Server racks in a data center. Photo: Sergei Starostin / Pexels
By Darren Svan | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A Caddo Parish official plans to introduce a legislative measure next week in an attempt to impose local taxing authority through a two-year moratorium that would slow data center projects in the parish while they assess their long-term effect.
The proposed rule would not affect a data center campus currently under construction.
In December, the Caddo Parish Commission voted in support of tax incentives that helped attract the construction of an Amazon Web Services campus to the parish.
But some commissioners have expressed their misgivings about that decision through recent legislative initiatives.
“We entered into this tax agreement offer with very little information,” said Commissioner John-Paul Young. “As people have learned more and studied the issue, the more I think they have many risks, and they might easily outweigh the revenue benefits, which are really the only benefits that they promise.”
The commission previously introduced a resolution that would have required an environmental study and an ordinance to regulate temporary workforce housing sites for work crews constructing the Stateline Road Data Center near Blanchard.
Neither measure was adopted by the commission.
Young’s newest legislative action would place a two-year moratorium on future tax incentive agreements, such as payment in lieu of taxes or other forms of tax abatements.
“It's not a moratorium on data centers coming here and being built,” Young said. “It's possible that data centers will still want to come and locate in the unzoned parts of Caddo Parish, even with a moratorium.”
A commission work session is slated for Aug. 17, with a regular meeting to follow on Aug. 20.
The resolution also calls for a committee to be set up to study local concerns and risks. That body would be expected to produce a report for the commission.
“They have 18 months to issue a report, and then 60 days after that report is issued, the commission would have to take it up for a vote,” Young said.
Young raised concerns about their environmental effects, increased ambient heat, vast water consumption and the impact on utility rates.
”It seems like data centers are coming here so we need to increase our awareness and vigilance about them. And people are not getting less interested in them, they're getting more interested in them,” he said.