Amazon building 2 for $10B but Compass building 8 for $10B. My guess is most of the permanent jobs will be maintenance and facilities related. I wonder if the associated NOCs will be local to the data center or remote.
Tater Tot….
- Thread starter L4Dawg
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The day that Americans are willing to pay more for stuff is the day that manufacturing comes back at scale. As long as we want the cheapest possible stuff, other less prosperous countries will be where it comes from.
I understand all your concerns. Brain drain refers to keeping young motivated folks in the state, not attracting families (which is important). We all know Jxn won't change unless the demographics change, and that's not happening. If Babychuck is on the ballot, he'll be reelected in a landslide. Outside of the state taking over, Jxn isn't going to have a drastic turnaround. B'ham has done a good job of turning sections of the city into spots that appeal to young people, but the majority of the city is still a shite hole. That's the model.
And for some context: The annual budget for the City of Meridian right now is about $50M.
Even deducting for the fee-in-lieu, the impact on city, county and school district ad valorem revenue is phenomenal. Conservatively, the annual ad valorem tax revenue increase for Lauderdale County, the City of Meridian, and the respective school districts will be measured in the tens of millions for each political subdivision once construction is complete. Think about that. "Hey, Mr. Supervisor, what if I told you that one taxpayer is going to increase your annual ad valorem tax revenue by $10,000,000 beginning in 2027?" "Hey, Mr. Meridian Public School System, did you realize that your school district's budget will be increased by $15,000,000 annually beginning January 2027 and all of that increase will be paid by one taxpayer?"
What the great unwashed among us can't possibly grasp about this announcement is that this one capital investment project (the total amount of private investment being made) is ten times greater than the TOTAL COMBINED ASSESSED VALUE OF ALL REAL PROPERTY SITUATED IN LAUDERDALE COUNTY. Let that sink in. The amount of money that will be made by these hedge funders on this project is mind-blowing. These data centers are scary honestly. Such easy money for the politicos. Impossible to say no. And they consume ENORMOUS power, essentially all of it fossil fuel driven. And now you know why Elon and Zuck have abandoned the 17wad wokester demos who want the US to abandon fossil fuels. Ain't happening in our lifetimes.
Agree on the jobs, but not the tax revenue. At least it will be spent (inside the state). That's the big beef I have with all the super conservative "CUT CUT CUT" folks - the money is at least being spent to stimulate something. If they cut this, they'll give it to that. And people will disagree with that, and it'll go on and on and on. You don't want to run in a deficit, but government also isn't there to make money. It's there to regulate and stimulate everything else with its investments. And that's why people act like they don't like government spending - they think they aren't getting enough of it (which isn't true).
Yep. I gave up on my conquest to try and make it better - but you speak the truth. The only place in the state where anybody from outside would ever want to live is Desoto County (and that's still very generic, but it's urban/suburban) and the Coast. It's really just the Coast. Jackson is the only other place with a chance, because it's an urban area, but like has been documented.....future not bright. The Coast is the only place with any type of uniqueness - and it's limited by frequent hurricanes and surrounded by 2 cities right the other side of the other states's borders.
Yep, that's literally our only chance. Make the Jackson Metro a minimally decent area to work, live and invest, for 1 - current Mississippians, and 2 - outsiders. But for #2, it'll have to be ultimately jobs that do that. The central Sip lifestyle or whatever isn't for everybody. That's why Jackson needs some shlt to do.
The jobs are immaterial. There are a few and they are ALL very high paying. The attractiveness of these DCs is that they are ENORMOUS tax revenue creators with almost ZERO public infrastructure impacts. No traffic, no policing, no significant public services. They are the perfect taxpayer. No complaints, no bull$h!+. Just power suckers. That's the only real negative.
If this is correct, and I assume you know what you are talking about, better hope and pray Starkville and Oktibbeha County is one of the sites. Their tax base is only "rooftops".
