SOUTHEAST GEORGIA – Across southeast Georgia’s coastal plains and fast-growing industrial corridors, local leaders are bracing for an industry that hasn’t fully arrived but is already driving policy debates: data centers.
Georgia has become a hub for these facilities — large buildings housing IT infrastructure such as servers and data storage systems. Nearly 4,000 data centers operate across the U.S., with about 200 in Georgia. Tech companies have been drawn by tax breaks estimated to cost state and local governments about $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2026.
Lawmakers considered several data center bills during the 2026 legislative session, including proposals to eliminate tax credits or impose stricter regulations. Georgia was one of a slew of states that considered moratorium bills to impose a temporary ban on their construction – just recently Maine became the first state to pass a ban of this kind…