U.S. Sen. Jon Husted spent years championing Ohio’s data center boom, defending multimillion-dollar corporate tax breaks and promoting technology developments as engines of job creation. Newly surfaced recordings from a 2021 radio interview capture Husted celebrating an industry whose tax exemptions would eventually cost Ohio more than $1.5 billion in a single year.
Husted’s support extended from defending a $43.5 million tax break for Google in 2019 to promoting major data center projects as lieutenant governor under Gov. Mike DeWine. As recently as July 2025, he was still defending the tax incentives, arguing against eliminating them for new developments.
By the following year, Ohio’s Department of Taxation had revealed that its data center sales-tax exemption cost the state approximately $1.57 billion in 2025, more than 11 times the $135.8 million officials had projected. Husted subsequently reversed his position on awarding new exemptions, as the industry’s enormous electricity demands and government subsidies became major issues in his U.S. Senate race against Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Husted celebrated data centers as a ‘pipeline of jobs’
In an Aug. 23, 2021, interview on Columbus Morning News, Husted enthusiastically promoted Google’s expanding data center investments in central Ohio.
“It’s great to see that some of these data center investments are going to go south of Columbus,” Husted said, referring to developments extending toward Lancaster. “It just shows it’s a pipeline of jobs and economic growth that’s going to continue to happen in central Ohio.”
In another recording from the same interview, Husted argued that Ohio’s geographic position helped attract the industry.
“Let’s face it. What’s part of the reason that they’re here? Well, Ohio’s in the middle of the country. We’re between, you know, Chicago and New York, and we’re a great place for logistics.”
Husted had already demonstrated his willingness to defend the industry’s tax breaks. At Google’s November 2019 groundbreaking in New Albany, he defended a 15-year state sales-tax exemption estimated at $43.5 million for the company’s $600 million facility, which was expected to create approximately 50 jobs.
Husted argued that the economic benefits would outweigh the tax breaks and said requiring Google to pay sales taxes would have driven the company elsewhere.
“This will fuel the economy for many years in Ohio,” Husted said, predicting that Columbus would become the technology hub of the Midwest.
His advocacy continued as the DeWine-Husted administration promoted increasingly large technology investments, including Amazon Web Services’ $7.8 billion expansion announced in 2023.
In Erie County, a $10.2 million tax break for 18 promised jobs
The DeWine-Husted administration brought the same incentive strategy to Northwest Ohio.
On Sept. 25, 2023, DeWine and Husted announced state assistance for an Aligned Data Centers project in Perkins Township, Erie County. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 75% sales- and use-tax exemption lasting 15 years.
The estimated value of the tax exemption was $10.2 million. In exchange, the company committed to creating just 18 permanent jobs with approximately $1.6 million in annual payroll.
The agreement covered a proposed $202 million investment near Sandusky. The 18 positions were the company’s initial employment commitment, while the tax exemption was authorized to continue through 2038.
The Erie County deal provides a concrete example of the incentives promoted during Husted’s tenure: a tax exemption initially valued at more than $10 million for a development promising fewer than two dozen permanent jobs.
Tax breaks ballooned. Husted kept defending them.
An industry-backed economic study estimated that Ohio data centers received $2.5 billion in state and local tax incentives between 2017 and 2024. The report also estimated that the industry generated $5.21 billion in state and local tax revenue over that period, including modeled indirect economic effects.
But the cost of Ohio’s state sales-tax exemption continued climbing. According to figures released by the Ohio Department of Taxation, the exemption cost $554.9 million in 2024 and $1.57 billion in 2025. The 2025 figure exceeded the state’s forecast by more than $1.4 billion.
Husted continued backing the incentives even as lawmakers moved to restrict them. In July 2025, after DeWine vetoed a legislative attempt to curtail the exemptions, Husted defended preserving the tax break, arguing that ending it for future projects while existing developments continued benefiting would not create a “fair playing field.”
“If Ohio wants to be a leader, a leading edge tech state in the Midwest, having those kinds of investments in the state is important,” Husted said.
In May 2026, DeWine paused consideration of new data center tax-exemption applications. By late July, Husted had reversed his position on new statewide exemptions, after years of defending the incentives and promoting the projects they helped attract.
Husted has also begun promoting federal legislation intended to prevent electricity customers from shouldering data center infrastructure costs. But as TiffinOhio.net previously reported, his Ratepayer Protection Act would only require state regulators to consider protections similar to those technology giants fought in Ohio. It would not require states to impose them.
And Husted’s reversal does nothing to undo the tax agreements secured during the years he championed the industry. Ohio has stopped accepting new exemption applications for now, but previously approved agreements remain in place.
According to state development contracts obtained by the Statehouse News Bureau, Amazon, Meta and Google hold statewide data center tax agreements extending through at least 2055, 2056 and 2058, respectively.
Those companies can continue receiving tax benefits under the agreements for decades after the 2026 election, long after Husted’s years of defending the subsidies helped make Ohio a major destination for their investments.
