Pennsylvania state lawmakers barred from touring data center

Legislators visited for pre-arranged tour but weren’t allowed in facility

State lawmakers who are associated with a taxpayer-funded agency gathering information on the controversial data center issue showed up Tuesday for a prearranged look at a high-profile site -- and weren't allowed in the data center.

One of those refused entrance, Democratic Rep. Eddie Pashinski of Luzerne County, said lawmakers who are board members of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania were in a larger group that met at the site in Salem Township, Luzerne County on Tuesday. They got to see open ground, partly constructed buildings, and ones that appeared to be finished.

When it seemed to be time to enter one of the finished buildings -- to see the sort of data center operation that is a research focus of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania -- they were refused.

"We wanted to go inside the ones that were complete," Pashinski said. "They wouldn't allow us in."

His own reaction, he said, was, "Hey, what's the deal? We came down here so we could go inside."

The rejection came to light on Wednesday during a public hearing held in Bloomsburg by the center, which has a long history of researching and publicizing dynamics shaping life in rural parts of the state.

The Wednesday hearing held by the center on the campus of Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg was no exception.

One testifier said Pennsylvania, with its current tax structure, must make major tax law changes or it will never come close to reaping the amount of revenue from data centers being seen in Virginia. Another -- a codes official in Salem Township -- suggested the state Department of Environmental Protection should start being more open with the public about its permitting processes.

The site in Salem Township where lawmakers were declined access on Tuesday is on Gov. Josh Shapiro's "fast track" list for getting state permits.

Republican Sen. Gene Yaw of Lycoming County, chairman of the center's board, said after the hearing on Wednesday that the site will be used by Amazon. He said he understood, to an extent, the facility's approach to security.

"It is standard in the industry. You can't get in these buildings," Yaw said. He added, "It is private business, and they said, 'No.'"

At the same time, though, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania claims on its website to be a bipartisan, bicameral agency that is "a resource for rural policy with the Pennsylvania General Assembly."

Yaw, asked about the frustration of not getting inside, said, "I don't know. I want to see it."

Democratic Sen. Judy Schwank of Berks County, another center board member, said prior commitments made her unable to attend this week's gatherings. But, she said, "I certainly think they should have been let in."

She called the prohibition on entering the building a "mistake" by whatever entity was controlling the site.

Meanwhile, a testifier at the Wednesday hearing, Fayette County Commissioners' Chairman Scott Dunn, shared findings based on an in-depth look at the data center situation in Virginia. That state is home to a county sometimes referred to as the "data center capital of the world."

Pennsylvania and its current tax structure cannot come close to replicating the tax haul in Virginia unless the General Assembly makes radical tax law changes, Dunn said. Virginia law, he said, lets government tax the guts of a data center -- the servers, racks, networking equipment, advanced cooling systems, and the like -- while Pennsylvania can tax only real estate.

That, he said, means everything but the land and buildings are exempt from taxing in Pennsylvania.

Another testifier, codes officer Brian Rhone of Salem Township, described the overwhelming amount of work placed on the local government by the presence of the under-construction data center site and two other major data center initiatives in the same area.

Local residents, he said, bombard local government with questions whose answers are tough to get because they are rooted in the state-run permitting process.

Rhone suggested the Department of Environmental Protection hold meetings with residents in a Salem Township building in order to answer questions in person.

Rhone said the data center boom "is taking its toll on little rural America."