"The share of Virginian voters who would be comfortable w/ construction of a new data center in their community has plunged to 35%...as worries mount in the state & across the nation that the projects are a scourge on the environment & household utility bills." www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
"At a time when El Paso schools are facing tens in millions in deficits, does it make sense for the state of Texas to give up billions of dollars in tax revenue for data centers?" Good Jobs First's Anthony Elmo tells KTSM 9 News.
www.ktsm.com/video/study-...
A federal jury found that concert giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues, dealing the company a loss in a lawsuit over claims brought by dozens of U.S. states.
Screenshot of a Fight For the Future article 100+ Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive's Role in Preserving the Public Record. It includes the text “Rachael Maddow declares the Archive is a 'national treasure' as uncertainty mounts on whether today's journalism will be preserved for future generations." Below is a photo of Wayback Machine Mark Graham addresses an audience, standing before a lectern that reads “Journalists ❤️ Internet Archive,” with several attendees on stage. Photo by Kenyatta Thomas.
100+ journalists, including Cory Doctorow, Rachel Maddow and many more, are backing the Internet Archive’s #WaybackMachine as essential to preserving the public record 🗂️
Read more at Fight for the Future 👇
www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2026-04...
🧵⬇️
@fightforthefuture.org
In some states, that information may be somewhere; in others, they're just not releasing it publicly. North Carolina DOES release the costs of subsidies given to other industries/projects but does not disclose data center subsidies.
In states where this info is available, @goodjobsfirst.org estimates that data centers collect between $1-$2 million in subsidies for each job they create.
Despite having good transparency on other economic development subsidy programs, North Carolina has closed the books on subsidies given to data centers.
We call it out prominently in our latest report: goodjobsfirst.org/data-center-...
Report cover, Data Center Tax Abatements: Why States and Localities Must Disclose These Soaring Revenue Losses
We recommend every state and locality disclose their data center tax abatement revenue losses. They should also back-report their losses since FY 2017. States should also annually report the local shares of revenue lost to any state-awarded tax abatements.
goodjobsfirst.org/data-center-...
Table 1: How States Do or Do Not Disclose Revenue Losses from Data Center Sales and Use Tax Abatement Programs
These transparency failures are costly and urgent, as known losses in states that do disclose soar to hundreds of millions of dollars, with three states, Georgia, Virginia, and Texas, already exceeding $1 billion per year; several states’ losses have spiked by over 1,000% in recent years.
I cannot think of an industry less in need of tax incentives. AI is so problematic for so many reasons. Why would we also allow it to defund our public schools, health care, and safety? - quote by Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy
🚨NEW ANALYSIS🚨 14 states and scores of localities fail to disclose how much revenue they lose to data center tax breaks. Yet such losses are known to be soaring in states that do disclose, with three states already losing $1 billion or more per year. 🧵
goodjobsfirst.org/data-center-...
The Hidden Costs of Virginia’s Data Center Subsidy and How They Undermine Public Schools goodjobsfirst.org/th... @goodjobsfirst.org
For more info on corporate misconduct taking place in the UK - including by U.S. companies - explore our database: violationtrackeruk.goodjobsfirst.org
If states really want to create jobs, why not invest more in mom-and-pop businesses that don't need millions in subsidies per person??
Image of a large data center in the foreground and many homes immediately behind it. This is in Loudoun County, Virginia.
🚨NEW🚨 Virginia’s sales and use tax breaks for data centers cost the Commonwealth over $1 billion in FY 2024, including an estimated $267 million that otherwise would have supported K–12 public schools, according to our new analysis:
goodjobsfirst.org/the-hidden-c...
Virginia’s sales and use tax exemption for the data centers that fuel the AI industry’s huge windfalls for billionaires are now costing the state’s public school students $212 per year.
@goodjobsfirst.org goodjobsfirst.org/virginias-da...
Map showing the percentage change in the number of SNAP participants between July 2025 and December 2025 in each state.
