OPINION | OTHERS SAY: How to kill an industry

One of the strongest cogs in Illinois' economic engine is an industry that isn't necessarily a household name. Data centers.

They pretty much do what their name suggests. They're climate- controlled buildings that warehouse massive tranches of gigabits inside clusters of servers and data storage systems.

In 2019, the Chicago area ranked third in the country for data center capacity, behind northern Virginia and the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The data center industry generated for Illinois $7.1 billion in economic output in 2017, $877 million in tax revenue, and 31,500 jobs.

So what's got us worked up about data centers? Legislation with an amendment sponsored by state Rep. Mark Walker, an Arlington Heights Democrat, that would require new and prospective data centers sign so-called peace labor agreements with unions representing workers who maintain typical data center infrastructure, such as cooling and fire safety equipment, backup generators and water treatment systems.

Companies that want to set up data centers in this state now would have to hire union labor, if the amendment filed by Walker stays. It's easy to see what the fallout would be. The people behind data centers would shrug and say, Illinois is too expensive. Too many hoops to jump through. Let's take our business to Indiana, Iowa or a host of other states that offer tax incentives for data centers without any onerous union hiring mandates.

The solution is straightforward. This measure should never see the light of day. Lawmakers should kill it, and if it somehow makes it to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's desk, he should veto it. Data centers represent a rare bright spot in Illinois' otherwise sluggish economy. In a state struggling to stem the exodus of businesses, jobs and people, the last thing needed is yet another legislative burden that turns away investment Illinois so desperately needs.

What was Walker thinking? No clue.

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