That's not even a real negative if you have the capacity or the ability to build capacity. That'd be more investment and more jobs, although not a ton of jobs for power plants that aren't solid fuel. I'd love to know whether anybody is talking about reviving the lignite portion of Mississippi Power Company's Kemper plant. Not sure if the economics would be there since natural gas is still cheap and the government is probably going to continue to make things more and more difficult for coal, but having a dedicated fuel source to generate power for a bunch of data centers would have to be attractive.
Be nice to have had them around the Jackson Metro or maybe in the Golden Triangle, instead of Murderidian.
I still don't know why we keep trying to pump money into deadbeat towns.
Dear Entergy,
First and foremost, let the record reflect that you are a worthless, piece of $h!+, gargantuan monopoly controlled by what amounts to a Louisiana-based crime syndicate. In a perfect world, your worthless piece of $h!+ excuse for a public utility would be shuttered and your assets and certificated area would be parceled out amongst Mississippi-based power suppliers and TVA to control. But, alas, it is not a perfect world and, unfortunately, many of the people of Mississippi are stuck with your worthless a$$e$.
Since there is no viable alternative available in the short run, it would be super helpful if you would take advantage of current political climes and GET YOUR 17N NUCLEAR SYSTEM AT CAPACITY. WE NEED POWER, YOU 17N WORHTLESS PIECES OF $H!+. GO LICENSE MORE NUCLEAR CAPACITY NOW!
No offense,
The People of the State of Mississippi in Your Certificated Area
First and foremost, let the record reflect that you are a worthless, piece of $h!+, gargantuan monopoly controlled by what amounts to a Louisiana-based crime syndicate. In a perfect world, your worthless piece of $h!+ excuse for a public utility would be shuttered and your assets and certificated area would be parceled out amongst Mississippi-based power suppliers and TVA to control. But, alas, it is not a perfect world and, unfortunately, many of the people of Mississippi are stuck with your worthless a$$e$.
Since there is no viable alternative available in the short run, it would be super helpful if you would take advantage of current political climes and GET YOUR 17N NUCLEAR SYSTEM AT CAPACITY. WE NEED POWER, YOU 17N WORHTLESS PIECES OF $H!+. GO LICENSE MORE NUCLEAR CAPACITY NOW!
No offense,
The People of the State of Mississippi in Your Certificated Area
A new DC (not Amazon) will be announced in the jacktown metro in Q1 or Q2 '25. And more to come.
6 more to come. I'm on the BOS of one of the counties Thank Mississippi Power for bringing this to Mississippi. Lauderdale's is a 500 megawatt data center. Ours is 300 megawatts.
I dunno. People will move just about anywhere for a good job. I left grad school early at State with 2 job opportunities as a project manager in my hand. One was in Temple Texas for a lumber company making $65k a year the other was at a factory in Columbus, MS making $40k a year.
Temple Texas ain't exactly the epitomy of excitement and outdoor adventure. I chose it because it was better money and a better growth opportunity. I now only remember that everyone I met at that factory in Columbus was sad and beat down. It closed 5-6 years later I believe.
I would have loved to have stayed in MS, but the professional opportunity was much stronger elsewhere. It would be awesome for that script to reverse at some point, but another factory full of hourly workers reporting to engineers, directors, and accountants in another state isn't the answer. Mississippi needs more of the headquarters full of white collar workers to grow.
Walmart of all companies had a big "made in America" campaign seems like maybe late 80's/early 90's. Stores full of rounders in the aisles with American flag signs on top, lots of promotion for stuff "MIA!". I don't know if it was pricing, supply chains couldn't keep up or what but seems like it lasted about a year as I recall.
What we say and actually do often don't line up real well, me included. I needed a cheap TV and the Walmark had just what I was looking for ... 88 bucks (MIC). Lots of hating on Amazon .... 180MM Americans have a Prime account. Etc., Etc.
These mother17er hedge funds aren't waiting on the slow @$$ electric utilities to provide the power. Hell, 17n Entergy is telling some of the DC prospects that adequate power cannot be supplied until 2030. Not to be deterred, the hedge funders are building their own on-site gasification plants to provide their own power. Ask me how I know that these things throw off ENORMOUS profit. The money these things make is mind-blowing when they can tell Entergy/Mississippi Power "17 you; we'll provide our own power."
you are seeing a new "Silicon South" develop, many more to come
Etat&?
