“Any of these companies comes and applies for incentives, we will definitely have an analysis that says how much in property taxes that they will be paying over the life of the project, that will go to the school system, the county, and the state,” Beshear said.
The comments come after Mason County Judge-Executive Owen McNeill announced this week that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will develop a data center on more than 2,000 acres near Maysville.
The $800 billion in investment over 40 years is expected to generate thousands of jobs during construction and 400 full-time positions upon completion.
The tentative agreement would allow Meta to make annual payments of $5 million to the county and $2 million to the school district. McNeill has said the project could generate $26 million a year for county government and $60 million for Mason County Schools.
WUKY asked Beshear about the incentives during Thursday's Team Kentucky press briefing. He said they are sometimes needed to bring major projects to Kentucky, but officials need to determine whether companies would come without them.
“The argument is no revenue without the incentive,” Beshear said. “And so you get the property tax revenue, but you give up sales tax revenue that otherwise wouldn’t exist. That is at least the theory.”
The Governor added that the state would look closely at the numbers and make sure the public understands what it is getting in return.
“I want to make sure that we are very transparent with the people of Kentucky that says this is the value you get out of it so localities can make the right decisions,” Beshear said.
The project has drawn criticism from residents over the tax arrangement and the lack of information during its early development. Local officials signed nondisclosure agreements that kept Meta's identity secret for more than a year.
Max Moran, executive director of We Are Mason County, told the Kentucky Lantern that residents should have known who was behind the project earlier so they could research the company and its plans.
Moran has also questioned whether the proposed tax arrangement meets the state's standard that data center developers pay their “full and fair share” of local taxes.
