Since Microsoft has pledged not to seek property tax breaks for their Granger data center, would Amazon consider giving back some of their local tax breaks? A group of elected officials are asking.
When the St. Joseph County Council approved a property tax abatement for the then-$14 billion Amazon data center near New Carlisle in August 2024, two council members voted no: Republicans Mark Root, who’s no longer on the council, and Amy Drake.
Drake on Wednesday said she and three of the council’s other four Republicans, Randy Figg, Joe Thomas and Andy Rutten, this week sent Amazon a letter asking it to voluntarily pay into a fund to give homeowners a discount on their property taxes.
Drake says the matter came up at Tuesday’s council meeting during an annual review of all abatements. It showed Amazon Web Services had nearly $38 million in property taxes abated in just this year’s first half. They’re also exempt from state sales tax, saving them millions more.
“We think by using some of that money that otherwise would have been abated, we can make the community a little more tolerant of what’s going on and see a benefit, and to have AWS voluntarily give some of that money back," Drake says.
WVPE reached out to both Amazon and Democratic Council President Bryan Tanner for their reactions but we did not hear back from them by deadline.
