Katie MarsalThe Associated Press reports that the state Senate voted 40 - 8 in favor of the move following last-minute pleas from republicans who urged that the bill be rejected on grounds that it unfairly favors big businesses over small, localized companies.
Apple declined to comment on the matter but Gov. Beverly Perdue is expected to sign the bill into law quickly in hopes that the Mac and iPhone maker will respond "within days" with an official commitment to begin building a $1 billon server farm in the backyard of one of the state's struggling counties.
The bill was structured to give a single company — identified last month as Apple — a tax break of up to $46 million over the next 10 years, assuming that company reaches its $1 billion investment target within nine years of beginning the project, provides health insurance for its local employees, meets a wage standard, and foregoes other state grants or tax breaks.
Should Apple's server farm remain active for three decades, corporate tax breaks could exceed $300 million, according to estimates outlined by North Carolina's legislature. The project is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs during a year-long construction effort and employee roughly 100 when the site initially opens for business.
Server farms, more commonly referred to as data centers, are sprawling, climate-controlled computer facilities designed to process massive volumes of data that come and go via thick internet pipes. As such, they typically consume large amounts of power, and in some cases, water.
For its part, Apple has reportedly been considering two sites in western North Carolina to house the server farm, which is expected to support the staggering growth of its iTunes and App Store digital download services: Catawba and Cleveland counties, both of which have unemployment rates north of 15 percent.
However, a report published Monday by Data Center Knowledge singled out Catawba as frontrunner, saying its an "all but done" deal that Apple will choose the county over rival Cleveland County. The Cupertino-based company is even reported to have earmarked a specific piece of land for the project.
Catawba County officials have reportedly been touting several sites off Route 321 for their fiber and power infrastructure in an effort to market those locations as viable data center lots. One site is a 183-acre tract in Maiden known as Catawba Data Park, which may suit Apple’s reported desire for a multi-facility campus setting.
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68 Comments
Those 8 do make a good point about favoring "big businesses over small, localized companies."
Are you suggesting that some other "small local" company was competing with Apple to spend $1B in North Carolina to build a server farm?
yay for Skynet!
Those 8 do make a good point about favoring "big businesses over small, localized companies."
The ideology to make everything equal and offer no special favours is great, but it's irrational to expect such things and in this case would hurt smaller businesses. Even in the consumer market we expect discounts the more we spend (eg: 'buy 2 get 1 free' and 'spend more than x-amount to get an additional 10% off'). This is just a "spend $1B over 10 years and get $4.6M back each year."
The truth is that this will bring a lot of additional income to the state for at least a decade, increase jobs and support many small businesses who might be bitching today but will be happy when they land the lucritive Apple contract to build or service whatever.
Are you suggesting that some other "small local" company was competing with Apple to spend $1B in North Carolina to build a server farm?
I'm pleased to see that there appears to be some diversity among Republican legislators. Not sure what the "small, local companies" are that could invest that much in their state, but as far as I can tell in many states and nationally, Republican legislators usually shower the very biggest of big businesses with tax breaks, bend or remove any rules that hamper their ability to profit at everyone else's expense, etc. Hey, the previous national administration even let some big corporate representatives re-write federal rules for their own benefit. Seems to me that many small businesses have gotten trampled by big businesses favored by legislators of both parties. Maybe things are different in North Carolina?
In any case, I hope that the state and local taxes generated by the jobs produced by the new data center directly and indirectly will exceed the tax break received by Apple. I'm glad to see a set of fairly tough conditions on the tax breaks. In New Jersey and New York, tax breaks to businesses have often been provided with no performance requirements. So a business may get a huge tax break, then leave town a few years later, and get to keep all its tax breaks without their employees having generated the income to the local town or state.