CHARLESTON, W.Va. –With just three full days left in the 60-day legislative session, Gov. Patrick Morrisey is trying to get his data centers bill across the finish line.
The “Power Generation and Consumption Act,” was approved by both the House of Delegates and Senate Economic Development Committee in just over a week’s time. S.B. 2014 introduces a Certified Microgrid Program and a High Impact Data Center Program for the state, mostly geared towards attracting data centers. It’s on second reading in the Senate for Thursday’s agenda.
Morrisey says getting these data centers in the Mountain State will move the needle.
“All the good work in the past — you can go back the last 10 or 20 years — it means nothing if we’re still ranked 50th or 49th in the rankings. We must begin to move the needle,” Morrisey said Wednesday on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Morrisey also says there is a true need in the country to get these data centers built.
“The bill is really important because right now there is a national need to build data centers very, very quickly,” Morrisey said. “The state that wins the race to have the most favorable regulatory climate is going to win that fight.”
“The data centers are needed to fuel America’s rivalry with China because right now, China is producing multiple coal-fired power plants every single month. They’re doing that to get ahead in the AI race, in information technology. America needs to at least stay the same, preferably we need to defeat China in this race, and to do that, we have to unveil so many new opportunities for American energy to get produced and ultimately distributed,” Morrisey said.
Some lawmakers and local officials have expressed concern about the bill, and how it directs associated tax revenue to state funds. The bill sets up a framework for the taxation of high impact data centers, which includes a specialized tax distribution formula that will benefit a variety of state funds.
Morrisey says the arguments against the bill don’t hold enough weight.
“I don’t think that the concerns that have been made about the bill land,” Morrisey said.
“Some people have come in and said, ‘Oh, they’re taking the county money,’ That’s actually not true,” Morrisey said. “Imagine you’re creating a whole new potential pot of money, and you’re saying, ‘Look, this didn’t exist in the past. We’re going to make West Virginia so attractive to this industry, to this field that a lot of capital is going to come in, but we’re going to change how some of the money is going to be spread out across.”
While there are several state funds that will see a percentage of the tax distribution under the formula, a state Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund would get 55% of the tax on property.
Morrisey says chipping away at state income taxes in this way plays into his “Backyard Brawl” charge for the state, which aims to challenge bordering states economically.
“It’s important to know that a lot of the proceeds from this bill will go into feeding into reducing state income taxes. That’s a huge goal. That’s a part of the “Backyard Brawl” economic fight I’ve talked about for a long time,” Morrisey said.
“The most important thing I want to first do is get our state income tax lower than all the states we touch, that’s a big plus,” Morrisey continued.
The legislation will now be considered by the full Senate as the session winds down.
“We’re down to the wire here. You have all of these wild ideas and complaints leading up in the first 50 days of session, and then things get more serious at the end — that’s what you’re seeing now,” Morrisey said. “It went through the committee, there’ll be a process in the Senate. It’s going to have to go back to the House and I think there’s going to be some additional changes, but that’s part of the ebb and flow of the legislative process. I never let it bother me.”
The legislative session will end at midnight on Saturday.