A new year, a new look at Madison County’s economic future

Press Release January 8, 2026
MADISON COUNTY BOARD
157 N. Main St.
Edwardsville, IL 62025
(618) 296-6200

The next chapter of Madison County’s economic story may not look like steel mills or smokestacks — and that realization came into sharper focus for local officials during a recent tour of a Google hyperscale data center in Nebraska.
 
Madison County Board Chairman Chris Slusser was among the officials who took part in the tour on Dec. 10, 2025, organized through Greater St. Louis Inc. The delegation included Madison County Economic Development Director and Enterprise Zone Coordinator Cathy Hamilton, Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson and Troy City Manager Jay Keeven, along with officials from Missouri communities already hosting or considering large-scale data centers.
 
Slusser said the visit was prompted by growing public opposition and moratoriums in neighboring counties, particularly after last-minute decisions elsewhere fueled fear, speculation and widespread misinformation online.
 
“I kept seeing the same concerns over and over — noise, water, power, pollution — and I realized if we didn’t truly understand this ourselves, we’d be reacting instead of leading,” Slusser said. “So, I wanted to see one in person, not just read about it.”
 
A skeptical approach
 
Slusser stressed he did not arrive in Nebraska predisposed to support data centers.
 
“I’m cynical by nature,” he said. “I didn’t go in with rose-colored glasses.”
 
Instead, he said he spent months researching the issue, watching how opposition campaigns were forming across the region and trying to understand what was driving resistance.
 
“What I saw was fear of the unknown,” Slusser said. “And fear spreads fast online.”
 
That skepticism carried into the tour itself. Slusser said he intentionally focused many of his questions on local government officials rather than corporate representatives.
 
“I wanted the good and the bad,” he said. “Google can tell you how great they are. The city manager is the one who has to deal with complaints.”
 
Inside a hyperscale campus
 
The Nebraska campus sits on more than 260 acres and is set far back from public roadways. Slusser described extensive security measures, controlled access points and landscaped buffers designed to minimize any outside interference — critical in environments housing thousands of servers.
 
Visitors were required to present identification, receive security badges and follow strict access protocols throughout the campus.
 
“It felt like entering a military base,” Slusser said.
 
While the group was not permitted onto active data center floors — which are closely guarded for security and proprietary reasons — Slusser said the delegation toured administrative areas and met with data center leadership, technical managers, government affairs staff and local municipal officials.
 
One observation stood out immediately.
 
“The loudest thing we heard the entire time was our bus,” Slusser said. “I’m not exaggerating.”

Addressing the top concerns
 
Slusser said nearly all public opposition centers on three issues: noise, water use and electricity demand.
 
Noise, he said, was the concern he was most interested in evaluating firsthand.
 
“There’s this idea that these places hum constantly or roar all day,” Slusser said. “That just wasn’t the case.”
 
The only routine noise source, he said, comes from backup generators that are tested periodically. In Nebraska, local ordinances limit how many generators can be tested at once and require sound measurements at the property line.
 
“They wrote those rules up front,” Slusser said. “And it works.”
 
On water use, Slusser said modern data centers increasingly rely on closed-loop cooling systems that recycle water internally and can often use non-potable sources. He said water availability is not a limiting factor in Madison County.
 
Electricity demand, however, remains the most misunderstood issue.
 
Slusser said data centers must undergo a rigorous approval process through the regional electric grid operator, which evaluates whether sufficient generation and transmission capacity exists before approving a project.
 
“If the power isn’t there, they don’t get approved,” Slusser said. “It’s that simple.”
 
He also emphasized that rejecting a data center in one community does not insulate neighboring areas.
 
“We’re all on the same grid,” Slusser said. “If it gets built next door, it still affects the system.”
 
Jobs and long-term economic impact
 
Critics often argue that data centers create relatively few jobs compared to traditional manufacturing. Slusser said the Nebraska visit challenged that perception.
 
While developers may initially cite 100 to 120 core technical jobs, Slusser said officials there reported more than 700 permanent employees at large campuses, including positions in security, facilities, food service and maintenance.
 
Construction impacts are even more significant, he said, with multi-year buildouts employing thousands of union trades workers.
 
“These are massive projects,” Slusser said. “Two- to five-year construction timelines, thousands of workers, hotels full, restaurants full — we’ve seen that movie before with refinery expansions.”
 
He also highlighted ongoing demand for skilled trades, particularly electricians and HVAC technicians. Data centers operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and require constant maintenance.
 
“One building can spend over a million dollars a year just on filter changes,” Slusser said. “That’s local work, year after year.”
 
The tax base question
 
Perhaps the most consequential takeaway for Slusser was the fiscal impact.
 
Research conducted by the Madison County assessor into comparable Midwestern projects shows that even with tax abatements, hyperscale data centers can become among the largest property taxpayers due to the value of both the structures and the server equipment inside them.
 
“One data center can rival or exceed our largest existing taxpayers,” Slusser said.
 
If multiple facilities locate in Madison County, he said, the impact could be transformative.
 
“That’s how you expand the tax base,” Slusser said. “And when you expand the base, you can invest in infrastructure, pay down debt and still have room to ease the burden on residents.”
 
Planning, not panic
 
Slusser said sites currently under discussion are within municipal boundaries and generally located in industrial or rural areas, not residential neighborhoods. Local zoning ordinances, he said, will play a critical role in managing construction impacts and long-term operations.
 
His focus now, Slusser said, is coordination — ensuring cities share information, learn from other regions and adopt clear standards early.
 
“We would never intentionally bring something here that would hurt our communities,” Slusser said. “We’ve asked the hard questions.”
 
He acknowledged that energy policy remains a broader challenge but said rejecting data centers outright does not address underlying infrastructure realities.
 
“These facilities are going to be built somewhere,” Slusser said. “The question is whether we approach this with facts and planning, or fear and misinformation.”
 
Looking ahead
 
Slusser said data centers are likely to play a growing role in the regional economy as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence accelerates.
 
“We’re not going back to the 1950s industrial economy,” he said. “This is what modern economic development looks like.”
 
For residents wary of change, Slusser offered reassurance.
 
“I had the same concerns,” he said. “That’s why I went. And what I saw convinced me this deserves a serious, informed conversation — not a reaction.”