The Douglas County Board of Commissioners will consider an incentive package for the Flexential data center in Parker during its regular business meeting on Tuesday, August 11th at 1:30pm. The action will be Item F on their consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are not individually discussed under a presumption that the actions are non-controversial and no commissioners would wish to debate them; they are passed in one vote rather than individually voting on each item. Consent agendas are often used for pro forma actions like approving minor expense reimbursements or sending required correspondence.
The incentive package includes a $19,323,400 exemption from the business personal property tax (BPPT) portion of Flexential’s county tax bill spread out over a 35-year period, about $552,000 per year in benefits.
Data centers have been roundly criticized for consumption of energy and water while providing very few jobs per dollar invested. According to county documents, the Flexiential center in Parker will create about 16 jobs and therefore receive $1.2 million from county coffers per job created.
Dueling bills to incentivize and restrict data centers failed at the Colorado legislature this year. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, recently placed a moratorium on new data centers pending extensive further reviews in his state.
Douglas County Commissioners significantly curtailed public comment for their regular business meetings earlier this year.
Once again, our despotic county commissioners make arbitrary, unreasonable and financially irresponsible decisions without allowing for public input or consideration. No Kings!!!!
It seems this item is placed on the consent agenda because the COMMISSIONERS may feel this is non-controversial and don't wish to debate incentivizing a data center, but perhaps the PUBLIC would find this topic worthy of debate. Shame on the Commissioners.