When a $1.9 billion number appears in a government budget, you expect someone, somewhere, to catch it early. But the Virginia data centre tax exemption quietly grew from a projected $1.5 million a year to an eye-watering $1,941,390,000 — an increase of over **1,000 times** — without anyone noticing until Good Jobs First flagged it in February 2026. The source: the Virginia Biennial Report.
That is not a rounding error. That is a policy failure.
**The Virginia Case — $1.9 Billion and Counting**
Virginia offers data centres a sales tax exemption on computing equipment. When it was introduced, the projected annual cost was around $1.5 million. Fast forward to FY2025, and the actual cost hit $1.94 billion. Let that sink in: **$1.9 billion** in foregone revenue for just **1,610 net new jobs**. That works out to roughly **$1.2 million per job**.
Meanwhile, residential electricity rates in Virginia have risen while industrial rates fell — a documented case of cross-subsidization. Families are paying more so data centres can pay less.
And these projects boast about creating construction jobs. But construction jobs are temporary. The permanent jobs — the ones the incentives are supposedly buying — cost taxpayers over a million dollars each.
**The Race to the Bottom — 38 States Competing**
Virginia is not alone. At least 38 states now offer some form of data centre tax incentive. The average subsidy per permanent data centre job across these programs, according to Good Jobs First data from 2016 to 2026: **$1.95 million**.
Some highlights:
The Switch project in Nevada: **$2.1 million per job**. The Google project in Ohio: **$1.4 million per job**. Georgia data centre incentives hit **$2.5 billion** in FY2026 alone — a 664% increase.
Texas is on track to give away **$9 billion over five years**. The Ohio incentive program jumped $555 million to $1.6 billion in a single year — and then the state **paused** it. Indiana lost **$655 million**, with 83% of that going to Amazon alone.
When your neighbours are giving away the store, you feel pressure to match them. But nobody wins a race to the bottom. The only winners are the companies, who pocket the incentives and move on.
**Alberta Levy — Designed to Look Like a Tax**
Alberta Bill 12 introduced a 2% levy on computing equipment, or 1% if you bring your own power, and 0% if you go off-grid. On paper, it sounds like Alberta is getting its share.
But here is the catch: the levy is fully creditable against the Alberta 8% corporate income tax. As BLG and Bennett Jones have both confirmed in their legal analysis: once profitable, the levy will have no net effect on their tax burden.
Budget 2026 projects **$102 million in revenue** from this levy. But that number collapses to zero once facilities become profitable. The levy is, in practice, a rebate dressed up as a tax.
It looks good in a press release. It looks good in a budget document. But the actual revenue it will generate over the long term? Effectively nothing.
**The NDA Problem**
Here is the part that should concern every Wheatland County resident: the full terms of these incentive deals are almost never made public.
Approximately **80% of Virginia municipalities** use non-disclosure agreements to shield incentive terms from public scrutiny. In Alberta, Wheatland County itself markets a generous municipal incentive and one of the lowest tax rates in Alberta for data centre developments.
But here is the question nobody has answered: **what exactly was promised?**
The public has a right to know what tax revenue is being traded away. Yet the details remain behind closed doors.
**What This Means for Goldfinch**
Wheatland County is being asked to accept permanent industrial change. Data centres consume enormous amounts of power and water. They require road upgrades, water infrastructure, and emergency services. And they bring relatively few permanent jobs.
If Alberta follows the pattern we see in Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, and Indiana, the tax revenue being promised today may never actually materialize. The levy cancels itself out. Municipal abatements could lock the County into 10 to 20 years of reduced revenue.
The County pays for services. The County maintains roads. The County responds to emergencies. But the tax base that is supposed to fund all of this could be hollowed out by incentives the public was never allowed to see.
We are not opposed to development. We are opposed to development that asks residents to accept permanent change with incomplete financial information.
**Learn the Facts. Get Involved.**
This is your community. You deserve to know what is being negotiated in your name. Read the full research on our facts page, then join us in demanding transparency.
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