Data center bill approved by House, gives sales tax break

COLUMBIA BASIN — A new sales tax break for data centers in rural counties is already prompting more business interest in Quincy.

The inquiries came just a day after the bill was approved by the state House of Representatives recently.

The bill passed the state Senate last week and is bound for the governor’s desk for her signature.

The bill allows a temporary tax exemption for new data centers.

“We are getting a lot of interest since the bill passed from companies definitely looking at Quincy,” said Pat Boss, a government affairs consultant for the Port of Quincy. “Hopefully, this bill will translate into some construction.”

The bill’s backers say added business would create new construction and full-time work for people living in their districts and increase property tax revenue.

Grant County currently has a 13.6-percent unemployment rate.

State Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, and Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, co-sponsored a companion House bill with Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, and Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-East Wenatchee.

“This is government getting out of the way and letting the private sector create jobs — something we need to do more of,” Hinkle stated. “This is the type of thing, the type of creativity, that I’d hoped we could do more of at the beginning of session.”

“If we had adopted this type of approach to our overall budget problem, the Democrats wouldn’t have needed to call a special session at a cost of over $18,000 per day in order to figure out which taxes to raise,” he commented.

Warnick stated server farms are a “good mix with the agriculture industry that we all depend on.”

“They provide good jobs and help rural areas like ours to maintain our economy and culture,” she stated. “In return, we provide them with affordable and abundant hydroelectric power from the Columbia River, available fiber optic lines and reasonable land prices. There is much to gain from both sides in this relationship.”

Armstrong stated that data center construction initially brings between 600 to 1,000 construction jobs to an area, lasting between 18 to 24 months. Long-term jobs also result.

Data centers have been built in both Douglas County and Grant County.

“Every job created in our state is another step closer to economic recovery in Washington,” Armstrong stated. “So we welcome this legislation and the jobs it will create.”

Condotta stated the incentive “will build stronger communities and schools in rural areas.”

“These companies are critical not only for the jobs they create, but also for the tax base that is needed to pay for emergency services and other needs in our part of the state,” he added.

Jon Smith, communications and research manager with the Grant County Economic Development Council, said the bill helps make Grant County more attractive for data center development.

“One of the things we’ve been competing with other states are the incentives (being offered) to data centers to have them locate there,” he said.

“This isn’t a waiver for tax on everything,” Smith clarified. “There’s still a rural property tax. It waives the tax on the servers.”