No More Free Land, Free Water, Free Tax Breaks for Data Centers

Dear Governor Braun and Members of the Indiana General Assembly, I am writing as a Hoosier who is alarmed at the pace data center development is being courted into our state, and the terms on which it arrives. The deal as currently structured does not serve Indiana residents. We are asked to surrender land, water, and grid capacity, and to forgo tax revenue through abatements and exemptions, in exchange for a short burst of construction work that ends the moment the buildings are finished. Those jobs are temporary by design. What stays behind is permanent: the strain on our water supply, the energy demand that raises costs for every other ratepayer, and the environmental footprint on farmland that feeds people and livestock. I am asking you to change the terms. • No new data center should be approved unless its operator pays the full cost of the infrastructure upgrades it requires, water, power, and grid included, rather than shifting those costs onto Hoosier households and farms. • The tax abatements and exemptions extended to these projects should end. Indiana should not forgo public revenue to subsidize facilities that return little lasting employment. • Water usage and environmental impact on agricultural land must be reviewed and accounted for before approval, with binding protections for our food supply and rural communities. Indiana’s land and water are not surplus to be given away. They are the foundation of our agriculture and our quality of life. I urge you to require that this industry pay its own way or build elsewhere. Respectfully, Adam Dankert, Westfield, Indiana