Every time a homegrown MS makes it big, they sell it off or move it to a city where they can recruit workers. Viking, Sanderson, Backyard Burger, McRae's, Steinmart, etc etc etc
But they their kids can still enjoy the rich kid MS lifestyle and spend all their money on vacations in other states.
Shmuley is anything in the works for SW Mississippi? WE have had nothing announced here in decades.
Nothing. Too bad Entergy doesn't have much in the way of electric infrastructure in southwest Mississippi.
/faaaaaarrrrrrrrrt.
There are ancillary things coming with this that will produce revenue for the state and counties, without digging into homeowner's pockets. The data center itself will generate between $80 MM - $100 MM a year for our county (not Lauderdale) and about $80 MM a year for the school district. To put it in perspective, our entire county budget is less than $30 MM a year. We plan to put back 75 - 80% of what we take in, and endow our county budget where the interest supports our county, without touching principal, while still using 25% of the revenue to improve our county and fund millage rate cuts for our landowners. These datacenter operators want solar farms nearby for backup electrical capacity. I know they're talking to landowners in our county now for the construction of a 1000 acre 120 megawatt solar farm. That will generate about $1.2 MM / yr for our county and school district. We already have a 500 acre one that went on our tax rolls this year that brings in $600 K / yr (split between the school district and county). The data center being considered for our county will utilize a Southern Company - owned transmission line to bring in power to the data center, easing capacity issues for MS Power. They'll be able to bring power in from sister power companies in the Southern Co. ecosystem. That transmission line sits 1 mile south of the 330 acres of land our county owns, that they want to put the data center on.
I would love to know which Company in Columbus and what year? If it was United Technologies or Johnson Electric after the name changed there is a good chance that I met you when you Interviewed.
That’s a lot of zero’s at the end of that number, but what does it really mean?
Let’s say I live in Meridian and have kids. The school system gets a big influx of money. Where does it go? Is Lauderdale County going to pay teachers 50% more than they’d get in other counties in MS, or Alabama / Louisiana, etc.? No, they aren’t. Are they going to hire dozens more teachers? Not likely.
Is the main reason that the schools currently struggle going to go away? That reason, of course, is the enormous number of underprivileged and disruptive students that are a product of largely poor and uneducated and underprivileged parents in the area. No, that problem’s not going away.
Apply the same question to the city and county general tax revenue. Are city government salaries going to increase substantially? No. Are city government projects going to magically bring more investment and jobs to the area? No.
Might Meridian High School get a nice new football stadium? Yes.
Might new schools get built? Yes.
Might some trees n shít get planted in highway medians? Yes.
But mainly, what’s going to happen is what always happens. A big portion of the money will get wasted via corruption and general inefficiency. Dumb and redundant city government departments will get created that employ a very small number of people. And there will not be a reliable conduit to get the money into the hands of the people that matter, which ultimately is the people you’d want to move to the area from elsewhere.
And if that doesn’t happen, nothing substantial will change. Just going to see the rich get richer, the corrupt get more corrupt-er, and Meridian still not going anywhere fast.
All that being said, its still a great idea to bring the project in, of course. There’s not very much downside risk at all. But you have to manage expectations when you hear things like “$10,000,000 tax boost” and “thousands of well paying jobs”. That added tax revenue isn’t going to reduce the tax burden of the other Lauderdale County citizens, and 95% of the “well paying jobs” will be temporary, done remotely by folks outside the state, or both. These data centers are gigantic, but they only employ like 80-100 people total in many cases.
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We don't need a new stadium, Ray Stadium is a unique and special place for many here.
We also don't need additional schools right now because we've had a dwindling MPSD student population in recent years. That day may come, but it's not a priority right now.
I hope we make public safety top priority and spend accordingly. After that, like many MS towns, we have old infrastructure that needs updating, badly. It ain't sexy, but it's time to update roads and water and sewage systems.
