Google confirmed as the corporation behind data center plans in Scioto County — receives 75% tax abatement  

Google has been confirmed as the company behind a $1 billion data center being planned in Scioto County.

Molly Kocour Boyle, the head of Midwest data center public affairs for Google, said that the project is in a planning phase in a statement to the press.

“Google is considering a potential data center project in Scioto County, Ohio,” Boyle said in the statement. “We are still very early in the process, working closely with the local leadership.”

The Scioto County Commission has granted Google a tax abatement that will allow it to pay $500,000 annually in lieu of taxes for 15 years, with some additional payments based on the total square footage of the completed data center.

Commissioners say that the abatement will allow the corporation to pay 25% of what they would have paid in taxes, according to a Jan. 22 report from WSAZ.

The data center will be built in the rural community of Franklin Furnace, located in Green Township, if Google goes forward with the current plans.

Residents raised questions about the project and the tax abatement at a Jan. 22 commission meeting.

Franklin Furnace resident Melanie Porter spoke about the need for more transparency from the Commission regarding the project.

“I think really what our community has been asking for is transparency consistent with Ohio law, so that the public can understand what is being considered before a tax abatement vote is taken,” Porter said.

Porter also mentioned concerns residents have about giving a tax abatement to a large corporation when funds are needed for local public services.

“Time and time again, we are told that LARP projects will benefit Green Twonship, and time and time again they do not,” she said. “We are left behind when it comes to infrastructure, schools, and basic community needs.”

“We needed a new school, and that fell on a levy for the taxpayers.”

Attendees also expressed concerns about the effects a large data center could have on the electric grid as well as its possible environmental impact at a Jan. 8 meeting.

A bill to establish a commission to investigate the effects of data centers on economics, the environment, infrastructure, and land use was introduced by State Reps. Gary Click, R-Vickery, and Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk, on Jan. 13.

The County Commission previously announced that an unnamed entity was seeking a tax abatement for a 500,000-square-foot data center in a Jan. 7 Facebook post.

Google currently has data centers in Columbus, Lancaster, and New Albany, and has invested $7.2 billion into projects in Ohio since 2019.