Georgia’s building boom for data centers comes with a cost for schools
Georgia’s rapid data center expansion is reducing the sales tax revenue available to school districts. A Good Jobs First analysis estimates that sales tax exemptions for OpenAI, Microsoft and other data center developers will cost districts about $300 million this year.
Georgia has emerged as a major destination for artificial intelligence-driven data center construction, with activity in metro Atlanta surpassing that of Northern Virginia this year. The expansion is supported in part by sales tax exemptions for hyperscale data center projects being built across the state.
A new analysis from Good Jobs First estimates that Georgia school districts will forgo roughly $300 million in sales tax revenue this year because of those exemptions. The report highlights the financial burden on schools, while some technology companies say they support students and local education efforts.