Data centers included in budget deal

The legislature is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 9, for a one-day special session to complete work on the two-year 2026-27 state budget.

A few, smaller budget bills were passed before the end of the regular session last month. But the bulk of the budget, represented by 14 bills, must be passed by the end of the month to avoid a partial state government shutdown.

Listed among the bills to be passed on Monday is item “i. Data Center Bill.” As far as I know, no bill language has been made public, as of yet. The Star Tribune reports:

Lawmakers also agreed to pass a bill setting new guidelines for an influx of large-scale data centers to Minnesota. Last month, top leaders controversially agreed to reduce lucrative tax breaks for the data center industry. Amazon promptly announced it was suspending a massive multi-billion-dollar data center in Becker.

As has been widely reported, it looks like the Minnesota data center for Amazon will now be built in North Carolina.

The Star Tribune continues:

Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, said the deal extends the remaining sales tax exemptions for decades and relaxes permitting regulations on backup power sources.

Which sales taxes will be included in “remaining” have not been made public.

Finally:

Frentz also said the deal includes “guard rail” provisions that many Democrats wanted, such as new rules aimed at governing water use, protecting utility customers from higher bills, and a requirement that data center operators pay for home conservation projects for low-income families.

All of the above is probably too little, too late to save the $10 billion (with a “b”) Amazon project.