Starke County

No specific data center project has been formally proposed in Starke County. However, Amazon is actively scouting sites across the seven-county Northwest Indiana region for 2.4 GW of data center capacity, putting Starke County in the target zone. The Starke County Plan Commission voted to approve a 12-month moratorium on hyperscale data centers (facilities exceeding 5,000 square feet) on December 5, 2025. The County Commissioners unanimously approved the moratorium on December 16, 2025. The moratorium applies to building permits, location improvement permits, and site plan applications in unincorporated Starke County. County Attorney Justin Schramm stated: "The county recognized quite a while ago that we don't have a lot of parameters currently in place for these data centers." Officials noted they "don't understand to the extent what we're dealing with" regarding impacts on the public and environment. Officials plan to develop long-term solutions during the pause, which could include an outright ban. Status: MORATORIUM (12-month, effective Dec 2025).

HB 1405 (2019), signed May 5, 2019 by Gov. Eric Holcomb as Public Law 256. Codified at IC 6-1.1-10-44 (property tax exemption for enterprise IT equipment) and IC 6-2.5-15 (sales tax exemption for data center equipment). Created Indiana's data center tax incentive framework: sales tax exemptions on equipment and electricity, plus business personal property tax exemptions for qualifying data centers. Note: IC 6-1.1-12.3 (originally cited in some analyses) has been repealed; the active property tax provision is IC 6-1.1-10-44, as amended by P.L.256-2019, SEC.1.

HB 1405/P.L. 256 exempts: (1) Sales tax on data center equipment purchases — servers, storage, networking, cooling, backup power (IC 6-2.5-15-11); (2) Sales tax on electricity consumed by qualifying data centers; (3) Business personal property tax on enterprise IT equipment (IC 6-1.1-10-44) — duration set by local agreement between designating body and eligible business; (4) Sales tax certificate duration: 25 years (or 50 years if investment >= $750M) per IC 6-2.5-15-14. Qualifying thresholds are population-tiered (IC 6-2.5-15-10): $150M in counties >100K population, $100M in counties 50K-100K, $25M in counties <=50K. Investment must be met by 5th anniversary of certificate.

Commissioners voted unanimously (3-0):
- Charles Chesak (President) — YES
- Mike VanDeMark (Vice-President) — YES
- Don Binkley — YES

N/A — No data center project proposed. Moratorium is preventive. Amazon is scouting NWI region for 2.4GW, putting Starke County in target zone.

N/A — No project proposed.

N/A — No project proposed.

N/A — No project proposed.

N/A — No project proposed.

N/A — No abatement granted.

TWO SEPARATE STATUTES, TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS:

PROPERTY TAX (IC 6-1.1-10-44): NO clawback mechanism. The statute authorizes a local "designating body" (county or municipality) to enter an agreement granting a property tax exemption. The eligible business must invest $25M+ and pay wages at 125% of county average (Sec. 44(b)(3)-(4)). However, the statute contains NO enforcement, recapture, or penalty provision if these conditions are later unmet. The only protection would be terms negotiated into the local agreement itself — the statute does not require any.

SALES TAX (IC 6-2.5-15): LIMITED enforcement via noncompliance assessment. Section 15 requires an agreement with IEDC including annual reporting of taxes not paid. Section 18 provides: if IEDC determines a company is noncompliant with the agreement or chapter requirements, IEDC notifies the Dept. of Revenue, which MAY impose an assessment up to the total taxes exempted plus interest and penalties. The trigger is failing to meet the "qualified data center" definition (Sec. 10) — i.e., not reaching the investment threshold by the 5th anniversary.

CRITICAL OMISSIONS: Neither statute requires job creation targets, community benefit commitments, water use limits, renewable energy use, or any ongoing performance metrics beyond the initial investment threshold. There are no wage requirements in the sales tax statute. The property tax statute has a 125% county average wage requirement but no mechanism to enforce it after the exemption is granted. The first economic impact study (Sec. 20) is not due until 2030 — 11 years after the law passed.

2026 session reform bills: (1) HB 1210 (Rep. Ed Soliday, R) — PASSED, weakened. Original: data centers pay fair share of electricity costs. Senate version: $5M/year savings to ratepayers. Final (after private meetings with industry): 1% electricity savings, capped at $350K/year. Signed into law. (2) HB 1333 (Rep. Beau Baird, R) — DIED. Would have protected farmland from data center conversion by requiring agricultural zoning protections. (3) HB 1245 (Rep. Matt Pierce, D) — DIED. Would have required IURC to study data center electricity impacts on ratepayers. (4) SB 257 (Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown) — DIED. Would have protected residential ratepayers from bearing data center infrastructure costs. (5) SB 79 (Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis) — status unclear. Would require data centers to disclose water and electricity consumption. (6) HB 1043 — Would require DNR water consumption permit for large data centers. 2025 session: HB 1007 — ENACTED. Requires data centers to commit to paying 80% of generation costs for electricity. Pattern: 5 of 6 reform bills in 2026 died. The one that passed (HB 1210) was weakened from $5M/year to $350K/year in closed-door meetings.

No. Indiana does NOT require state-level environmental impact review for data center projects. There is no state EIS/EIR process equivalent to NEPA for private data center construction. Permits required: IDEM air permits for diesel backup generators (Title V or minor source); NPDES water discharge permits; stormwater permits. These are standard industrial permits, not data-center-specific review. Local ordinances are filling the void: Lake County (Aug 2025) adopted a data center ordinance requiring noise limits, setbacks, energy efficiency plans, water management plans, and decommission plans. Kosciusko County (Feb 2025) classified data centers as "exceptional use" requiring special permits. These are LOCAL responses to the absence of state-level requirements.

No. Indiana does NOT require data centers to report water consumption or use renewable energy. No existing statute or regulation mandates either. SB 79 (2026, Sen. J.D. Ford, D) would have required water and electricity consumption disclosure — status unclear/likely died. HB 1043 (2026) would have required a DNR water consumption permit for facilities using large volumes — status unclear/likely died. For context: IU Environmental Resilience Institute reports US data centers consumed 17.4 billion gallons of water in 2023, expected to double by 2028. A single hyperscale campus requires 200+ acres, 100+ MW of power (equivalent to 80,000 homes), and millions of gallons of water annually for cooling. Indiana is projected to need 426 TWh of data center electricity by 2030 — "more electricity than all 6.8 million Hoosier households today" (IU ERI).

Starke County is served by NIPSCO (NiSource) and local REMCs. NIPSCO rates went up 26.7% in 2025 — highest increase in state. Amazon's data center demand alone projected to exceed NIPSCO's entire existing customer base by 2032.

N/A — No project proposed.

Indiana county commissioners serve 4-year terms.
- Charles Chesak (President): term TBD
- Mike VanDeMark (VP): term TBD
- Don Binkley: term TBD

Commissioners meet 1st Monday at 5:00 PM CST and 3rd Monday at 9:30 AM CST.
Contact:
- Charles Chesak: (574) 806-3746
- Mike VanDeMark: (574) 274-4853
- Don Binkley: (574) 249-0895
Website: starke.in.gov

1. The moratorium expires Dec 2026. Ask commissioners: will they adopt permanent data center standards, or extend/make the ban permanent?
2. Amazon is scouting NWI for 2.4GW. Ask: has Amazon or any developer contacted Starke County officials?
3. Demand any future negotiations be conducted in public, not behind closed doors.
4. Ask about NIPSCO rate impact — 26.7% increase already, and Amazon's demand will exceed all existing NIPSCO customers.
5. Contact state legislators about SB 257 and HB 1245.