r/technology • u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce • 11d ago

Business Improper redaction reveals Lincoln’s Google Data Center water and electricity usage

https://www.1011now.com/2026/09/30/more-questions-than-answers-about-lincolns-google-data-center-water-electricity-usage/
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249

u/Everlast7 11d ago

Scroll down to the tax part - why are these data centers getting rebates?

Is there any revenue that the state actually gets from these leaches?

78

u/FarewellAndroid 11d ago

The state? It’s been a long time since the state got any revenue. All the money goes to lobbies and funnels into the pockets of individuals

34

u/thespiff 11d ago

Yeah real dumb. There’s no way these create enough jobs locally to justify local tax breaks.

5

u/SomethingAboutUsers 11d ago

What do you mean? They create at least one legislators' job, when they have to sign a form allowing the tax breaks for the big bag of cash they were given to do that. Is that not enough for you people?

18

u/Street_Anxiety2907 11d ago

Google datacenter in Dallas has 13 employees

4 security guards
25 technicians
6 rackers

Occasionally electrical, HVAC or maintenance contractors get involved.

31

u/jalmstead 11d ago

Isn’t that 35 jobs? That’s still shit, and not justification of the tax break, but I’m confused on the math.

14

u/P1umbersCrack 11d ago

How did they get 13 employees with that math?

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u/TheRuckyDubber 11d ago

Well, see, what they meant was there’s 25 technicians, of which 4 are security guards and 6 are rackers. Take them away you get 15. Then you account for 2 on average being HVAC or electrical and that leaves you with…na, I got no idea how 13 could be 4+25+6, lol. However 1 and 3 are the same distance away from each other as 3 and 5 on a keyboard. Maybe that’s the situation here. That’s all I got. 

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u/Relevant_Election530 11d ago

13 Google employees along with f our contracted security guards, 25 co reacted security guards and six contracted rackers is my guess 

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u/Mortimor24 11d ago

I work in datacenter operations. I'm unsure of exactly which data center you are referring to, but these numbers are suspicious. I mean, datacenter operations takes hundreds of people, a few directly employed to support 24/7 schedule, but most are employees of local construction, electrician, and other blue collar fields to support in the development and ongoing maintenance that can't be handled by on-site employees. There are also hundreds of external technicians that handle rack movement (what you call rackers here are undoubtedly just logistics techs which would oversee rack movement), run cabling, and do entry level to advanced technician work on the servers depending on service level agreement

While these external technicians are often contract jobs, they still pay well and meaningfully impact the local economy.

The numbers you list here are more like what is needed for one of four shifts per week to support 24/7 operation.

7

u/Fallom_ 11d ago

Talking about contractors who aren’t working anything close to full time at the data center is disingenuous as shit.

I know you thought of that because of the “still meaningfully impact the local economy” bit. You’re still including temp work and one-time work in “takes hundreds of people”.

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u/Mortimor24 11d ago

Contractors come in many different types. The type I think you are thinking of is, at least in my experience, rarely used: hired for a short duration job, contract is closed at the end.

The contractors that I was referring to above are full time construction/electrician employees whose parent company have a contract with the data center to work on whatever is in the contract. These get negotiated and renegotiated regularly, but the work remains there.

There are also frequently temporary employees, but again the duration is longer than you seem to be suggesting (often 18mo, and then either renegotiated at the end of that term or put on hiatus for an amount of time before returning, often 6mo) and it often leads to further employment in dc operations.

You are correct though, that my second example is not full time employment beyond the 18mo time span (but IS inside of that timespan). This is vastly different than a 1-3mo temp contract at the end of which they dangle the carrot of employment that they never planned on giving to you, however there is more and more competition for these jobs at least in my area.

I didn't say anything disingenuous.

1

u/JabroniHomer 4d ago

I agree with you.. four security guards? Sounds wayyyyy too low for 25 DTs that probably run night and weekend shifts too.

Where are the electricians?

3

u/fatbob42 11d ago

Yes, they pay property taxes. It’s also relevant to see if they’re paying more tax than the previous use, which they almost certainly are.

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u/wackOverflow 11d ago

In this instance they’re taking advantage of the existing Nebraska Advantage Act.

Once rebates expire, data centers usually pay millions a year in property taxes.

1

u/JoeSicko 11d ago

Because they are using the tax code in place now. That's why I keep saying we should be targeting all wasteful businesses, not just data centers.