By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Commission heard a unique offer from a Canaan Valley resident during their November 12th meeting in Parsons. Rick Collins addressed Commission President Mike Rosenau and Commissioner Fred Davis at the meeting. Commissioner Tim Knotts was absent.
Collins said that like many in the upper part of the County, he had concerns about the proposed Ridgeline Project. He said he came to voice those concerns about mainly the economics, but perhaps, more importantly, “offer you and by extension your constituents, help in this area.”
Collins said he only retired in July after a 40 plus year career estimating the costs and benefits of complex projects ranging from what he termed “hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.” Projects, he said, that have been varied in nature such as: Allied weapons systems, Homeland Security information technology systems, nuclear weapons projects, research labs and production facilities, California high speed rail and renovation of the Library of Congress.
Collins claimed that in most instances, the costs are underestimated and the benefits are over estimated. In fact, Collins put the number at four out of five projects.
“I can say with 100% certainty that the Tucker County data center and every other data center that the Governor considers an important contributor to achieving his well-intentioned but ill-conceived 50gw by 2050 goal will be no different unless thoughtful, experienced, unbiased analysis underlies State and local decision making,” Collins said.
THE CONCERN
Collins said his main concern was whether the tax breaks used to incentivize companies to locate data centers to locate in Tucker County would pay for themselves in a way that would benefit the State and the County, as well.
“Tucker County and more generally West Virginia needs to perform rigorous, unbiased analysis to ensure that this aspect of the economics makes sense,” Collins said. “Put differently, you and your constituents cannot afford for overoptimism on the part of the Governor and other data center stakeholders to result in overestimation of project benefits.”
THE OFFER
Collins offered that he, along with other Tucker County residents with “relevant professional experience” could work together with the Commission to “formulate the right questions, demand answers from State government and industry representatives, evaluate the credibility of their answers and provide independent analysis as required.”
“I think any revenue estimate that’s out there, and forget about- I know there’s been a lot of talk about how much of the revenue will be allocated to Tucker County versus held by the State – forget about those percentages, we really need to know what the close to right number is that we are talking about is being allocated and my hypothesis is, that any number that has been put out there so far, is not net of the tax exemptions that would be be given to companies.”
Collins said that he has already begun researching tax records on data center companies, records that include taxes paid and taxes avoided, he said. Collins also said that following speaking with Senator Randy Smith at a Town Hall at Parsons, he was able to reach out to several State entities such as WV Tax Commissioner Matt Irby, General Counsel Matt Morton and Director of the Data Economy Office Chris Morris to discuss tax incentives.
“What the conversation did was lead to me understanding,” Collins said. “Often times you don’t know what you don’t know and he (Morris) was very thorough.”
While no formal action could be taken by the Commission during the session, Commission President Mike Rosenau, informed Collins that he looked forward to working with him in the future and asked if the Commission had his contact information. Collins left his email and phone number with the Commissions for future contact.
