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# A town's first data center: what to require before saying yes A data center can bring construction employment, tax base, and infrastructure investment. It can also impose demands on electricity, water, public services, and nearby neighborhoods that last for decades and outlive the equipment inside. Two facts should frame everything. The industry produces very few permanent jobs relative to its cost — one watchdog analysis of eleven major projects found subsidies averaging about $1.95 million per job. And in a survey of data center owners, only three percent named tax credits and local incentives as the biggest siting factor; land and power availability drive the decision. You are usually not paying for something that would otherwise not happen. **The basic rule:** every important promise needs a stated limit, a reliable way to check it, a responsible party with money behind it, and a practical response when it is broken.