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Think tank proposes 'data center dividends' to ease rural opposition to AI hubs
ReThink tank proposes 'data center dividends' to ease rural opposition to AI hubs
A Washington, D.C., think tank proposes redirecting existing property tax revenue from AI data centers directly to households in host communities, estimating annual payments of $4,500 to $8,900 per family, as local opposition and moratoriums surge nationwide.
A Washington, D.C., think tank is proposing a new model it calls "data center dividends" to counter growing rural opposition to artificial intelligence hubs, under which counties would return a portion of existing property tax revenue directly to households in host communities. The Bitcoin Policy Institute estimates the payments could reach between $4,500 and $8,900 per household annually without creating new taxes or raising costs for developers.
"Every American deserves to benefit from the AI boom," Sam Lyman, head of research at the nonprofit, said. "It can't just be the developers in Silicon Valley who are becoming wealthy from this revolution. It needs to be the Americans who are building the county infrastructure that makes these data centers possible in the first place."
The proposal arrives as opposition to data centers intensifies across the country. The report notes that Americans are now more likely to oppose a data center in their community than a nuclear power plant. A Gallup poll earlier this year found that 71% of Americans oppose construction of an AI data center in their area, while only 53% oppose a nearby nuclear plant. Local data center moratoriums have exploded from six in 2024 to 59 last year and 294 last month, according to the report.
The backlash has been fueled over the past year by a network of socialist and communist nonprofits funded by Neville Roy Singham, a tech tycoon living in Shanghai who supports the Chinese Communist Party, according to the report. Groups in that network, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the People's Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough News, have run aggressive media campaigns against data centers and Flock surveillance cameras, elevating China as a technological powerhouse while denigrating U.S. technology companies.
"These influence actions are cognitive warfare," Rob Joyce, former director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, said. "Foreign actors don't need Americans to become pro-China. They need Americans to argue for the outcomes Beijing wants."
Lyman, a former senior advisor and speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said the political problem is that many Americans believe technology companies are reaping the benefits of the AI boom while local communities bear the costs. Polling cited in the report found that 73% of Americans believe the costs of data center construction outweigh the benefits, and voters overwhelmingly believe AI will primarily enrich executives and business owners rather than workers.
Rather than creating a new tax, the proposal would redirect a portion of property tax revenue that counties already collect from data centers. Under the model, counties would first continue funding schools, roads, police and other essential services. After those obligations are met, local communities would return a portion of remaining revenue directly to residents through annual checks, direct deposits, tax credits, utility bill credits or permanent investment funds.
The report estimates that a single one-gigawatt AI data center could generate enough tax revenue to provide households in a typical rural county between $4,500 and $8,900 annually, depending on how much revenue local governments dedicate to dividends after paying for public services. The estimate is based on tax collections from Loudoun County, Virginia, one of the nation's largest data center hubs. Loudoun collected about $685 million in personal property taxes on data center computer equipment in fiscal year 2024, producing an estimate of roughly $165 million in annual property tax revenue per gigawatt of AI infrastructure.
The report cites new policies in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, where policymakers are attempting to spread new-found wealth. The parish expects a Hut 8 AI campus to generate about $90 million annually, more than tripling its current budget. Earlier this year, Louisiana lawmakers passed Act 434, allowing local officials to provide property tax credits funded by the new revenue, although they removed an earlier proposal that would have authorized direct cash payments. If the cash provision had remained, the report estimates households could have received about $5,600 annually.
"Data center dividends can ensure that rural Americans rise in the age of AI alongside the engineers developing this technology," the report notes. Lyman said the model could reverse the momentum in the data center debate by giving residents a material stake in the AI economy.
