# Georgians for Prosperity — full text

> Georgia's case for data centers and AI: ten reasons to welcome them, a county playbook, daily news, and a one-click way to email your state representative.

Source: https://georgiansforprosperity.com/ · built 2026-11-01

## The case

Hyperscalers are spending more on buildings, chips and power in one year than Georgia's entire state budget. Every one of those dollars lands somewhere. The counties that say yes early get the tax digest, the fiber, the trades work and the technical workforce. The counties that say no get the transmission line anyway — and none of the money.

## Ten reasons to want one in your community

### 01. A tax digest that pays for schools it doesn't fill

A server campus is the rarest kind of taxpayer: seven figures or more of taxable real and personal property, a 20–30 year horizon, and almost no children to educate. One proposed $17 billion campus in Georgia is reported to generate enough new revenue to cut residents' property taxes outright. In a state that funds schools off the local digest, that is the whole ballgame — and it is the first number to ask a developer to model for your county.

- Ask: a 20-year tax projection at the county's actual millage rate
- Source: https://townhall.com/news/dmitri-bolt/2026/08/31/a-data-center-project-is-about-to-eliminate

### 02. 23,200 jobs announced — and the trades work starts first

Georgia's economic development arm supported 423 locations and expansions in FY2025 representing $26.3 billion in investment and 23,200 future private-sector jobs, with data centers and their supply chain the largest component. Construction alone is 1,000–3,000 peak tradespeople per large campus: electricians, welders, concrete, HVAC, low-voltage, crane operators — all local hires with local payroll.

- Ask: a local-hire commitment with a percentage, not a promise
- Source: https://www.georgia.org

### 03. Careers that don't require your kids to leave

Data center operations is one of the few high-wage fields that does not require a four-year degree: critical facilities technicians, electrical and mechanical techs, network and security staff. The career ladder is real — apprentice to technician to shift lead to site manager — and the work exists in Troup County, not just Atlanta. For a county losing its 18-to-34 cohort, that is the difference between a future and a memory.

- Ask: paid apprenticeships and dual-enrollment slots, in writing

### 04. The grid gets paid for — and rebuilt where you live

Georgia Power has told regulators to expect roughly 8,500 MW of load growth over six years; the Public Service Commission approved 9,885 MW of new generation to serve it. New load pays for new substations, transmission upgrades and the resilience work that follows. The honest caveat: those costs must not land on households. A county that welcomes load should demand cost-allocation transparency and a seat at the PSC table.

- Ask: project-funded grid upgrades and a public cost-allocation review
- Source: https://psc.ga.gov/site/downloads/datacenterfactsheet_202609.pdf

### 05. Water is a term sheet, not a fixed cost

Yes — the industry's water use is the strongest objection, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a slogan. Most Georgia data centers cool evaporatively and consume in the range of a small town (reports put several Georgia sites at 1–5 million gallons a day). Closed-loop and air-cooled designs cut that toward near zero at a modest efficiency penalty. The technology exists. The question is whether your county writes it into the deal and requires metered public reporting.

- Ask: closed-loop design, annual audited water disclosure, no aquifer withdrawals
- Source: https://www.wabe.org/data-centers-use-a-lot-of-water-georgia-counties-and-conservationists

### 06. Fiber follows the load

Hyperscalers do not build to a county without dark fiber and diverse routes — and once 400 gigabytes of capacity is trenched down your highway corridor, the middle-mile exists for everyone else. Rural broadband, hospital connectivity and remote work all get cheaper the day a campus signs. Counties that negotiate carrier-neutral access at the same time capture the spillover instead of watching it stop at the fence line.

- Ask: carrier-neutral access, open conduit, and a middle-mile commitment

### 07. A rural county can double its tax base in one project

QTS has pitched roughly 12 million square feet of data centers in South Georgia — in a town better known for peanuts than processors. A $2 billion campus in a county with a $400 million digest is not an incremental gain; it is a generational one. This is the single most plausible route for rural Georgia to fund its own schools without Atlanta's help.

- Ask: a payment-in-lieu schedule that starts paying in year one
- Source: https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/03/from-peanuts-to-processors-south-georgia-gets-largest

### 08. Main Street gets a customer, not a competitor

Every large campus buys locally where it legally can: electrical contractors, site services, catering, hotels during a three-year build, fuel, landscaping, security. The multiplier on a 1,500-worker construction site is where the restaurant on the square actually makes its year. The condition that matters is a local procurement office with a named contact and a published vendor list.

