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Salt Lake County Votes Against Tax Break For Facebook Data Center

ESTHER RATY / KUER NEWS

The Salt Lake County Council is one of five entities that will decide whether or not Facebook can build a data center in West Jordan with a $240 million tax break. Tuesday the Council unanimously voted against the proposal. 

West Jordan City officials have been working with Facebook on a deal that would let the company build a 232-acre data center. The building would house software that runs the website.

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams says he disapproves of the plan because of the size of the proposed tax break.

“This is revenue in the form of a rebate, so we’re not going to be pulling it out of our pocket" he says, "but this is revenue that would otherwise go to schools, or would otherwise go to paving and fixing our roads, or plowing our streets, or providing salaries for our police officers and firefighters, and instead is being diverted to a single company.”

McAdams also says he doesn’t like how much land, energy, and water resources the data center would require.

West Jordan Mayor Kim Rolfe supports the deal because of the money it would bring into the Jordan School District. He says the Data Center shouldn’t negatively affect the rest of the county

“It’s West Jordan city that is providing the infrastructure and the water for this project” he says.

Jordan School District is another entity that will vote on the new data center. School board members voted earlier on Tuesday to support the Facebook proposal.

All five entities will come together on Monday next week for a final vote on the Facebook proposal. 

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