Data Centers
I am opposed to the Microsoft data center that will be built on the former property of St. Joe Farm. I support projects that are a net good for the community but this data center is bad news and residents in St. Joe County are right to be upset about this development. How is it that we as a community had little to no say about this decision and key aspects of this project are being hidden from us? We are having to guess how much our water and electric bills will increase from this project because they will not tell us. That is wrong.
I support development. In fact, I would love to see vacant land transformed into a community center where our kids can have access to a public pool, or a childcare facility to ease the burden placed on parents who live in Granger, Osceola and Mishawaka. That way our local union workers still get paid and our community gets something it needs. What we don’t need are the biggest corporations in the world coming into our neck of the woods and constructing a gigantic warehouse that will increase costs for the rest of us.
Our state government invited companies to build these massive data centers in Indiana and made it easy for them to bypass local opposition. Dale DeVon has not said a single word publicly about the data center. Not one word! Do you think it’s acceptable for a local elected official to have no opinion on a project of this scale that would impact his neighbors? Unlike him, I actually have a lot to say about data centers and taking back control of our communities:
As state representative, I will introduce a bill that will require companies to let local communities know exactly how much we will be spending for these projects BEFORE they break ground. No more NDAs, no more vague promises of donations to local schools, give us the hard facts in writing if you want to build in our community. We deserve a veto if a data center does not benefit us.
I will also author a bill to strengthen Indiana’s biometric privacy laws that will require big tech companies to inform Hoosiers of their data collection policies and obtain consent. This will also define when and how your personal data will be used and destroyed by these companies.
If all else fails and these companies continue to find loopholes to build their massive projects in our communities, I will call for a three-year moratorium on the construction of data centers in Indiana until we can study their economic and environmental impacts.
