Urgent: No tax breaks for Big Tech data centers

US citizens: Tell your governor, no tax breaks for Big Tech data centers.

See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.

Here's the text of the letter I sent.

I’m writing as your constituent, and as recipient of two awards from the ACM for programs I have shared with the public in freedom, to urge you to reject efforts in our state to provide Big Tech with tax breaks to build data centers. I’m concerned about the harms that data centers can do locally, including siphoning our water, using up our land, creating noise and light pollution, and hiking our electric bills. I’m also concerned that providing tax breaks to giant Big Tech corporations will deprive our schools and local budgets of their already insufficient funds. I'm also concerned that these data centers will mostly operate Pretend Intelligence (PI) -- software that *tries to* imitate what an intelligent entity would say, but without really understanding the words it plays with. The use of these digital dis-services does society harm. We should never allow business to play one state against another by making states compete to offer them the biggest tax break, because that perverse competition harms *all* the states for the benefit of business owners. So please reject efforts to give Big Tech (or *any* business) specific tax breaks to operate in our state. The states should form a union and bargain collectively with these businesses. The states could call their union the United States of America. Wouldn't that be a good thing to have?

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