Around the Local

Virginia lawmakers are divided over whether to eliminate a data center sales tax exemption that cost the state an estimated $1.9 billion last fiscal year, with teachers and fiscal advocates calling for repeal while IBEW Local 26 and other trades unions rallied to preserve the incentive they say drives well paying union construction jobs in the Commonwealth.
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Hundreds of Franklin County, Missouri residents filled a high school gymnasium to oppose rezoning agricultural land for two proposed data center campuses, with local trades union representatives countering that the projects would bring thousands of union jobs paying over $100,000 a year while a planning commission recommendation still awaits final county commission approval.
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More than 90 retired members and spouses turned out for the first meeting of a revived IBEW Local 48 retirees group in Portland, a decade after the program went dormant, generating nearly 50 ideas for activities ranging from volunteer work and tool donations to new apprentices to regular social meetups across the metro area.
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Lowell City Council voted 10 to 0 for a one-year data center moratorium after IBEW members and neighbors clashed over a Markley expansion, illustrating the broader political squeeze facing Gov. Healey as consumer anger over high energy costs collides with her AI driven economic agenda and a stalled data center tax exemption that remains unfinalized 16 months after she signed it into law.
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A proposed $272 million expansion of the Iroquois Gas Transmission System in Brookfield has drawn rare bipartisan opposition, with both Republican and Democratic local officials citing concerns over air quality, noise, and proximity to Whisconier Middle School. State Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding and other local Republicans have broken with national party energy priorities to oppose the project, which awaits final air quality permit approval from DEEP.
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