Data centers have been an integral part of energy infrastructure for much longer than they’ve been a ubiquitous topic in public policy conversations. But the rapid advance of artificial intelligence over the last few years has meant increased demand for more data centers. The pace and scale of the industry’s growth have caused some Georgia policymakers to question how we treat it.
The conversation about data centers’ associated tradeoffs now feels much more urgent. Politicians across the political spectrum and at all levels of government have taken notice and are taking action to set the most sustainable path for how Georgia handles its archipelago of data centers, particularly in terms of tax incentives, resource consumption and who pays for the energy they require.
Georgia’s posture toward data centers over most of the past decade has been largely focused on recruitment and building. The state’s flagship tool was a sales-tax exemption enacted in 2018, designed to lure large facilities with major capital investment and a minimum jobs requirement.
This approach made sense at the time. Data centers bring with them high construction spending and a number of positive implications like meeting surging demand for data and updating digital infrastructure. However, now that growth is no longer hypothetical, lawmakers are grappling with the scale of data centers, which is unique from most industrial projects. Their demand for electricity can be huge, and ancillary costs including short-term strain on electrical grids, water usage and higher electric bills have been noted as well.
Read more in this week’s commentary.
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest 🗞️
Recently, President Donald Trump cheered many self-styled consumer advocates by saying that credit card interest rates should be capped at 10%, and later gave his backing to a proposal aimed at curtailing the power of Visa and Mastercard. Both proposals would in fact harm the very consumers they are intended to help, but their negative effects would go further.
Georgia lawmakers have raised transparency concerns over federal “guidance” communicated to the state Department of Education (GaDOE). While this issue might seem like the ultimate in esoteric “inside baseball,” it reflects a serious challenge to state and local governance in education and has far-reaching consequences for Georgia’s students, parents and educators.
The Promise Scholarship is enjoying a successful first year with 7,744 participating students. Each one gets $6,500 for private school, homeschooling or another non-public educational option.
At the beginning of each year, thousands of taxpayers rush to support Georgia families by submitting an application for the Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit. Through the Tax Credit and participating scholarship organizations, Georgia is expanding K-12 educational access, increasing diversity in private school communities and saving Georgia taxpayers millions.
When it comes to the rising cost of housing in Georgia, there is a hidden driver in the lack of affordability that has nothing to do with workforce or building materials: the cost of time. While Georgia continues growing rapidly – adding over a million residents each decade dating back to 1980 – bureaucratic review has become a costly bottleneck for building homes.
Peach Picks 🍑
In a slow-motion race between two behemoths, Amazon has officially displaced Walmart as the world’s biggest company by sales. For the first time, Walmart on Thursday reported lower annual sales than Amazon: Walmart’s revenue was $713.2 billion for the year ending in January, while Amazon, boosted by its lucrative cloud-computing business, made $716.9 billion in revenue for the year ending in December.
Japanese companies will finance investments valued at $36 billion in energy and minerals projects in Ohio, Texas and Georgia as part of a trade agreement that will cut U.S. tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%, according to the Trump administration. The announcement is part of Japan’s 2025 agreement to invest $550 billion over the next four years at the direction of the U.S., with the funds aimed at rebuilding and expanding core American industries.
President Donald Trump made his first visit to Georgia since reclaiming the White House, headlining an event Thursday in the deep-red northwest corner of the state the White House bills as a showcase for his economic agenda.
A fixture in the leadership of Georgia’s House of Representatives will step down when her term ends this year, declining to run for re-election after nearly a quarter century in office. Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, was first elected to the House in 2002.
The Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner announced approval of auto insurance rate reductions for three Country Mutual Insurance affiliates operating in Georgia. The approved filings reflect an overall 6% average indicated reduction across the three Country Mutual auto affiliates.
Quote of the Week 🌟
One More Fact 💡
Chronic absenteeism remains one of the most pressing challenges facing American education. New national data show that roughly one in four students is now chronically absent, meaning they miss at least 10% of the school year. While this shows improvement from pandemic-era peaks, attendance rates remain far worse than before COVID-19 disrupted classroom norms.
Georgia’s experience mirrors the national trend. About 20% of Georgia students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year, signaling that schools are still struggling to restore consistent attendance habits among students and families.
The pandemic fundamentally reshaped expectations around school attendance. Extended closures and reduced academic consequences unintentionally reinforced the idea that missing school carries fewer costs. Experts warn that persistent absenteeism threatens long-term academic recovery, as students who miss significant instructional time are more likely to fall behind academically and face increased dropout risk.
For Georgia policymakers and school leaders, the challenge now is rebuilding a culture of attendance. That may require targeted interventions, clearer accountability and renewed communication with families about the importance of daily classroom participation. As Georgia continues investing in education reform and student opportunity, improving attendance will be essential to ensuring students fully benefit from those efforts.