James Maroney

State Senator James Maroney Votes in Favor of Bill Concerning Incentives for Qualified Data Centers

Yesterday, during the State’s Senate Session, state Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) voted in favor of an act concerning incentives for qualified data centers in the state. The bill would increase opportunity for Connecticut to become a major leader in a fast-growing industry. In a business world that is becoming increasingly more dependent on the Cloud, these data centers are growing exponentially. Connecticut wants to be part of this future.

“At one point we were the most innovative state in the nation,” said Sen. Maroney. “With the addition of data centers throughout the state, this further builds upon the state’s history in communication. One of the cities I represent is Milford and a Milford resident, George Willard Coy, invented the switchboard. We spearheaded modern communications by telephone with the growth of a data center industry, it will put Connecticut at the forefront of modern communication and modern economy.”

The bill, SB 6514, known as An Act Concerning Incentives For Qualified Data Centers To Locate In The State, would offer sales tax incentives to promote development of data centers. It would waive sales taxes for up to 30 years on data centers that invest at least $400 million in a facility in a qualified opportunity zone in Connecticut, or at least $200 million if the facility is located in an ‘enterprise zone’. These zones are areas which are encouraging economic growth and development.

Also under the bill, a qualified data center, which means a facility that is developed, acquired, constructed, rehabilitated, renovated, repaired, or operated to house a group of networked computer servers in one physical location, would be exempt from any financial transactions tax or fee that may be imposed by the state through trades of stocks, bonds, or any other financial products. This exemption would last for a period of 30 years from the date of construction of the facility is completed.

Currently, there are 11 data centers in Connecticut. These buildings house computer systems and centralize an organization’s shared IT operations, equipment, storage, management, and dissemination of data and information pertaining to a particular business. Building additional data centers throughout the state increase opportunity for economic growth. The construction of these facilities would provide high paying jobs and with a big boost in the construction industry.

Data centers eliminate costs. They utilize a system that can withstand unfavorable power conditions that generators and surge suppressors cannot. The cost of power and cooling has increased significantly in recent years. Data center managers are responsible for achieving high availability while simultaneously reducing power costs.