Shown is an Amazon Web Services data center located near single-family homes. Some local and state officials across the country want to halt facility development. (Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the Ohio House of Representatives unanimously introduced a bill establishing a up-to-date data center study commission. But state lawmakers have put on hold on plans to bypass the data center sales tax exemption — at least for now.
“It’s simply a matter of whether there are 60 people in the chamber who will vote to reject it,” explained Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman. “And you have to get people involved in this.”
Huffman reiterated his opposition to the firing, but said several members have so far refused to take a mighty stance. He added that the tax break may have made sense when it was passed, but it is no longer necessary.
“We have no shortage of proposed data centers,” Huffman said. “So I’m going to continue to do it. We just definitely won’t be able to do it next week, maybe in May and June.”
Middle of the research commission, Ohio House Bill 646it now heads to the Ohio Senate.
Committee
The bill’s co-sponsor, Ohio Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said opinions on data centers are mighty and sharply divided. Some people want them “no matter what” and others are against them “no matter what.”
“They heard a voice come down from heaven and say, ‘You’re going to build data centers,’” Click joked. “And they said, No, Lord, you got it wrong – let me explain why.”
This is where the research committee comes in. Click believes the 13-member panel could support lawmakers determine how to craft a statewide data center policy. Technology, he says, raises questions faster than lawmakers can answer them.
“So we need to hire qualified people to answer all of these questions,” Click said. “Each of our constituents deserves their questions answered and they deserve reasonable, rational and qualified answers.”
The committee will include people with appropriate specialist knowledge, including: in the field of local government, public utilities, agriculture and the data centers themselves.
In a ballot amendment, Click added language to the measure directing the Speaker of the House and the Senate President to confer with their respective minority leaders before appointing them to committees.
Click’s co-sponsor, Ohio Rep. Kellie Deeter of Norwalk, said the committee is “taking its time with politics. It’s letting us get the facts first.”
She said the expansion of data centers “has implications for our electrical grid, our infrastructure, our economic development strategies and the communities that host them.”
“Rather than waiting to respond when challenges arise,” Deeter said, “this legislation allows Ohio to examine these issues now so we can make smart and informed decisions about our future.”
Last minute changes
However, Ohio State Rep. Erika White, D-Springfield Twp., proposed a change to the committee’s makeup.
She proposed another floor amendment, expanding the committee to 15 members.
Under her proposal, the governor would appoint one member representing labor and another representing the construction industry.
“These workers know how these projects work from the ground up,” White said. “They know what it takes to build them, maintain them and support the communities around them.”
Republicans rejected her proposal, arguing that the amendment should have been tabled in committee, not on the floor.
When asked about the amendment after the session, Speaker Huffman adopted a conciliatory tone.
“I think it would be appropriate to have union representatives there and probably a few others as well,” Huffman said.
He suggested that if the amendment had been proposed earlier, Republicans could have chewed on the idea in the caucus and perhaps the vote would have been different.
The idea shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, because Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn has been publicly calling for workers to come to the table since at least two weeks ago.
Still, Huffman said it would be “totally appropriate” for union members to serve on the committee, adding that “it will probably happen through the Senate (trial), and I think ultimately we will support that.”
Follow Ohio Capital Journal reporter Nick Evans on X Or on Bluesky.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
