Speak out on lucrative subsidies offered for data center at STAMP

Editor:

Have you been wanting to tell the Genesee County EDC what you think of the $1.44 billion subsidy to Stream Data Center? This is your chance! On Thursday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at the Town of Alabama Fire Hall, the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) is holding a public hearing on the request from STREAM US Data Centers and its parent company, the multinational private equity firm Apollo Global Management, for $1.44 billion dollars in tax subsidies for the massive data center complex – 2.2 million square feet and 500 MW of electricity – they want to build at the failing STAMP site.

I oppose this plan for many reasons: it would dump pollution into our air, toxic chemicals into our water, make 24/7 noise that would scare away deer and other wildlife in the nearby preserves, and it would make all of our energy bills go up while also knocking down our property values.

I think it’s a bad investment, too: we could create a lot more jobs, with a lot fewer environmental and quality of life problems, for that kind of money (they say the project would create 125 jobs, so if you do the math that’s $11.5 million dollars per job… but we all know the workers won’t see that kind of money!)

But most of all, I oppose this plan because I don’t want to invite Big Tech and private equity into our peaceful, rural home. We don’t know the Big Tech firm that would operate the data center once STREAM builds it (that’s right, GCEDC has signed a non-disclosure agreement – so we don’t know whether it would be Amazon or Google or Meta or some other company that would eventually move in). But we do know about Apollo Global Management, and what we know is that the company does not share our values.

Leon Black, one of the founders and the former CEO, was apparently Jeffrey Epstein’s main client: he paid Epstein $158 million to help him dodge roughly $2 billion dollars in taxes. And another one of the company’s founders – Marc Rowan, who is still an executive at Apollo – communicated extensively with Epstein about the company’s tax arrangements.

Is this the kind of company we want to welcome into our community? I don’t think so. Apollo Global Management does not have the best interests of Genesee County or the GLOW Region at heart. No – they want to profit off us. They want to make a quick buck while ruining our local way of life. They think we are country bumpkins who won’t put up a fight.

Let’s prove them wrong. Join me at the public hearing this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Town of Alabama Fire Hall. Tell GCEDC what you think about this plan and why it’s a terrible deal with Genesee County. If you can’t be there, tell your friends and family to go, and submit a written comment to streampublichearing@gcedc.com by March 31. For more info, check out “STOP the STAMP Monster Data Center” on Facebook.

Adrienne Yocina

Pembroke