Why trillion-dollar firms don't need tax breaks communities like Lowndes County: op-ed

This is a guest opinion column

Cloverleaf wants Lowndes County to join a growing list of communities handing out billion-dollar tax breaks to data center developers. Among other concerns with these development projects, normal people who pay taxes and utility bills without any discount are asking why trillion-dollar corporations deserve special treatment. It is especially head-scratching when you look closely at the nature of data centers and the original intent of tax breaks. In their original form, the construction work was just the icing on the economic cake. It was the permanent jobs created by a manufacturing plant or a company relocation that justified the tax breaks. Those permanent jobs brought new people to town, who in turn needed housing and shops and groceries and more. The jobs were a spark that generated economic activity that produced additional tax revenue and spread economic growth throughout the economy with increased spending by those workers which offset the tax breaks.