By Staff Writer: Grace Anders
POTOSI, Wis.- On March 8, over 500 people from Grant County and across the state attended a public forum hosted by Holiday Gardens and Event Center to get informed about data centers in the driftless region.
The public forum occurred as plans for at least seven large scale data center projects funded by tech companies like Microsoft and Meta are pending in Wisconsin. According to Wisconsin Watch, the data center proposed in Grant County would be a billion-dollar project that would bring over $5 million annually in property tax revenue.
Starting off the event as a special guest speaker, comedian, Emmy-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Charlie Berens took to the podium. Berens made a stop in Potosi between performances in Rockford, IL and Davenport, IA on his national comedy tour to talk about an issue he cares about deeply. Berens stressed the importance of Wisconsin residents having a say on data center development in their communities, saying “I don’t want big tech companies deciding your future.”
While discussing this serious issue, Berens couldn’t curb his comedic nature. “This is the most bipartisan issue since beer.” Berens joked, as he raised a glass of Potosi beer.
Following Berens was keynote speaker Prescott Balch, a retired tech executive who spent 38 years building software that ran in data centers. Balch now opposes data center construction in rural communities and warns of environmental, financial and legal risks. According to Balch, the huge increase in property tax revenue a data center promises can backfire if the facility shuts down suddenly, leaving residents to shoulder the cost that a municipality has come to rely on.
Balch leaned on his experience in tech to describe the industries’ volatility, explaining how the hype cycle in tech can lead to unsustainable growth projection. He also warned of obsolescence that occurs when upgrade costs exceed new build costs. Balch believes data centers are necessary but should be located in municipalities that can handle large fluctuations in valuation, not small towns.
After Balch laid out the facts, activist and Midwest mom Sara Zarling made an emotional appeal to consider opposing data center plans across Wisconsin. Zarling described how data center construction wreaked havoc on Beaver Dam, where residents were unaware a data center was moving in until months into the process. She told the crowd how her community dealt with constant noise from 24/7 construction, property damage and contaminated water, calling hyperscale data center construction the “most cruel thing a city can do to its residents.”
While non-disclosure agreements and shell companies are shrouding data center deals in secrecy that leave residents in the dark until construction is well under way, some communities have successfully organized to halt proposals. In Deforest, community members spent months organizing and speaking out against a proposed $12 billion QTS data center, and on Jan 27 the proposal was dropped, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
According to a handout distributed at the public forum, towns can take action by passing a moratorium to pause data center progress for 12 months, adopt zoning amendments that make “data center” a distinct land use, and demand transparency by exercising Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law that requires public deliberation on land use.
Brewing concerns over data centers are not isolated to Wisconsin. On March 25, lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to press pause on data centers across the US until worker, consumer and environmental protections are put in place, according to AP News. The AP News article says the democratic and independent backed bill “is unlikely to advance in either the House or Senate, but it shows the deep concerns many progressives share about the growing impact of data centers and artificial intelligence.”