Onondaga County will go ahead with its study of data centers despite Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement that the state will conduct its own study.
County Executive Ryan McMahon announced the county study as town governments in the county were implementing one-year freezes on construction of data centers and, in the case of the town of Skaneateles, a permanent ban on data centers in the town.
At the time, Hochul’s position was that local governments should decide the data center issue. Last week, she changed her mind, imposing a statewide one-year ban on most new data centers and ordering a study to determine best practices for local governments in siting and giving benefits to data center developers.
On CBS’s "Face The Nation" Sunday, Hochul explained her change of heart: “I would say what changed was talking to the localities and realizing they don't have the negotiating ability to, or have the clout to be able to demand that their communities benefit from this in a more dramatic way. They also don't have the ability to insist that these companies bring their own power or pay more for the grid. They don't have an ability to say no to tax breaks. And so I decided that I could do much more.”
Data centers are large buildings full of computers that handle complex data processing for so-called artificial intelligence systems. They use large amounts of power and water. They provide temporary construction jobs but relatively few permanent jobs as the developers access taxpayer-funded economic development funds to lower the cost of construction and lower or manage their taxes after opening.
McMahon said there was still value in the county’s own study going forward despite the state’s new efforts.
“I think we're gonna still go forward with it because we wanna look at it from a regional perspective,” he said. “We're gonna learn what they're doing, understand where it makes sense to incorporate what they're doing into our review. Certainly, we're looking to give local municipalities best practices. Certainly from the regional standpoint, we wanna understand some of our resources, what we want to make available to this type of project and what we don't. And so I think that study will kind of give us a blueprint for that.”