- Ask: a local vendor portal and a 20% local-spend target

### 09. A funded pipeline into your schools

The operators who plan to be there in 2045 fund the pipeline that feeds them: equipment donations, curriculum support, teacher externships, scholarships with a job at the end. Those programs are almost always available — for the county that asks during the incentive negotiation, not the one that asks after the ribbon cutting.

- Ask: a community benefit fund sized per megawatt

### 10. The compute has to live somewhere — and it should live here

AI capacity is national infrastructure, sited state by state. Virginia, Texas, Ohio and Arizona have taken most of it. Every gigawatt Georgia hosts is a gigawatt of state-level leverage over the technology that will run schools, hospitals, logistics and defense for the next thirty years — plus the research dollars, the university partnerships and the state-government AI capacity that come with proximity.

- Ask: a first right of use for county and state agencies

## Community AI playbook

### Schools — A tutor in every backpack

Districts are deploying frontier models as after-school tutors in reading and math, and as planning assistants that give teachers back their Sunday nights. Georgia districts that moved early report the biggest gains in the bottom quartile — the students a 28-to-1 classroom cannot reach.

- Ask for: district-wide seats, a no-training-on-student-data clause, and FERPA-compliant deployment.

### Rural health — A scribe in every clinic

A four-physician county clinic can now offload charting, prior authorization and patient instructions to an ambient model. The documented effect is not better medicine — it is more appointment slots per day, which in a county with one clinic is the same thing.

- Ask for: clinic licenses for the county health department and the rural hospital, plus a Medicaid-population carve-out.

### Workforce — Credentials that end in a job

Job centers are using models to translate a resume into the language of a job posting, prep a candidate for a specific interview, and map a two-week credential to an open local role. Combined with the campus's own apprenticeships, this is the shortest path from applicant to $28 an hour.

- Ask for: a workforce partnership with the technical college and the campus operator, measured on placements.

### Small business — A back office for Main Street

The hardware store, the HVAC company, and the two-person law firm cannot hire a marketing department. They can use a model to write the proposal, reconcile the books, answer the permit question and design the flyer. Counties running small-business AI clinics report the demand is highest from businesses under five employees.

- Ask for: a county-run AI helpdesk and quarterly clinics at the library or chamber.

### Emergency response — Faster answers on the worst day

Dispatch summarization, flood and wildfire modeling, post-storm damage triage from drone imagery, and plain-language alerts pushed to the right block. After a tornado, the difference between a 12-hour and a 3-hour damage assessment is measured in federal reimbursement and lives.

- Ask for: emergency-management licensing and a direct line to the operator's own resilience team.

### Agriculture — The farm gets a co-pilot

Yield modeling, pest and disease identification from a phone photo, grant-writing help for small farms applying to cost-share programs, and equipment diagnostics in the field. Georgia's Extension network is already the best delivery mechanism in the country — give it the tools.

- Ask for: Extension-service seats and a county agent pilot program.

### Government services — 311 in plain language

Permit pre-screening, benefits eligibility screening, and a resident-facing assistant that answers in plain English instead of a form number. The measurable win is staff time: clerks stop answering the same fourteen questions and start processing the backlog.

- Ask for: agency seats plus a public, published service-level report.

### Grid & water ops — Squeeze the system you already have

Forecasting, leak detection, and predictive maintenance on pumps, substations and treatment plants. Water utilities using model-based leak detection commonly find 10–20% of their unaccounted-for water — which is how a county absorbs a new large user without a new reservoir.

- Ask for: utility-side licenses and a joint leak-detection pilot funded by the developer.

## Model community benefit agreement (nine terms)

### Term 01 — Community AI fund

A per-megawatt annual contribution — not a one-time check — into a county-controlled fund for school seats, library access and small-business clinics, with a public report on every dollar.

### Term 02 — Closed-loop water

Cooling design specified before permitting, metered and publicly reported consumption, no new aquifer withdrawals, and third-party audit rights for the life of the campus.

### Term 03 — Grid cost allocation

Project-funded substations and transmission upgrades, plus a commitment not to shift large-load infrastructure costs onto residential ratepayers.

### Term 04 — Local hire with teeth

A defined percentage of construction and permanent hires from the county and region, reported quarterly, with liquidated damages if missed.

### Term 05 — Tax certainty

A payment-in-lieu schedule that begins in year one and never dips below a floor, so the county can bond against it instead of hoping.

### Term 06 — Workforce pipeline

Funded apprenticeships and dual-enrollment seats at the local technical college, tied to actual openings at the site, with a named operator contact.

### Term 07 — Annual public accounting

One hearing, one report, one page of numbers — jobs, water, taxes, energy, local spend — presented by the operator, not a consultant.

