Spotlight Pa reports that there are “unknown costs” associated with Amazon’s $20 billion promise to build two data centers in Pennsylvania.
Do tell. And here we go again.
State officials say the retail juggernaut’s data centers will generate thousands of jobs over the next decade and create considerable economic activity.
“But many key details,” including “the amount of tax revenue the state will forfeit to Amazon, are still unknown,” Spotlight Pa says. Estimates, over two gubernatorial administrations, have ranged from $43 million to $75 million. But it’s unclear if that’s for a single respective fiscal year or annually, over a longer term.
A state law designed to incentivize data center development in general provides a sales tax exemption for Amazon and others on key equipment that could potentially cost the state millions of dollars that otherwise would go toward education, health care and other basic services, the news service reports.
Gov. Josh Shapiro defends the tax break, saying the data centers will “generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue for state and local governments.”
But guess what? They’d generate millions of dollars more if Amazon paid those forgiven sales taxes.
Do remember, this is the same gigunda company that in 2025’s first quarter (ended March 31) reported that net sales increased 9 percent to $155.7 billion over the same year-ago quarter.
Net income for this year’s first quarter was a cool $17.1 billion. That’s up nearly $7 billion – yes, $7 billion – from the $10.4 billion it reported in the same year-ago quarter.
Why, again, should Amazon be “incentivized” on the backs of Pennsylvania taxpayers?
Furthermore, Spotlight Pa reports that grandiose projections of jobs, jobs and more jobs – outside of temporary construction jobs — from these subsidized data centers are “squishy.”
While the governor and the state Department of Community & Economic Development say these two data centers will generate “at least 1,250 high-paying, high-tech jobs as well as thousands of construction jobs,” Spotlight Pa, citing one real-world example, says such centers “are notorious for operating without much human labor.”
“Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog that tracks state and local subsidies, said that most permanent data center jobs are in security and landscaping, alongside a handful of technicians who monitor the facilities’ computers,” the news outlet notes.
But LeRoy’s bottom line is that “this is clearly an industry that doesn’t need help.” As Amazon’s financials would attest.
We have nothing against Amazon. We have nothing against data centers. But we continue to have everything against rank corporate wealthfare.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
