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(Des Moines, IA) -- If there's one topic the two candidates running for Iowa Governor can agree upon, it's setting minimum state requirements for new data centers.
Both Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn want to eliminate tax breaks for data centers.
"No tax incentives. You cannot give a multi-national, hundred-billion dollar company a hand out on taxes, especially on property taxes when Iowans are hurting. They need to pay their fare share to help lower property taxes for Iowa residents, " Lahn told WHO Radio in an exclusive interview. Lahn has called for a moratorium on data centers until regulations can be developed.
Sand agrees. “As governor, I will work with the legislature to make sure that anyone building in Iowa is contributing to Iowa, not extracting from us, and that Iowa families, not big corporations, are put first,” said nominee for governor Rob Sand. “These major corporations should be paying full freight and carrying their own weight, not raising Iowans' costs for anything, and must respect the communities they move to. We need more transparency and accountability, and a change in leadership who will put Iowa families first. As governor, that’s exactly what I’ll do," Sand said in a press release.
Both Sand and Lahn are also calling for the companies and data centers to pay 100% of their costs, including utility bills so they don't drive up costs for residents.
"Then we also need to say, 'how are you benefitting the community? Are you helping with the water quality issue we have?' They have great engineers and great technology to do (that) . But ultimately, we just need to make sure the environmental concerns are taken care of, that they are paying their fare share and they're looking for the long term benefit for the community." Lahn said.
Both Sand and Lahn also favor local control when it comes to making the decision about whether of not they want a new data center in their backyard.
Sand's plan unveiled Tuesday calls for full transparency about the building size and acreage, the number of permanent jobs and average pay, overview of water and energy usage.
He also wants to require public hearings and setback requirements to ensure no existing homeowners are disturbed by the lights or noise of the data centers.
Sand and Lahn face each other in the November general election.