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, but if it goes like any other local hearing — Ohioans will let their anger show.
"How dare they come to our community and take our farmland and our nurseries?" Madison Township resident Katie O'Neill said during a meeting in Perry Village. "How dare they?"
Data centers have become a growing concern due to environmental and energy usage concerns.
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 financial burden.
News 5 and Signal Ohio’s reporting shows the state is giving up way more money to developers than officials expected.
New 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.
RELATED: Local developer, global tech firm plan major data center project in Portage County
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, and he 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 and, you know, returning the ground to what it was before the data center was built," Huffman said.
But after our reporting, DeWine halted the breaks.
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, while the 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, said Wednesday that the facilities are needed.
"This is being driven by consumers and businesses, all of us demanding services and technologies," Diorio said.
Some 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," he said.
While residents told us they are happy the tax break has stopped, some say it’s too late.
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.
The meeting 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.
