State budget includes data center tax incentive

Gov. Tom Wolf recently signed a state budget bill that includes a computer data center tax incentive.

The exemption would apply to the purchase of computer data center equipment and is viewed as an incentive to attract large-scale enterprise data center development to Pennsylvania.

Bipartisan legislators, tech industry leaders, and building trade unions support the exemption.

“Pennsylvania cannot accept the status quo when it comes to our technology infrastructure, too many businesses, hospitals, and schools depend on the reliability and resiliency of our technology ecosystem,” state Sen. John Yudichak (I-Luzerne/Carbon), who championed for the exemption, said. “We have the natural resources and the skilled workforce to compete with any state or nation in the world; now Pennsylvania can list another competitive advantage to our economic tool-box – an innovative tax policy that will help set the stage for private investment and the growth of high-wage jobs in the technology sector of our economy.”

Yudichak is Senate Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee chairman.

Earlier this year, the committee held hearings in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on the need for tax and economic incentives for the state to compete for technology jobs.

Pennsylvania has not secured an enterprise data center in the last decade.