Metro East Sun

Senate Bill 2182, a data center investment bill, will cause Illinoisans to look for jobs in Missouri, state Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) said.

He said that Missouri is setting up a data center tax credit without the provisions being proposed in Illinois' bill.

“I get to see what's going on in the St. Louis region and if you come in around Chesterfield and you look, that state of Missouri in St. Louis area is going after the data centers that we’re competing for right now,” Meier said. “They're coming up with a bill just like ours but without this amendment and these jobs and this income’s going to be in Missouri. Our state workers will have to drive to Missouri again to get a job instead of staying in Illinois, having that business pay taxes in Illinois. This bill will cost us jobs and businesses in something that we're finally number one or number two in the country.”

The amendments include that for an establishment to be considered a data center, new or existing businesses should operate within five miles from each other, and requires green building certificates if seeking the tax credit.

“We’ve got things moving,” Meier said. “Why do we even want to take the chance of losing any of these companies? Where are we going to find this revenue? We're looking at doing a budget. We've brought in more money than we thought we'd had. Five billion dollars of the money coming in Illinois has come in because the way this bill was written. Why do we let a simple clean-up bill get hijacked and risk the opportunity that we're going to have for our college graduates? Data centers are very expensive to keep running. Technology changes so fast, as soon as they're done, it's time for updates and you don't have to be in a huge metro area to bring in a data center."

The amendment also requires new or existing data centers be connected by a common infrastructure.

“Shortly after being elected into my district, I carried a bill for all the years and worked to get this bill through,” Meier said. “It was a huge bill. It made a difference in Illinois… along our railroads and interstates throughout all of Illinois, we have the infrastructure there. So, any county really can compete to bring a data center in. This bill was passed when we had two data centers from Silicon Valley wanting to come to Illinois, leave California, have jobs for us. It’s proven to work; we’ve only had it a couple of years.”

The House Committee amendment further “provides that all new and existing data centers seeking a certificate of exemption shall require the contractor to enter into a labor peace agreement with any union representing workers who operate and maintain a critical system or equipment used or maintained by the data center.”

The data center bill passed the House with 65-42, and one representative voting present.