Residents In Opposition: Port Washington

Port Washington Common Council meetings have lit up with heated debates over the OpenAI data center that is reported to break ground with construction in the next year. 

“It seems like public service isn’t on the menu for you guys,” said an anonymous resident. “So, I’ll simply ask: do you guys have a conscience? Do you lose sleep at night thinking about your legacy and your impact on this community for future generations?”

This Port Washington resident wasn’t alone in his anger; hundreds of other residents made their voices heard, arguing against the data center, with fears of environmental and societal impacts influencing their opinions. Many constituents have been upset with the lack of transparency from the common council regarding their deals with OpenAI and Vantage Data Centers, the company developing the land. 

Data centers exist all over the country, but the growing desire for freshwater cooling has been enticing more and more tech companies to claim land near the Great Lakes. Wisconsin is home to almost 50 data centers, with a handful more being built or under debate in the southeastern part of the state. 

The Port Washington AI (artificial intelligence) data center is part of a growing trend amongst tech companies, which need to develop new land to house data for their AI models. These data centers act as massive storage units storing tons of data that trains AI models on how to function. OpenAI’s most famous model, ChatGPT, needs data centers to store the data it uses to answer questions typed to it.

With AI growing in popularity within business and personal use every day, the need for more storage space grows in tandem.

Wisconsin has the perfect mix of desperate small towns right by Lake Michigan. Tech companies are eyeing the state as a new hotbed for data centers. Economic promises are enough to allow these data centers to be built, but community pushback has been a massive hurdle to overcome for municipalities and companies. 

 “They do not care about our communities; we care about our communities,” said Jonathan Rizk, a Port Washington resident and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. 

Mayor Ted Neitzke IV has rallied behind the construction of the data center. Uniting the City Council behind its construction, however, the new allocation of a tax incremental district or TID to Vantage, has continued to fan the flames. 

“I think it’s important for local citizens and our regional friends to recognize that Vantage is on the hook for $1.2 billion to build no matter what,” Netizke said.

A TID is a new tax district created to publicly fund infrastructure and land developments being done by a contracted company. The company will develop the land designated, such as the campus of the new data center north of Port Washington, and then be reimbursed by a fund created from property taxes from the TID. 

“This is a global tech company asking Port Washington taxpayers to help fund their expansion,” said Scott Lone, a resident of Port Washington. “They don’t need our help, and we can’t afford to get it.”

According to Wisconsin State Law, companies can’t receive more than 12 percent of annual taxes collected from a TID. However, this regulation was recently overturned through Assembly Bill 140, which was a bipartisan bill that removed the 12 percent regulation for Port Washington specifically. It allows the City Council to allocate as much money as they want from the TID to reimburse Vantage.

“When we divert property tax revenue into a TID, that money doesn’t go to our schools, our roads, our fire and police departments, or our parks,” Lone said. “That’s not economic development. That’s corporate welfare dressed up as progress.”

A Vantage spokesperson, Kaitlin Monaghan, was present at the meeting and attempted to alleviate the concerns of the community regarding the AI data center. 

“I joined Vantage three years ago because I wanted to be part of an organization that was forward-looking and thoughtful in their approach to development,” Monaghan said. “At a time when many Midwestern towns are facing dwindling economic opportunities, we were struck by how the city of Port Washington leaders wanted to be a part of building the future.”

Monaghan continued her speech by bringing up the number of jobs that would be created from this data center. Economic prosperity has been a constant promise made by Vantage to the community members of Port Washington. 

Specifically, she mentioned that 4,000 union jobs would be created for the construction of the center, and 1,000 would be created once the site was fully operational. With 300 of those jobs being directly with Vantage, while the rest would be under OpenAI. However, even this big promise of economic boons wasn’t enough for most of the crowd.

At around the three-minute mark of her speech, many within the audience began shouting “time,” with Neitzke issuing a stern reminder for cordial behavior. 

The Port Washington Common Council moved too fast with the data center for any strong opposition to build before the deal was signed. However, other small-town Wisconsinites are making sure to drag their heels. 

Caledonia, Wisconsin, was the site of the same battle between constituents and their elected officials once Microsoft announced that it would be building a data center taking up 244 acres of the small town. After an uproar of community protests, petitions, and vocal opposition at city council meetings, the company pulled out of Caledonia, moving the project to Kenosha. 

Data centers are here to stay so long as the world continues to rely on AI and the cloud for many of its functions, but it’s clear that many Wisconsinites are looking to fight against this change to protect their futures and to demand honesty from their elected officials.