A Birmingham resident is asking a judge to cancel the $3.2 billion in tax abatements slated for a massive AI data center under construction.
Terri Michal, a data center critic and a former member of the city’s school board, is suing Birmingham’s Industrial Development Board, its chairman David Perry, and AI company Nebius Inc. and its subsidiary. She argues the process in which the board approved those benefits back in May was hidden from the public, and that it had no power to abate those taxes.
“I’m angry that the IDB existed and we had no idea. It had the power to give away billions of our tax dollars,” Michal said in an email. “Nobody should have to be an expert in zoning or tax abatements to know what their government is doing. The Open Meetings Act guarantees the bare minimum. I believe the IDB skirted it and operated in the shadows.”…