State Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, voted for budgets that created and expanded Ohio’s data center sales-tax exemption, later directly co-sponsored legislation easing qualification rules for some projects and has since received $2,800 from two lobbyists now registered to represent one of Ohio’s major data center developers.

The record comes as Dovilla campaigns against what a new Republican television advertisement calls “free rides for data centers.”

“His next fight: no more free rides for data centers,” a narrator says in the new advertisement, paid for by the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, or OHROC.

Dovilla voted for Ohio’s data center tax break

Dovilla, who served in the Ohio House from 2011 through 2016 before returning in 2025, was a co-sponsor of House Bill 153, Ohio’s 2011-12 operating budget.

The final budget created Ohio Revised Code Section 122.175, authorizing the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to grant full or partial sales- and use-tax exemptions for equipment purchased for qualifying computer data centers.

Qualifying projects were required to make at least $100 million in capital investment and maintain at least $5 million in annual payroll. The exemption covered computer data center equipment along with cooling systems, electrical equipment and certain construction materials.

An Ohio Legislative Service Commission analysis detailed the new exemption and its eligibility requirements. LSC estimated that the provision could reduce state sales-tax receipts by “several millions of dollars.”

Dovilla voted yes on final passage of HB 153 on June 29, 2011. The bill became law and established Ohio’s computer data center sales-tax exemption.

Dovilla voted for major expansion of the tax break

Two years later, Dovilla backed another state budget that substantially expanded eligibility for the exemption.

Dovilla was a co-sponsor of House Bill 59, Ohio’s 2013-14 operating budget.

The final legislation cut the required annual payroll for a qualifying data center from $5 million to $1.5 million — a 70% reduction.

It also allowed multiple businesses operating at the same data center to combine their investment and payroll totals to qualify, gave businesses additional time to reach the payroll threshold and expanded eligibility to certain companies leasing facilities to data center operators.

The LSC analysis detailed the reduced payroll requirement and other changes to the exemption. LSC said the expansion could decrease state and local sales- and use-tax revenue.

Dovilla again voted yes on the final version of HB 59 on June 27, 2013. The measure passed the House 53-44 and became law.

Dovilla directly co-sponsored another data center tax measure

In 2014, Dovilla directly co-sponsored legislation changing the qualification rules for the data center exemption.

Dovilla was a House co-sponsor of Senate Bill 243, which gave certain projects additional time to make the $100 million capital investment required to qualify for the sales- and use-tax exemption.

The Ohio Legislature’s official description of SB 243 says the measure would “temporarily allow computer data centers more time to make the required capital investment” needed to qualify for the exemption.

SB 243 became law.

Dovilla’s legislative record spans three separate actions on the incentive: he voted for the 2011 budget that established the exemption, voted for the 2013 budget that cut its payroll requirement from $5 million to $1.5 million and directly co-sponsored the 2014 legislation giving some projects longer to meet the required investment threshold.

Current data center lobbyists gave Dovilla $2,800

Dovilla has also received $2,800 from two lobbyists who are now registered to represent QTS Data Centers.

Ohio campaign-finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net show Andrew Minton and William “Bill” Byers of Columbus lobbying firm Byers Minton & Associates each contributed $1,400 to Dovilla during 2025 and 2026.

Each gave Dovilla $150 on March 31, 2025; $500 on June 10, 2025; $500 on Oct. 3, 2025; and $250 on March 27, 2026.

State lobbying records currently list both Minton and Byers as registered lobbying agents for QTS Data Centers.

QTS is pursuing billions of dollars in data center development in Ohio.

In May, QTS and the city of Van Wert announced plans for a northwest Ohio data center campus expected to involve approximately $10 billion in capital investment, according to the company’s project announcement. QTS said the proposed Van Wert campus would create more than 1,500 construction jobs and approximately 200 permanent company positions.

The company also operates data center campuses in New Albany.

Dovilla’s campaign also received $500 on March 31, 2025 from Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP Advocates for Effective Government, the law firm’s political committee.

Vorys has extensive business involving data center development. The firm said in a 2025 announcement that it assisted Vantage Data Centers with a more than $2 billion hyperscale data center campus in New Albany.

Vorys said its work for Vantage included economic-development incentives, state and local taxation, land acquisition, zoning, construction, energy, environmental matters and financing. Its government-relations affiliate, Vorys Advisors, also represented Vantage in connection with the project.

Dovilla now campaigns against data center ‘free rides’

Dovilla now opposes the data center subsidies contained in legislation he previously supported.

On March 18, Dovilla voted for House Bill 646, legislation establishing the Ohio Data Center Study Commission.

“I have heard from constituents across our district with a wide range of questions about data center development, including impacts on energy demand, land use, and local infrastructure,” Dovilla said at the time.

In May, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to freeze consideration of new data center tax exemptions while lawmakers studied the industry’s effects.

Dovilla called DeWine’s action “too little, too late”, according to the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau.

His new OHROC-funded advertisement now tells voters that his “next fight” will be “no more free rides for data centers.”

Dovilla faces Democrat Megan Coy in November

Dovilla is seeking another term in Ohio House District 17 against Democrat Megan Coy, a registered nurse and Olmsted Falls councilwoman.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections lists Coy and Dovilla as the two candidates for House District 17 in the Nov. 3 general election.