1. United States
2. Ind.
3. Letter

Dear Senator, I am writing to demand a moratorium on new awards under Indiana’s data center sales and use tax exemption (IC § 6-2.5-15) until the General Assembly conducts a full cost accounting of what this program has already taken from Hoosiers. The Department of Revenue recently admitted Indiana has lost $655 million to this exemption through 2025. More than 83% of that went to a single company — Amazon — including $561 million in 2025 alone, a 1,011% increase in one year. These are 25-to-50-year exemptions awarded with no cap, no sunset, and until this year, no public disclosure of cost. We only learned the price tag after outside watchdogs forced it into the open. Meanwhile, the costs these facilities impose are socialized onto the rest of us: rising electricity rates as utilities build generation and transmission for hyperscale load, strained water supplies, local infrastructure wear, and eventual environmental remediation. The pattern is familiar — private profit up front, public cleanup later. The 1% revenue-sharing provision enacted in HB 1210 does not come close to correcting this imbalance, and HB 1333 stalling in the Senate Utilities Committee shows this chamber knows the current framework is inadequate. Ohio paused its data center subsidy for new applications in May after disclosing $1.6 billion in annual losses. Indiana should do the same. Specifically, I ask you to: 1 Support a moratorium on new IEDC data center exemption awards until an independent fiscal review is complete. 2 Attach hard conditions to any future awards: caps, sunset dates, annual public cost disclosure, clawbacks for unmet commitments, and mandatory cost-recovery contributions covering grid, water, and infrastructure impacts. 3 Require developers to bear the full cost of the utility upgrades their facilities demand, rather than spreading it across residential ratepayers. If these companies want to build here, they can pay their own way. Indiana’s tax base exists to fund schools, roads, and public safety — not to underwrite the most profitable corporations on Earth while their host communities absorb the bill. Sincerely, A Voting Constituent