Chesterfield weighs using data center revenue to slash car tax bills

Chesterfield County officials, including Deputy Administrator Matt Harris, proposed a plan to use tax revenues generated by data centers to reduce residents' personal property tax on automobiles. This initiative, which projects annual revenue between $3.5 million and $5.3 million from planned data centers, particularly those to be operated by Google (dubbed Projects Peanut, Skye, and Loch), aims to lower individual car tax bills by an average of $400.

The proposal, which appeared on the board's agenda abruptly, sparked significant public outrage. Residents gathered outside the County Administration Building to protest with signs and then crowded the Board of Supervisors meeting, leading to fire marshals monitoring capacity. Gail Christie, a Clover Hill resident, expressed concern about the lack of transparency, calling the proposal a "bone being tossed to mollify a public that opposes data centers." Mike Uzel of Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government criticized it as a "counterintuitive bait-and-switch" given the county's simultaneous campaign for a 1% sales tax hike to fund school facilities, a measure recently enabled by Gov. Abigail Spanberger's signed law.

After hours of public comment, the supervisors voted unanimously to delay the vote on the data center–car tax cut until their next session. Supervisors also stated their reluctance to approve any additional data centers in the county. The county had previously modified its zoning ordinance, known as "ZoMod," to make it significantly more challenging for data centers to gain approval. Despite public sentiment, Harris highlighted that the Google campuses could generate over $10 million each in real estate and equipment taxes, potentially surpassing Dominion Energy as the county's top taxpayer.