Amazon Web Services officials so far aren’t publicly addressing a request from some St. Joseph County Council members to renegotiate their development agreement for their data center near New Carlisle.
On Monday we reported that four of the council’s five Republican members recently sent the tech giant a letter. In keeping with a national policy it announced in January, Microsoft has said they are not asking for property tax abatements for the data center they’ll soon start building in Granger.
The council members told Amazon that Microsoft even reopened negotiations with LaPorte County and gave back their tax break. So they asked Amazon if they would consider giving up some of the $4 billion in property tax abatements over 35 years that the county has granted for their $11 billion data center near New Carlisle.
WVPE asked Amazon for an interview on the subject Monday. A company spokeswoman replied via email but she said they would not make anyone available for an interview.
Instead, the company sent what it called “background information” about its presence in Indiana. They said they’ve hired over 900 people for the data center, they’ve given over $7 million for road improvements around the complex, and they’ve granted over $250,000 to 31 community projects, including nonprofits Unity Garden and Cultivate Food Rescue.
