Ohio officials have approved a new $42.3 million tax exemption for a pair of giant data center projects in the Columbus area. The move comes days after Gov. Mike DeWine announced a pause on these kinds of tax exemptions as scrutiny has grown over their mushrooming costs for the state.
The new tax exemption will subsidize Cologix Inc.’s planned data centers in suburban Delaware and Licking counties. As a condition of taking the state tax incentive, the company promises to spend $1.17 billion to build the new data centers. It also agreed to hire 90 full-time workers before 2035 with a payroll of $10 million, or about $111,000 per job, and keep its new facilities operating for at least 13 years.
With the new tax break, the state’s total price tag for data center tax exemptions issued since 2025 rises to nearly $2.17 billion. The data center industry is in a prolonged construction boom, thanks to increased demand and hype associated with artificial intelligence…