Ford says he’ll pause data center tax abatements if elected 

Ford was among the state lawmakers who co-sponsored legislation in 2015 to grant tax abatements to data centers that set up shop in Nevada. Now, with affordability issues top of mind for voters and a water shortage threatening the state’s future, Ford appears to be having second thoughts. 

The state extended $97 million in tax breaks to data centers in the 2021-22 biennium, according to the Department of Taxation’s Tax Expenditure Report. That number more than doubled for fiscal years 2023-24 to almost $240 million. 

“When I’m Governor, Joe Lombardo’s gravy train for data centers is coming to an end. I’m going to implement some of the strictest rules in America: data centers will need to bring their own water or coolant, pay for their own electricity so ratepayers’ bills don’t go up, and actually deliver the sustainable high-paying jobs and tax revenue they’ve promised,” Ford said, adding he intends to make data centers “pay up.” 

Ford’s plan calls for making data centers pay not only for the energy they use, but for the infrastructure required to deliver it. NV Energy says it intends to build close to $3.5 billion in capital projects in the next three years to accommodate the increased demands of data centers on the electrical grid.

Ford also intends to ban water-intensive evaporative cooling methods used in data centers. 

Ford’s Democratic primary opponent Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, who called for ending data center subsidies during the campaign, supports her former opponent’s plan. 

“Gov. Lombardo is handing over our state’s precious water and energy resources to his biggest donors,” Hill said in a news release from Ford’s campaign. “Nevadans must come together to vote for Ford and other Democrats who will guarantee transparency and center local community needs.”

Ford says he intends to see that all data centers, including those that don’t receive subsidies, are held accountable when it comes to water use, community benefits, and transparency in the local permitting process. 

Data centers are an election issue in Nevada and elsewhere. 

“People really effing hate data centers,” Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan said while campaigning in July.  

Lombardo has repeatedly professed his support for data centers, including in an opinion piece in the Reno Gazette-Journal. 

Lombardo’s Better Nevada PAC has also hauled in large data center-related donations, including $500,000 each from data center pioneer Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia in May, and $1,000,000 the same month from Jessica Roy, wife of Switch founder Rob Roy.