying the effect of the applicable laws (namely sales and use tax, according to the article) for the benefit of a landowner. That seems rather different.

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

#92

Post by heylook »

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…

Yet another moment where Strangers in Their Own Land[0] is prescient.

From an interview[1] given by the author: "I think the next most important reason they distrusted the federal government is their experience with protective agencies in the state of Louisiana, and they thought, “Gosh, these are a lot of people we pay taxes to but they don't really protect us.” And they’re right, because Louisiana is an oil state - that was a big discovery for me - and it outsources, in a way, the moral dirty work to the state. So, the state actually pretends to protect the citizenry from hazardous waste and pollution of air and water and ground, but it doesn't actually protect it very much. It gives out permits, as one Tea Party person said "like candy." And so, they felt the federal government is just a bigger, badder version of a state government which isn't protecting us. So, they'd had bad experience. They’d been burned, and I think that's the second kind of source of resistance to the government. But the third is that they saw the government as an instrument of what I'll call “the line cutters.”"

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_in_Their_Own_Land [1] https://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=18-P13-000...

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

#93

Post by drtz »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #81
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…

[flagged]

There's a lot of ground between gifting $3.3 billion in tax incentives to a megacorp for a short-term increase in construction employment and allowing a homeowner build a second dwelling on their lot.

Incidentally, that same $3.3 billion could build around 10,000 accessory dwellings in Baton Rouge.

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

#94

Post by beloch »

ChadNauseam wrote: post #7
dietr1ch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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…

"If states all worked together, they could plausibly prevent this race to the bottom by agreeing on a universal sales tax minimum"

The states, under Trump, are all working together to ensure a race to the bottom happens, both in the U.S. and abroad.

One hundred and thirty five nations worked together to create a minimum corporate tax rate called "Pillar Two". It would have factored in tax breaks for projects like this by calculating an effective tax rate for Meta, and mandated higher taxes if the effective rate was too low. Trump withdrew the U.S. from that effort and created a framework to retaliate if other countries upheld Pillar Two to raise taxes on American megacorps[1] in their jurisdictions.

____

[1]https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2025/how-us-mu...

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

#95

Post by LogicFailsMe »

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…

Which is what we keep electing so boohoo. I'd like to be less pessimistic but people are irredeemably irredeemable. I am hugely pro-AI, but the tech bros need to channel more Ronald Reagan* and less f**ing Homelander or this ends very badly for everyone.

*And I hated Ronald Reagan at the time

Now bring me some downvotes to show me the error of my ways... Thank you for restoring my lack of faith in humanity...

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

#96

Post by tt24 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #73
pfdietz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare he ask for evidence!

It’s the phrasing/tone. It’s such a red flag. As to his being answered: somebody responding to him in good faith does not suddenly validate what he was doing.

There was nothing wrong or offensive with my phrasing.

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

#97

Post by tt24 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #37
pfdietz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare he ask for evidence!

This poster likes to demand evidence of others ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48135626 ) and bristle when the same standard is applied to them ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48137932 ). Someone else did provide evidence, though: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48153756

In what way did I bristle?

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

#98

Post by tt24 »

pfdietz wrote: post #35
Forgeties79 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don’t do that.

How dare he ask for evidence!

Asking for evidence of claims is very offensive to those who don’t have any.

They feel very strongly about a topic, but it’s entirely based on their various personal experiences. They arrive at the conclusion first, and then try to arrange reality around their opinions.

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

#100

Post by malshe »

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…

I'm not at all surprised to learn that Republican politicians royally screwed their constituents. I was going to say maybe these people will vote better next time just to read that Colorado governor is commuting the sentence of Tina Peters. Democratic leadership is so freaking weak it's unbelievable. With one party full of grifters and the other with full of weaklings, we need to abolish this two-party system.
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