3.4K views · 16K reactions | Let’s talk about a Tech Industrial Complex (TIC) Tax on Data Centers. Even though the public may not want a data center in their town, outright bans don’t survive legal challenges or the economic and political pressure brought by large corporations, private equity, and competing government interests. In some cases the anticipation of bans is part of the roll-out strategy for private equity-backed data center developments. Instead of relying primarily on property taxes, what if we treated data centers more like the digital infrastructure they are? A Tech Industrial Complex (TIC) Tax would put a meter on all data centers, and tax them based on digital activity. The data received, processed, stored, and transmitted would be metered and taxed based on that level of activity, rather than simply the value of the land and buildings. It’s time for us to demand our fair share. A TIC Tax would properly compensate our communities for the privilege of allowing installa

I do this a lot. I travel around Ohio advocating for small municipalities and townships that are outgunned by data center development teams and legal teams. One of the things that I have learned is that most of the strategic consultants that data center development projects have used to target the state of Ohio for the last seven to 10 years have specifically identified townships that don't have home rule and don't have full-time solicitors to be able to negotiate on their behalf. And so one of the things that I want to bring to this conversation is they are ready for a ban and they aren't afraid of moratoriums because they know that their money and their lawyers can outlast those types of measures. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't hope for them because a ban in theory should be able to ban the thing that we don't want. But unfortunately these projects are backed by private equity and I have a certain amount of experience dealing with private equity because I built China's largest craft brewery and after 11 years of growing a business with my wife private equity decided that we did not perform well enough and they took the company away from us during COVID. They are repacious. They will not stop at one thing that stands in their way. The only thing they truly hate is taxes and taxes is a weapon that I think a lot of us have forgotten that we have. And so when we look at projects and we've heard so much testimony today about how much energy the 72 plus a high scale data centers that are in planning in the state of Ohio right now are applying to use and what it'll take in terms of acreage and square miles of solar panels or wind turbines or diesel or natural gas to power them the one thing that I haven't heard so far today is if we use the actual economic tools that we the people have to actually put limits on what speculative bubbles are which is economic drivers that take advantage of cheap under regulated markets to be able to pump up the value of an industry before it comes crashing down. The last time we had a speculative bubble that bled into the real space it was railroads. And so even if we want to look at the 2008 global financial crisis those were financial vehicles. They were traded via wires and electronically they weren't physical things. They went and bled into the equity that was in our physical homes. But the last time we experienced a true speculative bubble that bled into our farmlands and into our physical space it was railroads. We have forgotten what those pains feel like and what it costs to clean up those blikes. And so what I would propose that you consider is being the lead and being the lighthouse in the state of Ohio that would consider a tech industrial complex tax or a tick tax where you look at exactly what a data center is and then you tax it. These are not computers in a building. These are not facilities that are facilitating the storage of the cloud. They're not what your social media networks are running on. They're not what streaming videos on Netflix. These are manufacturing facilities. They take our data and they manufacture new products based on our hopes, dreams, culture, history, music, religion, everything. The essence of humans. [on-screen] TECHINDUSTRIAL COMPLEXTAX PART1 ouncilPublicUtilities&SustainabilityCommittee: ataCentersPolicy July22,2026 advocating forsmall townshipsthatare development teams and One of the things thatl learnedisthatmostof strategic consultants data center development the stateofohio for seventotenyearshave townships that don't homeruleand don'thave beable And soone of the things conversation is they are readyfora ban and they aren't afraid of they outlast That doesn'tmean that