Ohio GOP lawmakers want to override DeWine’s data centers’ tax break, as Ohio Democrats oppose the move

While Ohio Republican lawmakers plan to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto regarding the data centers’ tax break, the state’s Democratic lawmakers oppose the initiative, even though their political party is notorious for opposing corporations.

The Republicans in the Ohio House and Senate plan to override DeWine’s veto of their elimination of a sales tax break on construction materials for data centers, according to the Statehouse News Bureau.

“I think that we should override the governor’s veto on sales tax,” House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, told the news source. “That’s one of those things I think happened during the Kasich administration. Data centers were a new thing. We’d like for them to be built in Ohio. But I don’t think the companies building those should get special treatment when buying materials for their buildings. And so I think that that may be coming.”

Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, told the news outlet that his chamber wasn’t happy about the veto, adding that if they get an opportunity, they will vote to override the veto.

“It was the Senate proposal when it got into the budget,” he said. “We said, look, with a lot of the different advantages that data centers would have in Ohio, especially given the fact that we recently gave them the ability to build power behind their own meter and not take it off grid, we didn’t think that there was any need for the sales tax exemption anymore.”

A veto override requires 60 votes in the Ohio House and 20 votes in the Ohio Senate.

“We are whipping votes, as we say, to try to do that,” Huffman told the Statehouse News Bureau.

While Republicans are working to override the veto, Democrats in the state House and Senate are opposing the initiative, with Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, saying that the presence of data centers in the state resulted in a significant increase in union jobs for construction workers and plumbers.

“If [sales tax exemptions] are driving these jobs, then we should think very hard before we get rid of them,” he told The Blade.

Isaacsohn said that even though these jobs are temporary, it is still important to provide those jobs to people in Ohio because Democrats are in office to “fight for people so that they can get jobs that actually provide for their families.”

“Our economy, over the last two to three decades, has been sold to the highest bidder over and over again through choices made by policymakers and legislators, including here in Columbus,” he told The Blade. “If we’re serious about turning that around, we have to invest in the people of Ohio, and give them real job opportunities to provide for their families.”

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, told the news source that economic opportunities for Ohioans are more important than the environment that is negatively affected by data centers.

“These are companies with deep pockets. I want to know what kinds of investments it will mean in our local communities,” Antonio told The Blade. “Will their tax base benefit? Could their schools benefit? These are all questions we need to ask. Clearly, Ohio is seen as very desirable.”

However, even though most Democrats are unlikely to support the Republicans’ initiative, some will, among them state Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid.

“This is an extremely problematic tax break that continues to exist,” Smith told The Blade. “If we would just stop this, we would be able to get $187 million per year back into the Ohio general fund.”