Data centers hot issue in governor race

The emergence of a new class of data centers has garnered bipartisan opposition in communities across the state. What was once seen as an avenue for economic growth has become a political issue in Illinois, and one on which candidates from both sides of the aisle are hoping to distinguish themselves. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker once championed data centers as a driver of new jobs, signing a tax incentive program to bring more of them to the state. But as data centers have scaled up, he’s paused state incentives and his position has evolved to one of “responsible growth.” Republican candidate Darren Bailey has both criticized Pritzker’s pause of the tax incentive program and claimed credit for inspiring it. He now says he would go further than Pritzker and pause all existing data center tax agreements. When Gov. JB Pritzker signed tax incentives for data centers into law in his first year as governor in 2019, Republicans and Democrats celebrated the plan as an economic driver. “In today’s world, data centers are as critical a part of our infrastructure as our roads, trains and schools,” Pritzker said in October 2019. “With the legislation I signed into law, we are welcoming…