Antonio Calls for End to Data Center Tax Break

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) released the following statement after new reporting revealed the data center tax exemption cost the state over $1.5 billion in 2025, far exceeding what was originally projected.

“Ohio cannot continue to give taxpayer-funded handouts to billionaire corporations building data centers across our state,” said Antonio. “It’s alarming that the state's forecasting so woefully underestimated the cost of this tax break and that we are just now finding out about it. At the same time the Republican-led supermajority has claimed that we don’t have enough money in our budget to fully fund our public schools, we have now given away over $1.5 billion to some of the wealthiest corporations to build data centers that many of our local communities are opposed to. Ohioans cannot continue footing the bill for data centers while they are already struggling to afford their own.”

In November 2024, the Ohio Department of Taxation’s Tax Expenditure Report utilized historical data to estimate that the state would forgo $135.8 million in revenue due to the data center tax exemption. The Department has now revealed that the calculated state impact of the data center sales tax exemption was actually over $1.5 billion in 2025  and $554.9 million in 2024.