Rep. Josh Bray called data center legislation the most complicated issue he's tackled during his time in office. He said requiring companies to make so many commitments up front isn't the normal way of doing business, but data centers are not normal business.
"The issue is the dollar figures we're talking about," he said. "You're talking about billions of dollars in infrastructure needs, new generation. Just to build a new power plant, you're looking at $2 to $3 billion. You don't want the residents of Kentucky taking on that risk that the hyperscaler is going to be there in 10 years."
Striking the right balance when legislating around that unusually large risk is difficult, the Mount Vernon Republican said, but he did lay out the general goals his legislation will seek to address.
"I think what you're going to see is we'll have a policy framework that protects ratepayers first and foremost.
We'll make sure that any kind of tax treatment is competitive with other states, so that if we've got local communities that want one of these, they can be competitive... But at the same time, if you've got a community that says, no, that's not for us, we want to absolutely respect that and make sure that they've got that ability to say no," he added.
A data center bill died on the final day of the 2026 session.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers said he doesn't expect the legislature to do away with tax incentives it passed, but instead to tweak some language — stopping short of detailing just what kind of changes lawmakers have in mind.