(The Center Square) – A major business group in Ohio is support of data centers, which have sparked opposition in many locations across the state and a state constitutional petition drive to ban large centers.
The Greater Cleveland Partnership, which has 12,000 members and describes itself as “the largest metropolitan chamber of commerce in the nation,” is calling for a “smart growth approach” to data centers.
“A smart growth approach attracts investment, addresses energy demand and costs, protects water and the environment, and delivers broader business and community benefits,” the group said. “Bans and moratoriums do not protect communities; they shift investment elsewhere, losing the ability to guide development, gain economic opportunity, and develop growth infrastructure.”
It calls data centers “critical technology infrastructure,” that enable artificial intelligence, cloud services and greater economic growth.
Bans and moratoriums do not protect communities,” the organization said. “They shift investment elsewhere, losing the ability to guide development, gain economic opportunity, and develop growth infrastructure.”
The non-profit National Taxpayers Union also issued two new studies recommending strategies that can help taxpayers.
Ohio currently has 205 data centers, according to Data Center Map, a company that provides research for the industry.
The growth in data centers has prompted the Ohio legislature to appoint a study committee on the issue. Meanwhile, a group of opponents is trying to gather enough signatures to place a proposed constitutional amendment on banning any new large data centers on the November ballot for voters to decide.
Among the issues raised by opponents is excessive electric power and water consumption which could overload the aging power grid and drain water reserves.
A nonprofit group, Environmental Health Project, has said data centers are bad for the health of people who live nearby by creating noise, light air and water pollution.
“These risks are especially high from hyperscale data centers powered by fossil fuels,” the group says on its website.
On Friday, Democrat State Sen. Kent Smith, from the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, called for an immediate end to tax exemptions for data centers, citing a new report that said the centers are costing the state 10 times more than was projected in 2025.
Smith said the Ohio Department of Taxation estimated in 2024 the state would lose $135.8 million in revenue to data center tax exemptions. The actual cost, according to the department, was more than $1.5 billion for 2025 and more than $500 million in 2024.
“The jaw-dropping, recent reporting about how much money the state of Ohio is giving to the richest corporations in the world demands immediate action by the Ohio Legislature,” Smith said in a statement. “Sen. Blessing and I have been attempting to repeal the data center sales tax break since December 2024. If the governor and General Assembly had repealed the tax break when we asked them to, we could have saved Ohioans $1.5 billion. Now that we know how much it is costing the state of Ohio, it is undeniable that this is the worst tax break in Ohio’s history. It needs to be repealed before the legislature goes on its summer break.”
