Data Center & Transportation Investment
- Tom Wolfe
- 5 hours ago
- 1 min read
Embracing public private partnerships for highway investment and a balanced tax policy for data center construction can keep the state's expansion in both on solid fiscal footing.
Senate Committee on Finance
Analyzing how to enact safeguards to ensure that Texans benefit from data center investment first requires identification of those benefits. There are at least three categories of benefits: job creation, stimulus effects on the local economy, and tax revenue. As noted above, data centers qualifying for sales tax exemptions must create a minimum of 20 or 40 jobs, as applicable. But the economic benefits of data centers go well beyond direct job creation. Most obviously, construction jobs are created as a byproduct of data centers. Additionally, local workers, such as electricians and HVAC repairmen, can benefit from a data center.
When looking at transportation investment, Public Private Partnerships (P3s) have been a critically important infrastructure investment tool for state and local governments for years. P3s involve contracts between a public entity and a private investment consortium to build and operate public infrastructure. These partnerships can be flexible arrangements that allocate resources and risk. They are not limited to highway construction, but also encompass bridges, facilities for water treatment, and energy generation facilities.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
