Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will not pay property taxes for a data center under an agreement approved Tuesday by the Mason County Fiscal Court.
At the meeting, the fiscal court signed off on three agreements: an industrial revenue bond, a development agreement and road improvements. All three passed unanimously.
Under the bond agreement, the county will purchase land outside the city of Maysville and lease it to Meta, exempting the Fortune 500 company from paying property taxes.
Meta would then make other payments to the county in lieu of taxes to support schools and emergency services. It would also generate school revenue from a tax on the electricity it uses.
The tech company agreed to invest $115 million to upgrade water and wastewater systems and roads.
In an email, a Meta spokesman said the fiscal court approvals were the first step of many.
“We take seriously the diversity of opinions in the county, and we intend to keep showing up and listening, not just during the approval process but in the long run,” the spokesman wrote.
Meta will also pay for the upgrades required to power the facility, as well as the energy itself. East Kentucky Power Cooperative has a rate structure for large-load customers like data centers. The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved that last year.
Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order in August requiring data center projects to avoid pushing the costs of electricity off on customers.
Meta says the data center could employ 4,000 workers during construction and more than 300 permanently.
“Meta’s proposed Maysville project represents a transformative investment in jobs and infrastructure that will affect the regional economy for many years to come,” said Nick Comer, a spokesman for East Kentucky Power.
According to a Meta, the project will need skilled workers such as steelworkers, pipefitters, electricians, carpenters and fiber technicians. Once fully operational, the facility will need electricians, HVAC specialists, server and network technicians, safety and security experts, and engineers.
Meta pledged $15 million to enhance emergency response services in the area, including police, fire and EMS.
Another concern about data center projects across the country is the large volume of water they require to cool their servers. Meta says it will use water with a closed-loop system. It says the system will be filled once and refreshed every seven to 10 years.
Under normal operations, Meta says, the data center will consume roughly the same volume of water in one year as a golf course uses for irrigation.
The company's identity as the force behind the Mason County data center project was not revealed publicly until this week.