### Term 08 — Retraining with a paycheck

An operator-funded retraining program, delivered through the technical college, for mid-career workers already in the county — with a stipend while they train, first call on site and contractor openings, and results reported as placements, not enrollments.

### Term 09 — Community compute set-aside

A share of the campus's compute, sized per megawatt and priced at cost, reserved for the county: the school system, the hospital and clinics, Extension, the library and small businesses — allocated by the county, not the operator, and reported annually alongside the fund.

## The dividend — lessons from Moonshots EP #305 (October 23, 2026)

### 01. Share it with the people next door.

The panel's whole thesis in one line: a project that neighbors fight becomes a project neighbors want the moment they share in it directly. Two days earlier the President had urged developers to pay host communities a dividend and "make deals"; a Senate bill proposes an Alaska-style fund. When both ends of the spectrum land on the same idea, a county can stop debating whether to ask and start deciding how much.

> “Communities should be battling to have you built in their backyard.” — Peter Diamandis
- On this site: Term 01 — a per-megawatt fund, paid every year
- Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/21/trump-data-centers-community-dividend.html

### 02. The dividend is already being paid — in schools and jobs.

An industry executive on the show described the payments operators already make: education, job development, economic development, in the places whose leadership wants them. The lesson for a county is that none of this is a concession you have to win. It is standard practice. Put it in the agreement as a line item with a number, and it stops being a press release.

- On this site: Terms 06, 08 and 09 — pipeline, retraining, compute

### 03. A productive tax base lowers your bill.

The example the panel reached for was Cambridge, Massachusetts, where lab and commercial property carries about two-thirds of the levy and the residential rate — $6.35 per $1,000 in FY2025 — is among the lowest of any city in the state. That is the mechanism behind Reason 01: a taxpayer with no children in the schools pays for the schools.

- On this site: Reason 01 — a 20-year projection at your millage rate
- Source: https://cambridgema.gov/Departments/Finance/publications/2024/fy25taxrateexecutivesummary

### 04. Walk in with the list.

Dave Blundin's advice to any community in a fight was blunt: go back to the developer and ask for the electric bill cut, the schools funded, the teachers funded, the schools reinvented. The insiders on the panel were equally blunt that permitting and local goodwill are the real bottleneck — which is to say, your leverage is highest before the vote, and it is worth a list.

- On this site: Nine terms — signed before the dirt moves

### 05. Give neighbors a stake, not just a check.

Salim Ismail's version of the dividend is ownership: community bonds, local equity, a reason for residents to want the campus to succeed for thirty years. The Georgia-shaped version is a payment-in-lieu schedule the county can bond against, and a share of the compute itself reserved for the county's schools, clinics and small businesses.

- On this site: Term 05 and Term 09 — bondable revenue, reserved compute

### 06. Forty years of data centers, and nobody said thank you.

Diamandis's closing point was that data centers have sat quietly in American communities for four decades and the benefit story never got told. A CNBC survey this week found 63% of voters oppose one within ten miles of home. That gap is a communications failure, and the fix is cheap: one public hearing, one page of numbers, every year, presented by the operator.

- On this site: Term 07 — annual public accounting
- Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/24/trump-ai-data-centers-voter-backlash-midterms.html

