Dear Editor:
The recent negative press directed towards data centers raises questions that should be discussed in a rational manner. Many of the cons, real or perceived, have been widely discussed. It’s worth considering some of the positive results stemming from existing data centers that can solve some of the problems the Parsippany School District, as well as its residents, will face in the years ahead.
First, data centers have many of the characteristics of computer server farms. Server farms are large groups of computer servers networked together. A data center houses large numbers of servers, but it also contains infrastructure to provide redundancies such as cooling systems, power generators, fire suppression, etc.
The August 31 Wall Street Journal featured an editorial titled “The Data Center Panic and U.S. Decline.” It notes the AI industry’s failure to show how data centers can benefit communities. It also cites politicians for failing to explain “the technological and economic transition now underway….”
More than 5,400 data centers are already in place throughout the country, with more than 80 in New Jersey, including in Mahwah, West Windsor and Edison. Here are some examples of where data centers have had a very positive impact.
Loudoun County, Virginia, just outside of the nation’s capital, has the world’s largest concentration of data centers. In 2025, that county collected $895 million in tax revenue from data centers and over the last decade, has cut property tax rates by about 30%.
In Richland Parish, Louisiana, a rural district near Meta’s Hyperion data center, the school district there was able to pay year-end bonuses this year of $50,935 for eligible certified teachers and $17,472 for eligible staff. These numbers were huge increases from $10,200 and $3,323 paid the prior year. Much of the increase came from sales tax from the construction of the data centers which will take 3 – 5 years to complete. Some will downplay the finite term of construction but there is little organized opposition to residential or commercial construction, even though they are of even more finite durations.
In Quincy, Washington, population 8,500, data centers pay 57% of the town’s property taxes which fund, among other things, a $120 million high school. Imagine if there was a 57% tax revenue windfall in Parsippany. Further imagine if windfall tax revenue from data centers were used to invest in renovations to the aging school district infrastructure. Also, electricity rates in Grant County, where Quincy sits, rose 3.5% at a time when statewide rates rose 10.2%.
Parsippany has a 120,000 sq ft data center at 200 Webro Road and it has not raised concerns. There are certainly enough corporate parks in town to house multiple data centers and construction can be staggered to gauge the impact on the town.
It’s fair to ask questions about data centers. One of the questions concerns the use of water. The statistics often cited for water use are greatly inflated because much of the water used in data centers is recycled. When structured correctly, data centers can provide a badly needed increase to the tax base.
Parsippany should avoid the bad policy bandwagon and seriously consider options for the construction of data centers because it can add badly needed tax revenue for the school district and the town in the years ahead. With a 2% levy cap, the school district has a vested interest in a growing tax base in Parsippany. Mayor Desai can use the opposition to data centers in other towns to Parsippany’s advantage by welcoming them to open areas within corporate developments paying full tax ratables.
Jack Raia
Parsippany
Mr. Raia is a candidate for the Parsippany Board of Education.
