Dear Neighbors, friends, and allies –
Want the scoop on a bombshell?!
Remember when the Digitial Gateway revenue prediction started out at $700 million?
The promise of riches from the Golden Goose (which by the way, we all know from the parable, ends up dead in the end — greed having killed it)…
By the time of the final rezoning, the revenue forecast for the entire Digital Gateway was reduced to $100 million.
Now it appears that Ann Wheeler and her cadre on the Board were even more wrong than we could ever imagine about benefits from Data Centers.
A promise of untold riches… well, maybe not so much.
Here is what you need to understand. The bulk of the financial revenue from the Data Center industry is the taxes the county collects on the data center equipment, their “Computers and Peripherals” (C&P). You have probably heard a lot recently about the “C&P tax rate” being substantially increased.
Prince William County supervisors pitch big tax hike on data centers | News | princewilliamtimes.com
“If the supervisors do raise Prince William County’s data center tax rate to $3.70, it will still lag behind the rate charged by nearby counties. Loudoun County, which is currently the data center capital of the world, is considering reducing its data center tax rate from $4.15 to $4.10. In Fairfax County, the rate is $4.57 per $100 in assessed value.”
But what happens if the data centers don’t have to pay this tax rate? What happens if they are exempt for a multitude of reasons??
The community and Supervisor Bob Weir have been warning about this tax revenue issue for some time. But you don’t have to believe those sources — just read the below email communication from Bob Sweeney, the President/CEO of the Prince William Chamber of Commerce.
Our own Prince William Chamber of Commerce, a steadfast advocate for data center proliferation, is admitting that the county DOES NOT collect the majority of taxes on the wealthiest corporations in the world. And WORSE, they advocate that Prince William should keep what we are able to collect at a significant lower rate than all our immediate neighbors — guaranteeing that our county will NOT REALIZE revenue benefits and citizens will only see quality of life losses.
“Dear Chair Jefferson and Board of County Supervisors:”
“We are writing you today on behalf of the 1,400 members of the Prince William Chamber of Commerce. We are very concerned about the direction the Prince William County Board of Supervisors is heading with regard to the Computer and Peripheral tax assessment. We understand that the Chairman has assembled enough votes to pass a $1.55 tax hike in the Computer & Peripheral Tax rate imposed on companies that have technology in their place of business. A 72% increase that would be effective July 1, 2024!…”
“…It is our understanding that those who want to increase this tax are doing so because they want to capitalize on the data centers that have an immense amount of computers inside them, therefore, also having a huge tax obligation under this tax. The issue at stake with this sort of thinking is twofold. First and foremost, the vast majority of computers in our data centers are owned by the Federal Government, and mostly by the Intelligence Community. These computers are not subject to tax assessments. Second, those computers inside approximately half of our data centers considered “co-location data centers”, belong to companies that have never filed a certificate of occupancy with Prince William County, therefore, flying completely under the radar of any county tax authority. You are not collecting taxes from companies if you do not know they exist…”
(Go HERE to read the entire letter)
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Supervisor Bob Weir’s response to the Chamber’s suggestion below. (Read the entire response here)
“…Further, I am frustrated and embarrassed that the Chamber took every opportunity over the past several years to bang on the table demanding approval of every data center project that came down the pike, loudly asserting that their approval would alleviate the residential tax burden but readily ignoring what was clearly an overstated revenue potential. While it is refreshing that the Chamber has now adopted a position nearly identical to the arguments I and others have been making for several years, given the Chamber’s well-established position on data center development for nearly a decade, I find your reversal of course hypocritical at best and your tone the height of arrogance. My frustration and embarrassment is further heightened by your attempt to hide behind the interests of the small business community as the Chamber has largely ignored their many pressing issues for as long as I can remember…”
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Please email the BoS and share your thoughts on this astonishing revelation and urge the highest tax rate be adopted to make up for the millions that are clearly NOT being collected or assessed.
BOCS Chair <chair@pwcgov.org>; Gordy, Tom <TGordy@pwcgov.org>; Vega, Yesli <yvega@pwcgov.org>; Weir, Bob <BWeir@pwcgov.org>; Angry, Victor S. <VSAngry@pwcgov.org>; Boddye, Kenny <kboddye@pwcgov.org>; Bailey, Andrea <abailey@pwcgov.org>; Woodbridge District <WoodbridgeDistrict@pwcgov.org>
See a neighbor’s latest TikTok about data center proliferation in our county.
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