ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts released a report just before the new year about the economic impacts of data center construction in the state.
The initial release said data centers were creating nearly 30,000 construction jobs, almost 5,500 jobs for data center operators and bringing in $474.2 million in tax revenue.
In January, those numbers shrank in a revision to the auditor’s report.
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The revised report showed the job creation level was estimated at less than half of the potential jobs than expected.
The decreased job expectations were for both construction and data operations.
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While the original version of the report predicted 28,350 jobs for construction workers, the revised number was 70% lower at 8,505 construction jobs.
Similarly, the initial expectation of creating 5,471 data center operations jobs was revised 70% lower at 1,641 jobs, instead.
Tax revenue expectations were also marked down to $227.2 million, a 48% drop.
Further study by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which performed the audit on behalf of the state, determined that a tax exemption for data centers had resulted in the lowered forecast.
In addition to the lower revenue expectations and lowered job prospects, the updated report also found only $1 billion in value was added to the state economy from construction, rather than the initially published $3.35 billion in value added estimated in the initial Vinson Institute report.
Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts for details about why the revisions were made and is waiting for a response.
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