New report sheds negative light on South Carolina transparency on data center incentives

Anthony Elmo, Public Education Defender for Good Jobs First, a national organization founded in 1998 that fights for transparency around public money used for economic development purposes. His organization pushes back on corporate welfare, he told podcast host Frank Knapp.Elmo’s organization cites data center tax abatement as one of their concerns, especially because it results in public schools losing tax revenue. In South Carolina, the estimate is upwards of $500 million in funding not going to schools.Good Jobs First recently released a report, “Data Center Tax Abatements. Why States and Localities Must Disclose These Soaring Revenue Losses”, which identifies 14 states that offer incentives to data centers yet do not disclose how much tax incentives are going to data center projects. South Carolina is one of those states.The conversation covered recent efforts in the South Carolina legislature to regulate data center development and at least get one year disclosures of data centers tax incentive used and their water consumption.