City Journal is out with an article succinctly describing how embracing data centers benefits local communities.

Loudoun County, Virginia has much of the nation’s data centers and it has reaped the rewards.

From City Journal: “Data centers have proved an extraordinary boon for Loudoun residents; they now generate nearly half the county’s tax revenue. Thanks to them, Loudoun enjoys smooth roads, lavish schools, and low tax rates for homeowners.

…

Loudoun County’s government has been so accommodating because data centers deliver enormous financial benefits to locals. As supervisor Kristen Umstattd told me, the facilities ‘bring $1 billion a year into Loudoun County,’  and the total continues to rise. In the fiscal year 2027 budget, data centers are expected to generate $417 million in real property taxes (on the buildings themselves) and another $879 million in personal property taxes (on the servers and equipment inside them), for nearly $1.3 billion in total.

The data centers will thus provide 45 percent of the nearly $2.9 billion in county tax revenue. For perspective, that means that the money they generate exceeds what Loudoun spends on every county function outside the school system. In effect, local police, courts, jails, fire and rescue, libraries, parks, animal control, and social services are funded without burdening residents.

Nor are these services bare-bones. Supervisor Umstattd notes that data-center revenue has allowed the county to raise staff wages, purchase body cameras for law enforcement, and expand parkland and other public projects. The roads are wide and well paved; the schools are gorgeous.”

The data center boom in Loudoun has also created a “steady stream of construction jobs” in the Northern Virginia county.

City Journal: “‘This industry has collaborated with their workforce better than any in my 40 years as a union organizer,’ says Don Slaiman, an official at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local. He noted that data centers are creating ‘six-figure blue-collar jobs right in the center of Northern Virginia. That is unheard of.’ As Vice Chair Turner says of the facilities, ‘IBEW loves them.’”

Read the rest of the story here.