Data Center Boom Fuels Billion-Dollar Dilemma for Tax Assessors
Louisiana's Tax Commission adopted a five-year depreciation schedule for data center servers, rejecting an industry-backed proposal that would have sharply reduced taxable values. The decision restored West Feliciana Parish's projected annual property tax revenue from Hut 8's planned River Bend AI data center to about $90 million.
A Louisiana tax fight over the valuation of data center equipment centered on Hut 8's planned $10 billion River Bend AI facility in West Feliciana Parish. Parish Tax Assessor Richard Kendrick argued that servers should be assigned a five-year useful life, while an industry-backed proposal sought a three-year schedule and other depreciation methods that would have cut projected annual property tax revenue from roughly $90 million to $45 million.
The Louisiana Tax Commission voted to adopt Kendrick's five-year server-life approach, with a limited concession for valuing cooling and electrical infrastructure. The decision preserved the parish's expected tax revenue as Louisiana continues to attract major data center investments from Meta, Amazon and Applied Digital. The debate reflects broader disputes over tax incentives, energy use and how communities should assess rapidly depreciating data center equipment.