For the reasons you highlighted, I believe the most important vote of my life will be the next round of local races. We must elect public servants instead and wannabe career politicians. The money will attract candidates like never before and I fear many will be in it for themselves instead of for the next generation. Bottom line is we need leadership with an attitude and willingness to plant trees the shade of which they will never enjoy.
That is the truth. However, we have been forgotten by the Rs...and Ds for quite a while. A tire plant or something might go over better here.
One of the top-most priorities should be taking a portion of the tax revenue derived and plowing it right back into economic development activities. No reason not to have the best funded EDA that money can buy overseen by a go-getter who understands the need for public investment to make sites ready for large scale economic development. Tax revenue coming from DCs is tailor made to jump start aggressive economic development activity.
Be careful with that....the guvment going to get their money. I'm in a red state with no state income tax and property taxes are insane. If my house was paid off I'd still have a material monthly payment with just taxes and homeowners.
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I see the sarcasterisks; however, I am predicting an arms race for the cream of the EDA executive director crop. These MFers (like Joe Max) are already making insane bank. Armed with mind-blowing tax revenue potential, there will be some new counties getting into the ED game and it will likely start to resemble SEC head coach level compensation packages that get thrown around to very few qualified executive directors. There's only about 3-5 in the entire state who can command top dollar.
I would not be surprised to see that happen.
And what? 6 more sites predicted to fund 5-6 more EDA guys with Mississippi not having a deep bench — or do we even if we have to think MDA folks who might want to consider going local?
Typically one doesn't find much, um, er, ah, ... substance ... amongst the MDA rank and file. The state doesn't pay worth a $h!+.
Best bet is picking off a really solid #2 guy who has sat at the feet of the master. It's a very, very tiny environment. There are no secrets. They all talk.
There were over 20 GM auto plants in MS in the 70s-80s. The workers kept going on strike every year or two. Around 79, the average assembly line worker for GM in MS was making $25,000 without requiring a high school degree. GM told them if they went on strike again, they were going to close the plants down and move everything to Mexico. 9 months later, they went on strike again. GM closed the plants, took the assembly lines apart and shipped the to Mexico. My dad worked for GM and in high school and college, I worked on the summer crew going out to the plants to take them down and box them up to ship to Mexico. Matamoros was one of the cities we shipped to.
31 that I can remember.
3 Clinton,
3 Vicksburg,
2 Durant,
2 Prentiss,
2 Lexington,
1 Anguilla,
1 Forest,
1 Pelahatchie
2 McComb,
3 Brookhaven,
1 Canton,
1 Hazlehurst,
1 Morton,
1 Puckett,
2 Philadelphia,
2 Port Gibson,
1 Vaiden?
2 Yazoo City
That has been my impression but I was curious if only because…
This scenario seems to be most likely route so I was wondering if there was any value in going the other way….
I remember several small manufacturing plants scattered around the delta, NAFTA killed many off. Thanks slick willie and RINOs, Ross Perot warned us.
One thing to keep in mind about economic impact studies, they’re usually exaggerated. For example, the claim that a business will create 10 six figure jobs, often two or three of these jobs are executives living in other states that visit the facility a few times/year. I’ve seen studies that look into the claimed economic impact of the Super Bowl on a community, most of them time the impact is much less than touted when the deal was announced.
If Trump carries through on tariffs (I don’t think he will), we may get some manufacturing back.
Yeah, the clientele and product quality, along with cleanliness, are several steps above Walmart.
But their yoga pants, while better than Walmart's, don't come close to those at LuLuLemon.
If we get tariffs ahead of having manufacturing to produce what we need we will get inflation in the amount of the tariff. Wanting to be self sufficient and making it happen aren’t same. Some kind of incentive structure that puts manufacturing for things of national security interest makes sense, but when 90+% of everything in my home isn’t made here, tariffs are only going to hurt me. Most manufacturing needed won’t be built in his term, so we need a little better strategic planning from our politicians. I’m not clinging to that hope.
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