## The record (newest first)

- 2026-10-31 — [Big & Bigger: Georgia Ports’ Rising Tide](https://www.georgiatrend.com/2026/10/31/big-bigger-georgia-ports-rising-tide/) (Georgia Trend)
- 2026-10-30 — [Wilson: Business climate, not incentives, draw companies to Georgia](https://www.griffindailynews.com/news/state/wilson-business-climate-not-incentives-draw-companies-to-georgia/article_ace206fa-7f3b-5e26-b87d-fefcb6f76ed7.html) (Griffin Daily News)
- 2026-10-29 — [Georgia Attracts $4.8B In Manufacturing Investments Across Three Major Projects](https://businessfacilities.com/georgia-attracts-4-8b-in-manufacturing-investments-across-three-major-projects/) (Business Facilities)
- 2026-10-26 — [Audi announces plan for Georgia assembly plant](https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/audi-peach-county-georgia-suv-assembly-plant-hyundai-translead-illinois/) (Recycling Today)
- 2026-10-26 — [Mitsubishi Power to Invest $490M for Manufacturing Expansion Project Near Savannah, Create 220 Jobs](https://rebusinessonline.com/mitsubishi-power-to-invest-490m-for-manufacturing-expansion-project-near-savannah-create-220-jobs/) (REBusinessOnline)
- 2026-10-26 — [Blue Bird to invest $300 million in Georgia plant](https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/news/shopmanagement/blue-bird-to-invest-300-million-in-georgia-plant) (The Fabricator)
- 2026-10-25 — [Volkswagen Plans $4 Billion US Audi Factory While Cutting 100,000 Jobs Worldwide](https://www.inkl.com/news/volkswagen-plans-4-billion-us-audi-factory-while-cutting-100-000-jobs-worldwide) (inkl)
- 2026-10-25 — [Audi CEO defends Trump’s $4-billion US factory deal as Volkswagen workers demand job protections](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/audi-ceo-defends-trump-s-4-billion-us-factory-deal-as-volkswagen-workers-demand-job-protections/ar-AA2g29p6) (Auto Igloo)
- 2026-10-24 — [Gov. Kemp: Audi AG Selects Georgia to Invest $4 Billion in First US Manufacturing Facility](https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2026-10-24/gov-kemp-audi-ag-selects-georgia-invest-4-billion-first-us-manufacturing) (gov.georgia)
- 2026-10-24 — [Blue Bird Corporation Expands Peach County, Georgia, Manufacturing Operations](https://www.areadevelopment.com/newsItems/10-24-2026/blue-bird-corporation-fort-valley-georgia.shtml) (Area Development)
- 2026-10-23 — [$1 billion investment from Georgia Tech and Emory bets big on AI](https://saportareport.com/1-billion-investment-from-georgia-tech-and-emory-bets-big-on-ai/columnists/mark-lannaman/mark-lannaman/) (SaportaReport)
- 2026-10-23 — [Mitsubishi announces $490 million expansion in Pooler](https://www.wtoc.com/2026/10/24/mitsubishi-announces-490-million-expansion-pooler/) (WTOC)
- 2026-10-21 — [Georgia Tech’s NSF AI Institutes Enter New Era With $38.4 Million in Renewed Sup...](https://www.newswise.com/articles/georgia-tech-s-nsf-ai-institutes-enter-new-era-with-38-4-million-in-renewed-support) (Newswise)
- 2026-10-17 — [Georgia Tech Receives $5 Million From Google.org to Expand Access to AI for Scientific Discovery](https://www.newswise.com/articles/georgia-tech-receives-5-million-from-google-org-to-expand-access-to-ai-for-scientific-discovery) (Newswise)
- 2026-10-16 — [Georgia's Oglethorpe Power Gets Record $3.3B USDA Loan](https://hoodline.com/2026/10/georgia-co-op-lands-record-3-3b-federal-loan-for-gas-plant-near-google-site/) (Hoodline)
- 2026-10-16 — [Georgia Tech Partnership Expands AI Education at CAU](https://www.newswise.com/articles/georgia-tech-partnership-expands-ai-education-at-cau) (Newswise)
- 2026-10-15 — [Dutch Manufacturer Investing $77M to Expand Georgia Semiconductor Equipment Plant](https://www.manufacturing.net/operations/news/22976576/dutch-manufacturer-investing-77m-to-expand-georgia-semiconductor-equipment-plant) (Manufacturing.net)
- 2026-10-14 — [UNG brings AI tools, training to community](https://ung.edu/news/articles/2026/10/ung-brings-ai-tools-training-to-community.php) (University of North Georgia)
- 2026-10-13 — [Georgia Tech unveils AI supercomputer](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/10/13/georgia-tech-unveils-ai-supercomputer) (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
- 2026-10-13 — [Columbia County School Board Approves Homestead Exemption Resolution](https://www.wjbf.com/top-stories/columbia-county-school-board-approves-homestead-exemption-resolution/) (WJBF)
- 2026-10-13 — [Rick Jackson makes stop in Columbia County, announces position on data centers](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/rick-jackson-makes-stop-in-columbia-county-announces-position-on-data-centers/ar-AA2e3Zwk?ocid=BingNewsVerp) (WRDW on MSN)
- 2026-10-11 — [Five-building data center campus proposed in Metter, Georgia](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/five-building-data-center-campus-proposed-in-metter-georgia/) (DatacenterDynamics)
- 2026-10-08 — [Kemp announces 320 new Hyundai Transys jobs in Georgia](https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/general/kemp-announces-320-new-hyundai-transys-jobs-in-georgia/ar-AA2dReMd) (FOX 5 Atlanta)
- 2026-09-24 — [Tire company expanding Georgia factory with $1.2 billion investment](https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/story/business/manufacturing/2026/09/24/pirelli-tire-company-investing-1-2-billion-in-georgia-factory/91908061007/) (Dolphins Wire)
- 2026-09-23 — [Georgia leaders focus on jobs, AI and workforce needs at annual summit](https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/georgia-leaders-focus-jobs-ai-234626248.html) (WJBF Augusta · via Yahoo News)
- 2026-09-22 — [Italian tiremaker plans $1.2B plant expansion with 1,000 jobs in Georgia](https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/09/pirelli-announces-12b-georgia-tire-plant-expansion-with-1000-jobs/) (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- 2026-09-22 — [International tire manufacturer announces 1,000-job Georgia expansion](https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/international-tire-manufacturer-announces-1000-job-georgia-expansion/MZ6R5KQIOJC4PFRBLYJEUZ2IZQ/) (WSB-TV)
- 2026-09-22 — [Google partners with Southern Co's Georgia Power for AI data centers, deal projected to deliver $900 million in customer benefits](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/google-partners-with-southern-co-s-georgia-power-for-ai-data-centers-deal-projected-to-deliver-900-million-in-customer-benefits/ar-AA2cIxeo?ocid=BingNewsVerp) (Benzinga on MSN)
- 2026-09-11 — [Project Zero: The Plan to Reduce Property Taxes for Georgia’s Effingham County Residents](https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/09/11/project-zero-effingham-property-tax/) (The Daily Signal)
- 2026-09-11 — [Georgia county moves closer to Google data center deal, says it could lower property taxes](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/georgia-county-moves-closer-google-045600164.html) (Yahoo News UK)
- 2026-09-08 — [Monroe County approves plan for splitting $1.2 billion in revenue from proposed Google data center](https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/forsyth-monroe/monroe-county-approves-plan-splitting-12-billion-in-revenue-proposed-google-data-center/93-70aeb782-0ab3-4e4f-b898-e2db165d3d3d) (WMAZ)
- 2026-09-06 — [Georgia announces record $35.2B in economic development investments, 25K new jobs](https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/georgia-announces-record-35-2b-003753075.html) (Yahoo)
- 2026-08-30 — [‘Strictest contract in data center history’ reached between Georgia Power and OpenAI](https://www.wtoc.com/2026/08/30/strictest-contract-data-center-history-reached-between-georgia-power-openai/) (WTOC-TV)
- 2026-08-27 — [Georgia Today: Meta Settlement; Execution is scheduled; Effingham County Open AI data center](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/08/27/georgia-today-meta-settlement-execution-scheduled-effingham-county-open-ai-data) (gpb)
- 2026-07-29 — ['It constantly changes' | Central Georgia Technical College launches AI certificate as workforce demand grows](https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/central-georgia-technical-college-launches-ai-certificate-as-workforce-demand-grows/93-5654397e-8056-4567-8b14-9758d78c9990) (WMAZ)
- 2026-07-28 — [OpenAI’s $20B data center dominated Georgia headlines. But it wasn’t alone.](https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/07/openais-20b-data-center-dominated-georgia-headlines-but-it-wasnt-alone/) (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- 2026-07-22 — [OpenAI plans massive data center facility in Georgia, development to start in 2028](https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-plans-massive-data-center-facility-in-georgia-development-to-start-in-2028/ar-AA28t0Th?ocid=BingNewsVerp) (MSN)

