Data centers, the gigantic buildings that house the computing power behind the artificial intelligence boom, are wildly unpopular. A recent Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose one being built in their area.

Most of those objections don't hold up. In town after town, data centers have delivered real benefits to the communities willing to host them. Local officials should be welcoming these projects, not passing laws to keep them out.

Quincy, Washington, is now home to more than two dozen data centers, which pay more than half the city's property taxes. That windfall has bought Quincy a new high school, sports complex, hospital, library, police station, fire department and even a water park. A population of 8,500 people got all of that, plus 900 new jobs. Its poverty rate has fallen from nearly 30% in 2012 to 6.2% in 2024.

Quincy is the high end of outcomes, and it got in ahead of the curve, but data centers bring jobs and tax revenue to any city willing to host them.

An increase in tax revenue let Richland Parish, Louisiana, pay its teachers $50,000 bonuses. Loudoun County, Virginia, now known as the data center capital of the world, has used the money to cut property........

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