The state of Illinois is implementing a tax break for new cloud data storage centers located in the state. The Center Square’s Greg Bishop quotes me in a story about it:
A special carve out for data centers is bad policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Ryan Young.
“A principle of good policy is that the rules should apply to everyone, not just a select few,” Young said. “By that measure, Illinois’ tax break for cloud data centers is bad policy.”
Young said Illinois’ exemptions applies to one sector and is only available to large companies.
“The sales tax exemption requires a $250 million upfront capital investment, which more or less restricts it to the Googles, Amazons and Oracles of the world,” Young said. “None of these companies need the help.”
He said if the point of the tax break is to make Illinois a better place to do business, then why not apply it to everyone.
“This tax break is corporate welfare, plain and simple,” Young said.
“Given Illinois’ perilous fiscal situation, the state’s taxpayers would be better served if Springfield concentrated its efforts on reducing spending and deficits rather than doing favors for profitable businesses,” Young said.
Read the whole thing here.
Inertia Wins! 