Lawmakers hope to spark a renewed building boom in Eastern Washington by giving technology companies a pass on taxes when they build vast data centres full of computer services, and Pierce County wants a piece of the action.

The tax-break proposal only would apply to rural counties. Pierce County lawmakers say that if the proposal included this region, a server farm under development in South Hill could benefit. Benaroya Cos. expects to spend more than US$100 million to build there, but executive Marc Nemirow said the firm will have to rethink its plans if state government hands out what he calls a multimillion-dollar subsidy to data centres in another part of the state. It would hurt Benaroya’s efforts to lure companies to its space, he said.

Source: The News Tribune

Here for full article