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Utah Set To Exempt NSA Datacenter From Power Tax, After All
Nerval's Lobster writes "They may not all support what the NSA will do with its giant new datacenter in Bluffdale, but Utah officials do seem to agree on the value of having a world-class, $1.5 billion datacenter built in their territory. In general, they're for it, and are proving that by changing a law that would have added about $2.4 million in taxes to the datacenter's power bill—an addition that was an unpleasant surprise to NSA officials when they heard about it in May. A bill signed into law April 1 imposed a tax of up to 6 percent on electricity from Rocky Mountain Power, a requirement the NSA protested in an email to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert April 26. State tax agencies swear they informed the NSA about the impact of the law when it was still under debate; NSA officials denied knowing anything about it and complained that it would make Utah a less attractive site for the datacenter, which was only three to four months from completion at the time."
Ladies and gentlemen, here are the guys whose job is information processing for the security of your nation...
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Well there's one we haven't heard before.
Even the federal government is looking at tax rates and making location decisions based around them. I suppose this makes a little sense to those who understand business and how they operate, but I bet it blows the mind of those who think it is a crime to subsidies business or that government can just print money and pay out the nose for their crap.
They may be protesting, but don't be fooled into thinking they were going to move the billion dollar facility because of a $3 million tax. Utah should keep the tax money.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
The problem is, the state officials talked about it publicly. If they had just whispered it to each other in private cell phone conversations, the NSA might have paid attention.
What is it going to accomplish? Are ye Daft?
It accomplishes exactly what any tax does. You were expecting the Feds to pick up and move their data center?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
It generates government revenue, paid for by government revenue plus overhead. So . . .
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie