NEVADA – Joe Lombardo signed an executive order Friday, requiring developers seeking partial data center tax abatements to agree to pay the Local School Support Tax in full and sign a “community support commitment” before their applications can go before the Governor’s Office of Economic Development board. The order does not end data center tax breaks. It reduces the sales and use tax abatement, and data centers can still get 75% of their personal property tax abated. Under the order, data centers would pay an effective sales tax rate of 4.6% compared with 7.1% to 8.375% for everyone else in Nevada.
Signing it in the middle of the night, with an order authored by Jeremy Aguero, a man whose sole mission is to give as many tax giveaways to corporate interests as possible. It is also an attempt by Lombardo to erase his pro data center statements and actions. He has called data centers “The New Gold Rush,” argued the average data center uses less water than 25 to 50 homes, and wrote federal regulators in support of a pipeline expansion to power data centers in northern Nevada. He also appeared at the May groundbreaking for a Fleet Data Center in Storey County, a developer now behindprivate gas plants that critics say would skirt the state’s renewable energy law. Now, with communities across Nevada pushing back on data centers, Lombardo is trying to rebrand the same unpopular developments he has pushed on Nevadans all along.
Shelbie Swartz, Executive Director of Battle Born Progress, issued the following statement:
“Nevadans are worried about their power bills, their water, and what’s being built in their communities, and Joe Lombardo’s answer is an order that lets data centers pay an effective sales tax rate of 4.6% while everyone else in Nevada pays between 7.1% and 8.375%. That isn’t a standard, it’s a discount. Working families don’t get to negotiate a lower rate, and they shouldn’t be asked to subsidize an industry that keeps taking more. A governor who has spent years calling data centers a gold rush doesn’t get to rewrite that record with one executive order. If Joe Lombardo wants to earn back Nevadans’ trust, he can start by putting their interests ahead of the industry’s.”
Maria E., Member Lead of Make the Road Action Nevada, issued the following statement:
“I hear Governor Joe Lombardo say that this order puts Nevadans first, but Nye County has already banned these sites, and Boulder City is still fighting against one. Nevadans have known for a long time what these projects cost us. My electric bill is now $40 higher than it was a year ago, and they arebuilding more data centers here that consume even more electricity and water than my entire neighborhood combined. No one consulted our street before any of these developments went up. If this order truly prioritizes Nevadans, the Governor should demonstrate that by meeting with the people who are already bearing the burden of his decisions.”
Dawn Etcheverry, President, Nevada State Education Association, issued the following statement:
“Governor Lombardo’s executive order is a continuation of Nevada’s failed data center tax giveaways. It leaves every previously approved abatement untouched, preserves the broader data center abatement program, and makes it state policy to facilitate additional data center development. This is not a pro-public education executive order. It’s a pro-data center growth plan with some education funding attached to make a deeply unpopular industry easier to sell. Governor Lombardo should stop inventing data-center-dependent approaches to school funding. At a time of drastic cuts to public education, continuing to give away hundreds of millions in desperately needed revenue harms Nevada’s students. If state leaders want data centers to support public education, end all abatements and make them pay their fair share.
Laura Martin, Executive Director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action Fund, released the following statement:
“After two regular legislative sessions and three special sessions, Joe Lombardo finally decided to do something about data centers. The rapid proliferation of massive data centers is an issue Nevadans have publicly opposed all year, but up until 1am today, Governor Lombardo has largely welcomed the flood as not only Nevada’s “gold rush” but as a way to fund his struggling reelection campaign.
Nevada deserves a Governor who responds to the demands of the people, not the warnings of his pollsters. From cyber attacks to data centers, Governor Lombardo seems to always come up short when Nevadans expect him to deliver.”
Kristee Watson, Executive Director of Nevada Conservation League, issued the following statement:“Governor Lombardo has put in writing that no ratepayer should pay more because a data center was built, and Nevada Conservation League welcomes that standard. However, the executive order sets no water standard, says nothing about the clean energy Nevada needs to power this industry, and lasts only until it is rescinded or replaced. It also provides no critical enforcement mechanisms. Nevadans deserve binding protections against higher bills and to protect their water. Nevada Conservation League will keep pressing at the Commission and the Legislature for protections that are binding, include public input, and are permanent.”
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