Last July, the Republican megabill (H.R. 1) enacted the deepest SNAP cuts in history. Today, we're releasing a tracker of how many people in each state are losing the SNAP benefits they need to afford groceries. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...
In arguing to keep lucrative tax breaks for some of the world's richest companies, a data center trade group rep compares data centers to manufacturing facilities - but companies get Texans' money in exchange for creating as little as 20 jobs.
www.texastribune.org/2026/04/08/t...
According to info from the Texas Senate, the cost of sales tax breaks given to data centers has exploded from an estimated $14.6 million for the 2014–15 biennium to a projected $3.3 billion for the 2028–29 biennium – an astounding 22,503% increase.
goodjobsfirst.org/texass-data-...
Billionaires want us to think rampant data center construction is inevitable. Local opposition is proving them wrong.
Shout-out to groups like @goodjobsfirst.org , CAC Indiana, and Piedmont Environmental Countil, who helped pave the way 💪
NEW: We dug into ICE contracts with Alabama ties. Here's what we found: state matches national trends of a ballooning budget and a concentrated marketplace
A big thank you to @goodjobsfirst.org for their national report
www.al.com/business/202...
According to info from the Texas Senate, the cost of sales tax breaks given to data centers has exploded from an estimated $14.6 million for the 2014–15 biennium to a projected $3.3 billion for the 2028–29 biennium – an astounding 22,503% increase.
goodjobsfirst.org/texass-data-...
We are part of a coalition of organisations calling for three priorities for the Fair Work Agency: proper resourcing, safe reporting mechanisms and transparency
Read the briefing:trustforlondon.org.uk/research/building-a-fair...
#FairWorkAgency
Amazon workers have been very clear about what would *actually* make them happier at their jobs: better pay, less surveillance, and more safety measures.
Instead, Amazon wants to pay them $1,000 to put on a happy face for their PR campaign.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
This article presents a false dichotomy: data centers create very few permanent jobs, and rather, than pay the same taxes the rest of us pay, these wealthy, profitable companies extract tax breaks so everyone else gets to pay for things like Jeff Bezos' yacht.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Announcement that Dr. Allan Freyer has been hired as Good Jobs First's new executive director. He succeeds Greg LeRoy, who founded GJF In 1998. Image of a white man smiling with glasses on. He has a beard and mustache and short dark brown hair. He is wearing a black jacket over a checkered shirt.
🚨NEWS🚨 The board of directors of Good Jobs First announced that Dr. Allan Freyer has been hired as its new executive director. He will start on May 1, 2026.
Freyer will take over for Greg LeRoy, who founded GJF in 1998 and has been its only executive director.
goodjobsfirst.org/dr-allan-fre...
They always, always, always promise jobs. But few project agreements actually *require* good-paying, high-quality jobs and once built out, data centers need few jobs to run anyway.
Over the past two decades, ICE’s contract obligations have more than doubled even while the number of unique contractors fell by 71%, our recent report revealed. Here's how we did this painstaking research:
#SunshineWeek
goodjobsfirst.org/sunshine-wee...
Industry titans have long used secrecy to extract public resources to push profits to a select, small group. Big Tech in their data centers push are just the latest.
The good news is, sunlight can play a vital role in curbing their scope. #SunshineWeek
goodjobsfirst.org/the-same-sec...
Increasingly, we've seen states more willing to open up the books when it comes to the money they're giving private companies. Today, we honor the states that led the way:
🏆Minnesota
🏆Ohio
🏆North Carolina
🏆Illinois
Greg LeRoy with more:
#SunshineWeek
goodjobsfirst.org/sunshine-wee...
Outrage on the Rouge River: Big Polluters Defund Segregated, Low-Income Communities in Michigan
We found this tax break costs communities hundreds of millions of dollars each year and primarily benefits some of the state’s worst repeat polluters.
Not just ineffective, the exemption also worsens the toll of environmental racism.
goodjobsfirst.org/outrage-on-t...