## Hard questions, answered

### Won't the power bill go up for everyone else?

This is the right question and the honest answer is: it can, if the deal is structured badly. Georgia Power's large-load tariffs are supposed to assign the cost of serving new load to that load, and the PSC reviews the allocation. The vigilance required is specific — demand that new generation be tied to new load, that residential rates not absorb infrastructure for a single customer, and that the county weigh in at the PSC. Welcoming the load and policing the tariff are not in conflict. They are the same position.

### What about the water?

Data centers use water, and in Georgia that matters. Two things are both true: most Georgia sites consume in the range of a small town rather than a city, and closed-loop or air-cooled designs can cut consumption toward near zero. The pattern to reject is the undisclosed deal — a campus permitted on an NDA while residents notice low water pressure. The pattern to demand is metered, published, audited consumption with a closed-loop design condition in the permit. A county that requires this loses nothing; a county that doesn't is negotiating with a blindfold on.

### How many permanent jobs is this, really?

Fewer than the press release implies — a large campus is typically 100 to 400 permanent operations jobs, not thousands. The honest case is not job volume, it is job quality and tax base. The 1,000 to 3,000 peak construction workers and the seven-figure annual property tax payment are the real economic events. Any campaign that leads with permanent job counts is selling you something; we would rather give you the number and the term sheet.

### Why should a county take the land and the water for a building?

Because the alternative is not open farmland. It is the same transmission corridor, the same highway interchange, and a housing subdivision that costs the county $1.30 in services for every $1.00 it collects in tax. A server campus is one of the only land uses in Georgia that is net-positive on the fiscal impact model. That is the trade — and it is worth making, on terms.