It looks like legislation to give a tax break to large data centers in Michigan won’t be moving forward for now.
State Representative Joey Andrews has championed House Bills 4905 and 4906, which would create a sales and use tax exemption for the large data centers in the state. The bills have been approved in the state House and also approved in the Senate, which made minor changes to them. Therefore, the legislation went back to the House for a concurrence bill, which has been held up.
Speaking at a Thursday meeting, Berrien County Commissioner Chokwe Pitchford said he recently got an update on the package from the county’s liaison in Lansing, Michael Krombeen, was told the package is again delayed.
“It is most likely being punted to the fall due to some untraditional party line splits that are happening, where there is a contingent of Republicans and Democrats who are supporting it, but those on either extreme are probably not going to be supporting it,” Pitchford said.
Pitchford said if the extremes of both sides oppose the legislation, that tells him it’s good legislation. However, that doesn’t change the delays now faced by the package.
Cornerstone Alliance has been a big backer of the legislation, saying Berrien County has sites that would be ideal for large data centers like those used by Meta and Google.
Some opposition to the data center legislation has come from environmental groups concerned about their impact.
