{"id":3667,"date":"2026-07-01T14:06:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3667"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:06:48","slug":"nc-budget-bill-ends-one-incentive-for-data-centers-keeps-other-tax-breaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3667","title":{"rendered":"NC budget bill ends one incentive for data centers, keeps other tax breaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

North Carolina data center operators stand to lose a 20-year-old tax break while keeping other incentives under the budget Republican state Senate and House leaders released Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more Think you\u2019re paying extra for using a debit card in NC? Technically, you\u2019re not<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposed bill<\/a> ends a sales tax exemption for electricity used on site. The General Assembly estimates this will save the state $21.4 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Operators can still avoid state taxes on purchases of \u201celigible business property,\u201d including on-site cooling systems, exterior substations and computer research. North Carolina lawmakers expect to vote on the budget this week.<\/p>\n

To qualify for sales tax incentives, data center operators must invest at least $75 million<\/a> in a site, meet county wage standards, and provide healthcare for full-time employees. The North Carolina Department of Revenue can audit companies to confirm their eligibility.<\/p>\n

State data center incentives date back to 2006, when Google encouraged the General Assembly to provide sales tax relief for facilities in counties with modest economic growth. Within a few years, Google and fellow tech giants Meta and Apple had established a so-called \u201cdata center corridor\u201d in former furniture- and textile-industry towns west of Charlotte.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear exactly how much money North Carolina incentives have saved data center operators; unlike states like Ohio, Georgia and Virginia (which require annual reporting), North Carolina doesn\u2019t make these companies share their spending totals beyond one-time, initial estimates.<\/p>\n

The state hasn\u2019t typically offered its largest economic incentive program \u2014 called the job development investment grant, or JDIG \u2014 to attract new data centers given the relatively few long-term workers they employ compared to their energy consumption.<\/p>\n

Read more NC\u2019s overdue budget is out. Read the documents showing spending of your tax money<\/a><\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence has driven immense recent interest in hyperscale data center projects (often defined as sites that draw at least 100 megawatts of electricity). Amazon is perhaps the most well-known new entrant to the state\u2019s data center landscape, as the company is building a promised $10 billion campus<\/a> in rural Richmond County. The company has not shared the site\u2019s projected electrical power use.<\/p>\n

Many North Carolina communities have responded to data center growth by opposing local site proposals and supporting 12-month permitting moratoriums over concerns about how these facilities will look, sound, consume water, and use electricity. AI data centers contain rows of servers with graphics processing units, or GPUs, which generate significant heat and need to be cooled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this tax break was enacted in 2006 and then expanded again in 2015, we lived in an entirely different world,\u201d Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said in April<\/a>. \u201cAt that time, no one could have anticipated the explosive growth of data centers and how much energy they consumed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a memo that month to the Energy Policy Task Force<\/u><\/a>, Stein\u2019s office detailed options to \u201crepeal\u201d or \u201cmodify\u201d the tax breaks. Exemptions could be ended suddenly or sunset over time, the memo stated.<\/p>\n

Stein told reporters at a healthcare event Tuesday that he would look at the budget \u201cincredibly closely in the coming days.\u201d If he vetoes the bill, Republicans have enough votes in the Senate but just short of enough in the House for an override without help from Democrats or independents.<\/p>\n

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more New Chapel Hill restaurant promises menu, vibes that ‘make people feel good\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 4:08 PM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina House and Senate budget proposes ending data center electricity sales tax incentive while keeping equipment and research breaks across NC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nNC budget bill ends one incentive for data centers, keeps other tax breaks - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3667\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NC budget bill ends one incentive for data centers, keeps other tax breaks - Durham Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Carolina House and Senate budget proposes ending data center electricity sales tax incentive while keeping equipment and research breaks across NC.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3667\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Durham Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T14:06:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bf1f081e7f06a3ab66052e5f6015fd85\"},\"headline\":\"NC budget bill ends one incentive for data centers, keeps other tax breaks\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T14:06:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667\"},\"wordCount\":606,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/77d024de83962d75284b575d44b6da9a.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Read today's Edition\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667\",\"name\":\"NC budget bill ends one incentive for data centers, keeps other tax breaks - Durham Moving Hub\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/77d024de83962d75284b575d44b6da9a.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T14:06:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bf1f081e7f06a3ab66052e5f6015fd85\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=3667#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/77d024de83962d75284b575d44b6da9a.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/77d024de83962d75284b575d44b6da9a.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":674,\"caption\":\"Looking inside one of Lenovo\u2019s servers on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 in Morrisville, N.C., copper surrounds the components that produce heat. 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