Let Data Reign? Nevada Democrats Say No

Nevada Democrats are trying to freeze an industry a Las Vegas company spent 26 years building, while a small Georgia city is using the same industry to erase homeowner property taxes.

Last week, Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) pushed an interim revenue committee to send a 2027 bill that would end data-center tax breaks and halt new construction and expansions statewide. The vote was 6-2. Two Clark County Republicans, Assemblymembers Lisa Cole and Jason Patchett, voted no.

Cole said Nevada is positioned to “win the lottery” in the industry and that she would support keeping tax breaks only for projects meeting the “highest standards” for water and energy use. 

Neal’s pitch: the companies can pay full freight, and Nevada must “slow down” the strain on water and power. “There is no actual need for them to continue to have a partial abatement of taxes for a data center that they can afford to pay for,” she said.

Neal’s proposal requires a complete moratorium on the expansion and build of data centers, and relies on a picture of data centers that is already dated. Newer plants use far less water than the old cooling towers people imagine. Many operators now bring their own power or pay for the upgrades so households are not left holding the bag. A freeze does not create more water. It tells the next project to go somewhere that will take the tax base.

For example, in Covington, Georgia, Mayor Fleeta Baggett proposed canceling city property taxes for homeowners and replacing the revenue with money from an Amazon data center under construction. 

“Because of the revenue generated by the Amazon data center, we now have a real opportunity to eliminate city property taxes for individual homeowners,” she said. The plan still needs council action, the Legislature, and a local vote, but the point is noted. 

Columbia County, Georgia, is lining up a Google project officials say could wipe out the county’s share of homestead property taxes if voters approve the relief. Nevada Democrats are moving in the opposite direction: freeze first, scare next, campaign now. They also skip the company that actually put Nevada on the map. 

Switch, founded in Las Vegas in 2000 by Rob Roy, has run data centers in the state for 26 years and has donated to republicans and democrats. Roy bought a leftover Enron fiber building for under a million dollars and built the SuperNAP. The first giant campus opened in 2008. Switch later added Tahoe Reno to its data center footprint. Casinos, studios, government systems, and Fortune 100 firms have been long-term clients. 

This is not a pop-up AI warehouse. It is a Nevada company that grew here before “data center” became a political talking point. 

A statewide freeze, proposed by Neal, treats Switch’s two-decade campuses the same as a project that has not poured concrete. That is not careful policy. It is a timely press release to capitalize on fear and ignorance.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Aaron Ford, is running on a similar script. Ford co-sponsored the 2015 tax-break law. Now he says data centers are “swarming” communities, “draining our water,” and “jacking up our energy bills,” and that Gov. Joe Lombardo is handing them tax money to do it. If elected, Ford says he will pause new abatements, audit the old ones, and force operators to bring their own water, coolant, and power. He also wants federal land used for housing, not servers. 

I support data centers because they bring jobs, investment, and economic growth to Nevada.

At the same time, we have to put the right parameters in place to ensure they don’t raise costs on Nevada residents or businesses. As Governor, I’m focused on growing our economy… pic.twitter.com/Wk07f88z5f

— Joe Lombardo (@JoeLombardoNV) May 14, 2026

Governor Lombardo has backed the industry while confirming he is studying local impacts. Lombardo has backed data centers if they bring their own water and power plans, including in a June op-ed and a May campaign post. Better Nevada PAC, which supports him, took $1 million from Jessica Roy, wife of Switch founder Rob Roy, on May 21, 2026. National environmental groups that have pushed data-center moratoriums, including the Sierra Club, have received millions from foreign donors. Democratic candidates, including Ford, have adopted the pause-and-audit message those groups are driving.

As covered earlier this month by the Globe:

Reports document Neville Roy Singham—a Shanghai-based American Marxist with documented CCP-aligned activities—channeling money into U.S. left-wing groups, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). PSL has organized or participated in multiple anti-data-center campaigns, contributing to delays or blocks on projects totaling billions. 

Other foreign (mostly European) philanthropic money has flowed into environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, that actively lobby to ban data centers. Congressional letters and lawmakers, including those from the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Sen. Tom Cotton, have called for investigations into these ties. 

President Donald Trump cut through the panic Monday. Communities that reject data centers, he said, will end up “backwards and poor.” If they want jobs and lower taxes, “let Data Reign.” Kill the “Golden Goose,” he warned, and “China could not be happier.” Trump has also said operators should build their own power plants so ratepayers are not stuck with the tab.

Cities and counties are already picking winners and losers. Reno froze new permits through 2027. Nye County banned centers in a stressed groundwater basin around Pahrump. Henderson said no to a pause and stuck with case-by-case deals.

Neal has spent years attacking the tax program she once voted for, arguing the public never sees a real audit of jobs and revenue. That is a fair question. A statewide freeze sold on yesterday’s cooling towers is a different one.

The draft bill now sits for the 2027 session after the midterms, and after voters decide whether Nevada Democrats get to freeze an evolving industry other towns are using to kill their property-tax bills.