Ohio data-center boom: PE flips halls to Big Tech while towns eat water, power, and a paused $1.5B tax break
On June 1, 2026 the Ohio House and Senate Select Committees on Data Centers took public comment. Carl Setzer, listed as an interested party, told co-chairs Rep. Adam Holmes and Sen. Brian Chavez that private-equity-backed developers are racing to build halls to sell to Meta, Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI before investors see there is “no there there.” Ohio already hosts more than 200 centers.
The contact point is the township vote that trades zoning and tax abatements for a standard “200 jobs” pitch—enough to look beneficial, not enough to break a school system. Setzer, a former penetration tester of eBay and PayPal co-location sites who later ran cooling and wastewater plants, said closed-loop cooling is promised, then switched to cheaper open-loop once ground is broken. Host towns in Shalersville and Perry absorb the water, power, and blight risk.
The trajectory is more of the same unless the General Assembly acts. Policy Matters Ohio told the same committee the ORC 122.175 sales-tax exemption cost more than $1.5 billion in 2025 for a few hundred promised jobs. Governor Mike DeWine on May 27 directed the Tax Credit Authority to pause new exemptions after its June 1 meeting. House Bill 646 is unfinished.
What is missing is a statewide registered capital bond that escrows promised payroll on day one. The leftover tools are local abatement votes and a paused sales-tax statute. The official record is the Ohio Channel hearing at 3:40:20 and the House witness list. Residents can read both and press township trustees before the next site plan is certified.
Sources
https://ohiochannel.org/programs/ohio-house-and-senate-select-committees-on-data-centers-6-1-2026 — Official Ohio Channel recording of the June 1, 2026 joint hearing timestamps Carl Setzer’s interested-party testimony at 3:40:20.
https://www.ohiohouse.gov/committees/select-committee-on-data-centers/meetings/cmte\_h\_data\_centers\_1\_2026-06-01-1200\_1349 — Ohio House meeting page lists Carl Setzer as an Interested Party and hosts downloadable written testimony for the June 1 session.
https://www.mariettatimes.com/news/2026/06/data-center-opponents-give-ohio-lawmakers-an-earful/ — June 4 report quotes Setzer on the speculative bubble, private-equity flip, and community anxiety in Ohio host towns.
https://policymattersohio.org/research/testimony-to-the-select-committee-on-data-centers/ — Policy Matters Ohio June 1 testimony documents the state sales-tax exemption costing more than $1.5 billion in 2025 against a few hundred promised jobs.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHIOGOVERNOR/bulletins/419304d — Governor Mike DeWine’s May 27, 2026 bulletin directing the Tax Credit Authority to pause new data-center sales-tax exemptions after the June 1 meeting.
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/06/03/data-center-opponents-give-ohio-lawmakers-an-earful/ — Ohio Capital Journal recounts the June 1 public-comment hearing, more than 100 submitted testimonies, and co-chairs Holmes and Chavez.