Virginia Senator Lucas Pushes to Repeal $2 Billion Data Center Tax Break
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Jul 17
Virginia Senator Lucas Pushes to Repeal $2 Billion Data Center Tax Break
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Jul 17
Summary
State Senator Louise Lucas has launched a statewide town-hall tour aimed at turning public opposition to data centers into support for scrapping Virginia’s sales-and-use tax exemption.
The target is a subsidy Lucas says has swollen to about $2 billion a year, arguing the benefit now goes to some of the world’s richest companies and has become politically indefensible.
Lucas said turnout grew from stop to stop and described the backlash as unusually broad, drawing Republicans, Democrats and independents across racial, age and regional lines.
Her campaign adds pressure to one of Virginia’s biggest growth industries by framing data centers as no longer politically untouchable, even as she casts herself as a frequent target of political retaliation.