During the 2025 legislative session, the West Virginia Legislature passed HB 2014, which allows high-impact data centers to bypass local zoning and other ordinances, including those governing light, noise, and pollution. Our Legislature willingly and knowingly took away all local control of these huge facilities to serve the wants of out-of-state special interests. All of our local legislators voted for this new law.

This legislation also mandated how the tax revenues from these centers will be distributed. Instead of the money from facilities located in our communities staying here, we will now receive only 30 percent of the revenue from them. Another 50 percent of the money will go to a personal income tax reduction fund. And 10 percent will be distributed across all 55 counties based on population, meaning that Kanawha, Cabell, or Berkeley counties would get a larger share of the revenue from a center in Greenbrier County than we would. Another 5 percent will go to economic enhancement grants doled out by the state, and 5 percent will be deposited in an electric credit stabilization fund also controlled by the state.

This year, our legislators voted in support of HB 4983, which allows the Department of Commerce to certify the data centers, reinforcing our representatives' earlier decision to remove our local rights.

Once elected, I will sponsor legislation to return decision-making and control of these centers to the local communities where they are proposed to be located. And I will work to ensure that the tax revenues from these centers stay in the communities where they are located to benefit the residents who are impacted by their construction and operation.