COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio residents will get the chance to speak their mind about the growing number of data centers at a committee hearing at the Statehouse this Monday.
The Select Committee on Data Centers will hear testimony from the general public, and if it goes like any other local hearing lately — Ohioans will let their anger and anxiety show.
"How dare they come to our community and take our farmland and our nurseries?" Madison Township resident Katie O'Neill said during a recent meeting in Perry Village. "How dare they?"
Data centers have become a growing concern due to questions about environmental impacts and energy use.
RELATED: Crowd packs Perry Village hall to protest data-center project as tensions rise across Ohio
"They are coming in here as thieves in the night, saying that they are contributing to us when really they are endangering us, and they are taking from us," O'Neill said.
She is just one of the hundreds of Ohioans across the state who have spoken out publicly against data centers.
And now, lawmakers are pushing back against their state tax breaks for the projects.
Separate reporting from News 5 and Signal Ohio shows the state is giving up way more money to data center companies than officials expected, as the industry grows.
Figures from the Ohio Department of Taxation show the state provided almost $1.57 billion in sales-tax exemptions on purchases of data center equipment and construction materials last year.
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That’s nearly 12 times what state officials initially expected, according to estimates produced by the tax department in late 2024 as part of Ohio’s budgeting process.
Those numbers don’t include the value of local sales-tax breaks for data center projects, which totaled $446.3 million last year, according to tax department calculations.
"Whether it's $20 million or $1.2 billion, my position is the same... I think we ought to override the governor's veto," House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said.
This tax break has to end, he said. The General Assembly actually passed an elimination of the data center sales tax exemption in the last budget. But Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed it.
For months, the lawmakers have been debating overriding his decision.
"I think it makes a big difference when there are, of course, a number of other issues on the table between energy use and water use and NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and, you know, returning the ground to what it was before the data center was built," Huffman said.
After recent media reports, DeWine halted the tax breaks for new projects.
RELATED: DeWine halts new sales-tax breaks for data centers
"This is something that we are reviewing right now," DeWine said.
He told Ohio’s tax credit authority to hold off on considering requests for new incentives while the legislative committee studies the industry.
The committee, made up of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, has five main ways the lawmakers say they will support Ohioans. It will see how much data centers impact Ohio energy bills, look into the financial benefits to communities, evaluate what they do to water and wildlife, identify the national security risks and increase awareness of what hubs actually do.
Dan Diorio, who represents a coalition of data center developers and tech companies, told lawmakers Wednesday the facilities are needed.
"This is being driven by consumers and businesses, all of us demanding services and technologies," Diorio said.
Some labor union leaders and corporations have opposed getting rid of the tax break, arguing that it helps bring jobs to Ohio.
"It is innovation in the economy, innovation in the products and services that we rely on, and innovation that helps to drive the US as the global leader in technology," Diorio said.
While residents told us they are happy new tax breaks are suspended, some say it’s too late to rein in data center development.
RELATED: Is a data center a blessing or a curse? Depends on the community.
"We're on the wrong end of things when it comes to debating or negotiating," Larry Hackley, a Perry resident, said during a recent public meeting.
The state committee hearing on Monday begins at noon and will take place in the Senate Finance Hearing Room.
News 5's Michelle Jarboe contributed to this report.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
