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In connection with affordability issues, data centers have emerged as a hot-button issue in politics.
Data centers are needed in our digital world. Whether you are texting, checking your email, opening an app, doom scrolling, watching a video or doing anything with your phone or computer, a data center is needed. They're increased in numbers with the major growth of artificial intelligence.
Data centers also consume tremendous amounts of electricity, which adversely impacts power grids and increases costs to residents, and uses massive amounts of water to keep servers from overheating.
Ohio has become a popular location for data centers, with more than 200 of them operating in the state.
A number of communities in the Mahoning Valley have issued moratoriums on data centers because of the amount of electricity and water they use.
Among those issuing moratoriums on data centers are Boardman, Hubbard city and township, Girard, Lordstown, Cortland, Niles, Howland, Bazetta, Vienna and Weathersfield.
The pushback from residents in the city of Hubbard to data centers is strong enough that signatures were gathered for a referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot to ban data centers.
Data centers need people to build them, which is good for the economy, but they don't really require a lot of employees to run them, which isn't a positive, particularly when you consider the impact they have on electricity and water.
The state sales tax exemptions for data centers was $1.57 billion last year, which was considerably more than the state's original estimate.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who cannot seek reelection, on May 27 directed the head of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to pause consideration of any new data center tax exemption requests while the state Legislature studies the growth of the centers. State legislators introduced a bill to regulate data centers in Ohio, but the General Assembly won't meet until after the election.
Legislators failed to pass a data center regulation bill in June that would have limited the state's sales tax break for new facilities from 100% to 50%.
But even if that percentage is changed, it's not retroactive, including projects that received approval but haven't opened or begun construction, so its impact won't be significant - at least for a while.
With data centers creating controversy, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton, who are running in a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign, recently took positions on them.
Acton was first, declaring July 27 that she would "take immediate action and support a conditional moratorium on data centers to ensure they cover 100% of their utility costs, exclusively built with union labor, operate with full transparency, adhere to Ohio's environmental standards, support the needs of local communities and bring jobs to former industrial areas that have been left behind."
Acton isn't calling for a data center ban as her allies in organized labor support building them. Because of that, she called for all data centers to be built by union labor.
Acton said: "Ohio's out of control long-term tax incentives must be reigned in. I will fight for much-needed transparency and add clawback provisions to protect Ohio taxpayers."
Acton said she will support "strong state guardrails that protect residents, workers and local communities from paying the price for new development."
All costs for gas, water and electricity need to be covered by data centers and their investors with data centers required to invest in their own energy generation options and prove the project won't increase electricity prices or negatively impact regional reliability, Acton said.
Ramaswamy's plan, unveiled Aug. 6, has three nonnegotiable requirements for data centers -- they must ensure that Ohio families who live near them receive free electricity by providing power or compensation that directly lowers residential electric bills, they must pay their full property taxes, and they must comply with strict air and water quality standards while prioritizing brownfield and industrial sites.
He said: "If any one of these three conditions is not met, the data center won't be built. Period. I will work with Ohio's state legislators to codify these commitments into law immediately after I assume office."
Ramaswamy also said he would issue an executive order on his first day in office as governor to halt the approval of any new data center project announcements in Ohio until those conditions are met.
Ramaswamy said he is "convinced that the best path forward is neither unrestrained data center growth nor a permanent categorical ban. The right answer is a policy framework that allows Ohio families to prosper economically while protecting local communities."
Ramaswamy said he is pledging to Ohioans that if a data center is built near them, they will no longer have to pay their home's electricity and they would pay lower property taxes while the data center would abide by all air and water quality standards without exception.
That's kind of a tricky situation because it means data centers would build their own power plants that would create more electricity than needed by the facilities with the extra essentially given away to those living nearby.
Businesses aren't typically in the habit of giving away things of great value.
In a May 27, 2025, speech at the Jefferson County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner, Ramaswamy said: "We've got AI centers moving to our state. That's a good thing. A good thing. I want the sectors of the future to come here. But that will make a level of demand on our electric grid of a kind we have not seen in the history of our state coming at exactly the time -- you here in Jefferson County understand this -- right at a time when we've also cut off and reduced the supply of baseload power generation, shutting down coal plants that on my watch would have remained open. I'll promise you that. And the few that still remain open aren't going to shutter on my watch."
David Skolnick covers local, state and national politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.