• ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    There’s more to factor in than just job creation. Presumably this isn’t a project that going to build on undeveloped land. The land Amazon is building on is likely abandoned warehouse/factory that isn’t paying income tax anyway. There’s almost definitely going to be environmental clean up involved is the project, which wouldn’t happen without the project. Power and water utilities get a new customer that will pay a lot of money and likely on time. A data center requires new fiber to be laid, which should also allow local residential areas access to better internet as well.

    There’s also the potential that this aws data center attracts a Google or Microsoft data center and they don’t get as good of a deal to be the second or third mover. All the employees need housing, for high paying jobs that could mean new construction or upgrades to existing homes. Best case scenario the public schools in the area improve, worst case there’s a new private school that offers some scholarships for a handful of kids that aren’t from well off families.

    Not getting taxes and having condemned abandoned buildings is worse than not getting taxes and having a functioning business in rhe area.