(The Center Square) – Brown County is the latest in Wisconsin to consider a moratorium on approving new data center projects.
Cities and counties across the state have begun to introduce and approve moratoriums as they say they are gathering information on everything from land use to zoning to water and power uses to tax breaks for the ever-growing market of large-scale data centers in the state.
Wrightstown recently approved a non-binding referendum to be placed on the August ballot regarding data centers. This comes after Madison and Manitowoc counties have approved moratoriums and Dane County is considering an 18-month moratorium.
State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, is encouraging residents to attend the Brown County Board’s next meeting at 7 p.m. on June 17 to voice support for the effort.
“This is not about being against technology or innovation,” Rivera-Wagner said in a statement. “It is about making sure Wisconsin communities have real protections in place before we move forward. I encourage residents to attend, testify, and make their voices heard. I hope the Brown County Board supports this proposal and sends a clear message that Wisconsin communities deserve a seat at the table before decisions of this magnitude are made.”
Wisconsin state lawmakers left the recent session without putting data center guardrails in place after discussion on several bills that would limit data centers or protect ratepayers related to utility costs.
The moratoriums come as Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau shows that the state will forego $1.5 billion in sales tax to four data center projects in initial construction and then $369 million more annually once the projects are completed.
The sales tax exemption was enacted in the 2023-25 budget and applies to everything from property purchases to computer servers and energy systems at the site to electricity and cooling systems.
The exemptions apply to Microsoft’s $20.6 billion in data centers in Wisconsin along with OpenAI, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers’ $15 billion in data center investments in Port Washington. Epic Hosting’s $347 million project in Verona and Meta’s $1 billion project in Beaver Dam are also included.
Many of the projects are also in tax increment districts that allow the companies to regain additional property taxes from the developments to pay for the projects.
